Srimad Bhagvata Mahapurana Book 5 Chapter 5:10-19

Book 5: Chapter 5

Srimad Bhagvata Mahapurana: Book 5: Chapter 5: Verses 10-19 Lord Rsabhadeva instructs His sons and Himself takes to the life of an ascetic who has shaken off worldly feeling and obligation By adoring Me and depending on Me, the pure Self and Preceptor (of all); through freedom from thirst for enjoyment as well as by enduring pairs of opposites (such as heat and cold, pleasure and pain); by realizing the fact that a living being is beset with calamities everywhere (even in the other world); through a spirit of enquiry (into the truth of things) through asceticism and by abstaining from actions done with some interested motive; through actions done for My sake by hearing My stories everyday; through the fellowship of those who look upon Me as their sole deity; by singing My praises; through even-mindedness, tranquillity and freedom from animosity; through a desire to give up identifying himself with the body, house etc., through a careful study of scriptures dealing with the Spirit; by living in solitude; by thoroughly controlling the breath, the lndriyas (the senses of perception as well as the organs of action) and the mind; through faith in saints and the holy books; through continence, through constant vigilance (in performing one's sacred duties); through control of the tongue; through wisdom illumined with realization and penetrating enough to perceive My presence everywhere; and through deep meditation, My sons, and equipped with firmness, diligence and discretion, a clever man should (endeavour to) tear the veil known by the name of Ego. Remaining vigilant (all the time), he should completely shake off by this means, as taught by his preceptor the bondage in the shape of the knot (of egotism) in the heart, which has been brought about by ignorance and which, again, is the storehouse where (all) the latencies of Karma lie deposited. Then he should desist even from this endeavour. A king or a father or a preceptor, whoever aspires to reach My abode or looks upon My grace as the (sole) object of human pursuit, should thus instruct his ignorant subjects, sons or pupils, and should in no case urge them to actions (done with an interested motive), getting not angry with them (even if they do not listen to him and persist in doing such actions), knowing that they erroneously regard such actions as the only way to happiness. What object would a man gain by directing a fellow-man to such actions? For thereby he would be throwing the blind fellow into the abyss of metempsychosis. Men who crave for objects of sensuous enjoyment alone, possessed as they are by an inordinate lust for such enjoyment, are (really) themselves blind to their (real) well-being. That is why they enter into enmity with one another for crumbs of pleasure and have no idea of the endless misery (which lies in store for them as a result of such enmity), deluded as they are. Seeing such foolish men steeped in ignorance (in the form of worldly activity), no sensible and compassionate man, who is himself aware of his own (real) interests, would urge them to resort to such ignorance again, any more than he would direct a blind man who is following a wrong track to continue on that path. A preceptor is no preceptor, a relation is no relation, a father is no father, a mother is no mother, a deity is no deity, nor is a husband a husband, who is unable to redeem his pupil, relation, son, votary or wife fallen into (the whirlpool of) transmigration. (The mystery of) this human semblance of Mine (assumed of My own free will) cannot be easily understood. Indeed (pure) Sattva is My heart, where resides Dharma (righteousness), and unrighteousness has been left far behind by Me. That is why worthy souls call Me Rsabha (the foremost).