Bhagavad Gita -Srila Prabhupada 211

Shrimad Bhagavad Gita As It Is -Shri Shrimad A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

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Transcendental Knowledge
Chapter 4: Verse-26

sroträdinindriyäny anye
samyamägnisu juhvati
sabdädin visayän anya
indriyägnisu juhvati[1]

TRANSLATION

Some [the unadulterated brahmacäris] sacrifice the hearing process and the senses in the fire of mental control, and others [the regulated householders] sacrifice the objects of the senses in the fire of the senses.

PURPORT

The members of the four divisions of human life, namely the brahmacäri, the gåhastha, the vänaprastha and the sannyäsi, are all meant to become perfect yogis or transcendentalists. Since human life is not meant for our enjoying sense gratification like the animals, the four orders of human life are so arranged that one may become perfect in spiritual life. The brahmacäris, or students under the care of a bona fide spiritual master, control the mind by abstaining from sense gratification. A brahmacäri hears only words concerning krsna consciousness; hearing is the basic principle for understanding, and therefore the pure brahmacäri engages fully in harer nämänukirtanam—chanting and hearing the glories of the Lord. He restrains himself from the vibrations of material sounds, and his hearing is engaged in the transcendental sound vibration of Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna. Similarly, the householders, who have some license for sense gratification, perform such acts with great restraint. Sex life, intoxication and meat-eating are general tendencies of human society, but a regulated householder does not indulge in unrestricted sex life and other sense gratification. Marriage on the principles of religious life is therefore current in all civilized human society because that is the way for restricted sex life. This restricted, unattached sex life is also a kind of yajna because the restricted householder sacrifices his general tendency toward sense gratification for higher, transcendental life.




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References

  1. srotra-ädini=such as the hearing process; indriyäni=senses; anye=others; samyama=of restraint; agnisu=in the fires; juhvati=offer; sabda-ädin=sound vibration, etc.; visayän=objects of sense gratification; anye=others; indriya=of the sense organs; agnisu=in the fires; juhvati=they sacrifice.

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