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Srimad Bhagvata Mahapurana: Book 4: Chapter 29: Verses 30-44
The Dialogue between king Pracinabarhi and the sage Narada (continued)
Just as a poor dog seized with hunger and wandering from door to door (in quest of food) receives (good beating with) a cudgel or cooked rice--whatever is ordained by fate-so does the Jiva whose heart is possessed by (the demon of) desire reaps a welcome or unwelcome destiny, ranging by paths high and low through the upper (celestial) or the lower (infernal) or the middle (terrestrial) regions. There is no (such thing as absolute) freedom for the Jiva from even one of the three types of sufferings, viz., those brought about by divine agencies, those inflicted by one's fellow-beings and those relating to one's own body or mind. Even if there is a remedy in particular cases, it only proves to be the precursor of another suffering. Just as a man carrying a heavy load on his head may place it on one of his shoulders (in order to get relieved of the burden), so are all remedies. (The remedy, employed to counteract an evil, itself proves to be a source of fresh trouble). Even as a dream in a dream constitutes only a change from one dream experience to another, but does not bring about the cessation of the dream, so mere action (divorced from the realization of Truth) is no ultimate remedy for (the sufferings brought about by one's own) actions, both being conceived in ignorance, O pure-hearted monarch l Just as for a man roving about in the dream-world with the mind, which conditions his soul, there is no cessation of dream experiences, so also (the vicious circle of) transmigration does not cease (for the man who is buried in the sleep of ignorance) even though the phenomena of the world have no reality. Now freedom from ignorance-ignorance, which brings in its train a chain of evils in the form of transmigration to the eternally existent soul, is secured through supreme devotion to the Lord, the (supreme) Guru. Contact firmly established with the Lord through Devotion will automatically induce aversion to the pleasures of sense and bring enlightenment. That contact through Bhakti, depending as it does on the stories of the immortal Lord, becomes an accomplished fact before long, 0 royal sage, for him who devoutly listens to or reads such stories everyday. In a place where there are pious and pure-hearted devotees whose mind is impatient to repeat and listen to the praises of the Lord, 0 king, there flow in all directions streams of pure nectar-like stories of Lord Visnu (the Slayer of the demon Madhu) recited by exalted souls. Hunger and thirst, fear, grief and infatuation never afflict those who drink in such stories with intent ears knowing no satiation, O Pracinabarhi I Ever harassed by these natural enemies, people do not indeed take delight in the ocean of the nectarine stories of Sri Hari. Brahma (the lord of all divinities presiding over procreation) himself, Lord Siva (who lives on Mount Kailasa), Swayambhuva Manu, Daksa and the other lords of creation, Sanaka and other sages vowed to perpetual celibacy and expositors of the Vedas-Marici, Atri, Angira, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, Bhrgu, and Vasistha, including myself-all masters of speech-have not been able even to this day to behold the supreme Lord, the Seer (of all), in spite of our efforts to perceive Him through asceticism, worship and concentration of mind.
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