18 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 7, Ch. 6
TRANSLATION

How can a person who is most affectionate to his family, the core
of his heart being always filled with their pictures, give up their
association? Specifically, a wife is always very kind and sym-
pathetic and always pleases her husband in a solitary place. Who
could give up the association of such a dear and affectionate wife?
Small children talk in broken language, very pleasing to hear, and
their affectionate father always thinks of their sweet words. How
could he give up their association? One’s elderly parents and one’s
sons and daughters are also very dear. A daughter is especially dear
to her father, and while living at her husband’s house she is always
in his mind. Who could give up that association? Aside from this,
in household affairs there are many decorated items of household
furniture, and there are also animals and servants. Who could give
up such comforts? The attached householder is like a silkworm,
which weaves a cocoon in which it becomes imprisoned, unable to
get out. Simply for the satisfaction of two important senses—the
genitals and the tongue—one is bound by material conditions.
How can one escape?

PURPORT

In household affairs the first attraction is the beautiful and pleasing
wife, who increases household attraction more and more. One enjoys his
wife with two prominent sense organs, namely the tongue and the
genitals. The wife speaks very sweetly. This is certainly an attraction.
Then she prepares very palatable foods to satisfy the tongue, and when
the tongue is satisfied one gains strength in the other sense organs, es-
pecially the genitals. Thus the wife gives pleasure in sexual intercourse.
Household life means sex life (yan maithunddi-grhamedhi-sukham hi
tuccham). This is encouraged by the tongue. Then there are children. A
baby gives pleasure by speaking sweet words in broken language, and
when the sons and daughters are grown up one becomes involved in their
education and marriage. Then there are one’s own father and mother to
be taken care of, and one also becomes concerned with the social at-
mosphere and with pleasing his brothers and sisters. A man becomes in-
creasingly entangled in household affairs, so much so that leaving them
