Text 9] Prahlada Instructs His Demoniac Schoolmates 13

TRANSLATION

What person too attached to household life due to being unable
to control his senses can liberate himself? An attached house-
holder is bound very strongly by ropes of affection for his family
[wife, children and other relatives].

PURPORT

Prahlada Maharaja’s first proposal was kaumdra dcaret prdajrio
dharman bhdagavatan iha: “One who is sufficiently intelligent should
use the human form of body from the very beginning of life—in other
words, from the tender age of childhood—to practice the activities of
devotional service, giving up all other engagements.” Dharman
bhagavatan means the religious principle of reviving our relationship
with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. For this purpose Krsna per-
sonally advises, sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam Saranam vraja:
“Give up all other duties and surrender unto Me.” While in the material
world we manufacture so many duties in the name of so many isms, but
our actual duty is to free ourselves from the cycle of birth, death, old age
and disease. For this purpose, one must first be liberated from material
bondage, and especially from household life. Household life is actually a
kind of license for a materially attached person by which to enjoy sense
gratification under regulative principles. Otherwise there is no need of
entering household life.

Before entering household life, one should be trained as a brahmacari,
living under the care of the guru, whose place is known as the guru-kula.
Brahmacari guru-kule vasan danto guror hitam (Bhag. 7.12.1). From
the very beginning, a brahmacari is trained to sacrifice everything for
the benefit of the guru. A brahmacariis advised to go begging alms door
to door, addressing all women as mother, and whatever he collects goes to
the benefit of the guru. In this way he learns how to control his senses
and sacrifice everything for the guru. When he is fully trained, if he
likes he is allowed to marry. Thus he is not an ordinary grhastha who has
learned only how to satisfy his senses. A trained grhastha can gradually
give up household life and go to the forest to become increasingly en-
lightened in spiritual life and at last take sannydsa. Prahlada Maharaja
explained to his father that to be freed from all material anxieties one
