Text 36] Narada Muni Cursed by Prajapati Daksa 305

for his future use. Similarly, ksatriyas may collect taxes from the
citizens, and they must also protect the citizens, enforce rules and
regulations, and maintain law and order. Vaisyas should earn their
livelihood through agriculture and cow protection, and sidras should
maintain their livelihood by serving the three higher classes. Unless one
becomes a brdhmana, one cannot take sannydsa. Sannyasis and
brahmacaris may beg alms door to door, but a grhastha cannot.

Prajapati Daksa condemned Narada Muni because Narada, a
brahmacari who could beg from door to door, had made sannydsis of
Daksa’s sons, who were being trained to be grhasthas. Daksa was
extremely angry at Narada because he thought that Narada had done him
a great injustice. According to Daksa’s opinion, Narada Muni had misled
Daksa’s inexperienced sons (asddhv akary arbhakandm). Daksa
regarded his sons as innocent boys who had been misled when Narada
showed them the renounced order of life. Because of all these
considerations, Prajapati Daksa charged that Narada Muni was asddhu
and should not have adopted the dress of a sddhu.

Sometimes a saintly person is misunderstood by grhasthas, especially
when he instructs their young sons to accept Krsna consciousness.
Generally a grhastha thinks that unless one enters grhastha life he
cannot properly enter the renounced order. If a young man immediately
adopts the path of the renounced order in accordance with the
instructions of Narada or a member of his disciplic succession, his
parents become very angry. This same phenomenon is occurring in our
Krsna consciousness movement because we are instructing all the young
boys in the Western countries to follow the path of renunciation. We
allow grhastha life, but a grhastha also follows the path of renunciation.
Even a grhastha has to give up so many bad habits that his parents think
his life has been practically destroyed. We allow no meat-eating, no illicit
sex, no gambling and no intoxication, and consequently the parents
wonder how, if there are so many no’s, one’s life can be positive. In the
Western countries especially, these four prohibited activities practically
constitute the life and soul of the modern population. Therefore parents
sometimes dislike our movement, just as Prajapati Daksa disliked the
activities of Narada and accused Narada of dishonesty. Nevertheless,
although parents may be angry at us, we must perform our duty without
