Text 5

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śrī-prahlāda uvāca
tat sādhu manye ’sura-varya dehināṁ
sadā samudvigna-dhiyām asad-grahāt
hitvātma-pātaṁ gṛham andha-kūpaṁ
vanaṁ gato yad dharim āśrayeta

Palabra por palabra

Synonyms

śrī-prahlādaḥ uvāca — Prahlāda Mahārāja replied; tat — that; sādhu — very good, or the best part of life; manye — I think; asura-varya — O King of the asuras; dehinām — of persons who have accepted the material body; sadā — always; samudvigna — full of anxieties; dhiyām — whose intelligence; asat-grahāt — because of accepting the temporary body or bodily relations as real (thinking “I am this body, and everything belonging to this body is mine”); hitvā — giving up; ātma-pātam — the place where spiritual culture or self-realization is stopped; gṛham — the bodily concept of life, or household life; andha-kūpam — which is nothing but a blind well (where there is no water but one nonetheless searches for water); vanam — to the forest; gataḥ — going; yat — which; harim — the Supreme Personality of Godhead; āśrayeta — may take shelter of.

Traducción

Translation

Prahlāda Mahārāja contestó: ¡Oh, rey de los demonios, el mejor de los asuras!, según he podido aprender de mi maestro espiritual, toda persona que haya aceptado un cuerpo material y una vida familiar temporal está, sin duda alguna, agobiada por la ansiedad, pues ha caído en un pozo oculto en el que no hay agua, sino solo sufrimiento. Es necesario abandonar esa posición e ir al bosque [vana]. Seré más claro: hay que ir a Vṛndāvana, donde exclusivamente predomina el cultivo de conciencia de Kṛṣṇa, y, allí, refugiarse en la Suprema Personalidad de Dios.

Prahlāda Mahārāja replied: O best of the asuras, King of the demons, as far as I have learned from my spiritual master, any person who has accepted a temporary body and temporary household life is certainly embarrassed by anxiety because of having fallen in a dark well where there is no water but only suffering. One should give up this position and go to the forest [vana]. More clearly, one should go to Vṛndāvana, where only Kṛṣṇa consciousness is prevalent, and should thus take shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Significado

Purport

Hiraṇyakaśipu pensaba que Prahlāda, que no era más que un niño sin experiencia, le daría una respuesta agradable; no esperaba nada práctico. Pero Prahlāda, que era un devoto excelso, había adquirido todas las cualidades propias de quien ha recibido una educación.

Hiraṇyakaśipu thought that Prahlāda, being nothing but a small boy with no actual experience, might reply with something pleasing but nothing practical. Prahlāda Mahārāja, however, being an exalted devotee, had acquired all the qualities of education.

yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcanā
sarvair guṇais tatra samāsate surāḥ
harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā
manorathenāsati dhāvato bahiḥ

«Cuando alguien tiene una fe devocional inquebrantable en Kṛṣṇa, en él se manifiestan de modo permanente todas las buenas cualidades de Kṛṣṇa y los semidioses. Sin embargo, aquel que no tiene devoción por la Suprema Personalidad de Dios carece de buenas cualidades, pues, llevado por las invenciones de la mente, se absorbe en la existencia material, que es el aspecto externo del Señor» (Bhāg. 5.18.12). Desde el plano mental en que se encuentran, los supuestos filósofos y científicos educados no pueden distinguir entre lo que es realmente sat, eterno, y lo que es asat, temporal. El mandamiento védico es asato mā jyotir gama: Todo el mundo debe abandonar el plano de la existencia temporal y dirigirse al plano de la eternidad. El alma es eterna, y los temas que tratan del alma eterna son conocimiento verdadero. En otro pasaje se dice: apaśyatām ātma-tattvaṁ gṛheṣu gṛha-medhinām: Aquellos que están apegados al concepto corporal de la existencia y se apegan a la vida de gṛhastha, es decir, a la vida de casado, en el plano del disfrute material de los sentidos, no pueden ver lo que es bueno para el alma eterna. Esto lo confirma Prahlāda Mahārāja diciendo que quien desee el éxito en la vida debe acudir de inmediato a las fuentes adecuadas, para entender cuál es su verdadero interés y cómo debe amoldar su vida al patrón de la conciencia espiritual. Debemos entender que somos partes integrales de Kṛṣṇa, y refugiarnos por entero en Sus pies de loto, para así tener garantizado el éxito espiritual. En el mundo material, nadie está libre del concepto corporal; todos luchan arduamente por la existencia, vida tras vida. Por esa razón, Prahlāda Mahārāja recomendó que, para detener ese condicionamiento material en el ciclo de nacimientos y muertes, debemos ir al bosque (vana).

“One who has unflinching devotional faith in Kṛṣṇa consistently manifests all the good qualities of Kṛṣṇa and the demigods. However, he who has no devotion to the Supreme Personality of Godhead has no good qualifications because he is engaged by mental concoction in material existence, which is the external feature of the Lord.” (Bhāg. 5.18.12) So-called educated philosophers and scientists who are simply on the mental platform cannot distinguish between what is actually sat, eternal, and what is asat, temporary. The Vedic injunction is asato mā jyotir gama: everyone should give up the platform of temporary existence and approach the eternal platform. The soul is eternal, and topics concerning the eternal soul are actually knowledge. Elsewhere it is said, apaśyatām ātma-tattvaṁ gṛheṣu gṛha-medhinām: those who are attached to the bodily conception of life and who thus stick to life as a gṛhastha, or householder, on the platform of material sense enjoyment, cannot see the welfare of the eternal soul. Prahlāda Mahārāja confirmed this by saying that if one wants success in life, he should immediately understand from the right sources what his self-interest is and how he should mold his life in spiritual consciousness. One should understand himself to be part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa and thus completely take shelter of His lotus feet for guaranteed spiritual success. Everyone in the material world is in the bodily conception, struggling hard for existence, life after life. Prahlāda Mahārāja therefore recommended that to stop this material condition of repeated birth and death, one should go to the forest (vana).

In the varṇāśrama system, one first becomes a brahmacārī, then a gṛhastha, a vānaprastha and finally a sannyāsī. Going to the forest means accepting vānaprastha life, which is between gṛhastha life and sannyāsa. As confirmed in the Viṣṇu Purāṇa (3.8.9), varṇāśramācāravatā puruṣeṇa paraḥ pumān viṣṇur ārādhyate: by accepting the institution of varṇa and āśrama, one can very easily elevate himself to the platform of worshiping Viṣṇu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Otherwise, if one remains in the bodily conception, one must rot within this material world, and his life will be a failure. Society must have divisions of brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya and śūdra, and for spiritual advancement one must gradually develop as a brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsī. Prahlāda Mahārāja recommended that his father accept vānaprastha life because as a gṛhastha he was becoming increasingly demoniac due to bodily attachment. Prahlāda recommended to his father that accepting vānaprastha life would be better than going deeper and deeper into gṛham andha-kūpam, the blind well of life as a gṛhastha. In our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement we therefore invite all the elderly persons of the world to come to Vṛndāvana and stay there in retired life, making advancement in spiritual consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness.