Srimad Bhagvata Mahapurana Book 7 Chapter 6:1-12

Book 7: Chapter 6

Srimad Bhagvata Mahapurana: Book 7: Chapter 6: Verses 1-12 Prahrada's teaching to the demon boys Prahrada said : In this (human) life a wise man should practise virtues conducive to God-Realization in his very childhood; (for) birth as a human being alone bestows on us our desired object, (viz., lasting happiness), and (yet) such birth is obtained with (great) difficulty and is transient too. The only course advisable for a man in this world is to betake himself to the feet of Lord Visnu; for He is the ruler and the beloved friend, nay, the very Self of all created beings. Like suffering, sensual pleasure (too), O Daityas, is obtained by embodied beings in every birth by force of destiny without any effort through (mere) connection with a body. No effort for (the acquisition of) such pleasure should (therefore) be made; (for) from such effort follows mere waste of (one's) life. (Moreover,) in that way one does not attain to the lotus-feet of Lord Visnu (the Bestower of Liberation), the Source of supreme bliss. Therefore, having fallen into (the whirlpool of) transmigration (the root of all fear), a clever man should strive for (the attainment of) blessedness while the human body is yet sound and does not perish. Indeed a hundred years is reckoned to be the (full) length of a man's life. Half of it (viz., fifty years) is of no use to a man who has not been able to subdue his mind; for, consigned to blinding ignorance (in the form of sleep) he remains lying down (in idleness) during the night. (Out of the remaining fifty years) twenty elapse in (the form of) infancy, when the fellow remains steeped in ignorance, and in (the form of) boyhood, when he remains absorbed in play; and (another) twenty years roll by in (utter) helplessness, when his body is in the grip of senility. The rest (of his life) actually passes away in (gross) negligence, when the man remains attached to his home through desire which cannot be easily sated and through overwhelming infatuation. What man whose senses have not (yet) been conquered can hope to liberate his own self, attached to his home and bound with the powerful cords of affection ? Who indeed can give up the thirst for wealth, which is coveted more than life itself and which a thief as well as a servant and a merchant purchases even in exchange for his most beloved life? With his mind attached to his relatives and bound by the affection of lisping children, how can a man forgo the private company and sweet friendly counsel of his sympathetic wife? Remembering his sons and those beloved daughters (living at their father-in-law's place), brothers and sisters as well as his helpless (decrepit) parents, and dwellings provided with abundant articles of attractive furniture, hereditary vocations, animals and servants, how can he renounce them ?