Chapter 6 - Prahlāda’s Teaching

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

[The text of Padaratnāvalī gives the following additional five verses:]

Prahlāda said:

(1) Alas! You children! Please listen to my words of advice which will lead to your happiness in every way. Consider (see and think) of your friends who are no more. Do not get blind by playfulness and follow a wrong path.

(2) Boys of yore did not lose their minds completely in sports. From the time of their birth (or since their childhood), they were desirous of seeking knowledge about the Supreme Soul and final liberation (mokṣa). Whatever has been taught to us by teachers (Śaṇḍa and Amarka, regarding the first three goals of life viz. dharma, artha and kāma) is not acceptable, inasmuch as it represents wrong objectives (which involves us in saṃsāra) as the desirable aims in life.

(3) If a person who is engrossed in the sleep of ignorance is not wakened up to reality by the precept of a teacher, that precept or doctrine should not be believed, as such a teacher is like a blind person leading other blind persons.

(4) Who is an enemy or an indifferent person or a friend in the case of Ātman or my case? (None). The same is the case with you. What is the propriety of studying politics? Prosperity and adversity are caused by the Supreme Divine Agency.

(5) Such a person is very rare to be found as does not violate the righteous course leading to the accomplishment of the desire to realize the Supreme Soul—a person who is not under the control of his senses (which are born with him) or his own people (e.g. sons, relatives, friends) and who has transcended his natural (spiritual) blindness and who by following the Nivṛttidharma (path of renunciation), becomes proper (eligible) for this as well as the next world.

Prahlāda said:

1. In this world, a wise person should (begin to) practise the righteous duties leading to god-realization, since his very childhood; for birth in the human species is not easily attained. Even though it (human life) is transient, it alone can help us to achieve the desired object (viz. Liberation).

2. It is, therefore, advisable that a person should approach the feet of Viṣṇu in this very birth as he is the (real) Ruler, Well-wisher and the very beloved Soul of all beings. (Hence one should adopt the course leading to the attainment of his feet.)

3. Oh descendants of Diti! Being (closely) related to the body, pleasure, like pain, derived from objects of senses, comes to the lot of embodied beings in all species of life (including sub-human beings) through divine dispensation, without any special effort for it.

4. No endeavours, therefore, should be made to seek sensual pleasures, for, that leads to sheer waste of life. Moreover, by such efforts, the summum honum, viz. attainment of the lotus-like feet of Viṣṇu, is not secured. OR Just as one can attain the Supreme Bliss by resorting to the lotus-like feet of Mukunda (Viṣṇu) one cannot obtain this Bliss through such efforts for sensual pleasure).

5. Therefore, having fallen into this fear (-ful saṃsāra), a clever person should endeavour to attain that blessed state (of security, viz. mokṣa) immediately while one’s body is in sound condition and is not yet incapacitated.

6. The span of human life is (limited to) one hundred years only. Half of that life (viz. fifty years) is wasted away in the case of a man who has not subdued himself (his senses and mind); for consigned to (and absorbed in) the blinding darkness of ignorance, he lies asleep at night.

7. (Out of the balance of fifty years) twenty years are lost while he is ignorant in childhood and is absorbed in play in boyhood; and twenty (more) years are wasted when his body is overwhelmed with senility and is rendered unfit.

8. Maddened and (deeply) attached to household life due to the forcible pull of desires (of sensual pleasures) which are difficult to be fulfilled, and under the powerful delusion (of one’s ego and belongings expressed by ‘I’ and ‘Mine’), he misspends the remaining portion of his life.

[Additional verse in Padaratnāvalī’s text:]

8(A). See (take into account) also the conflicts of opinions or quarrels of our householders even though related (to each other)—householders who desire to follow the course of saṃsāra with efforts which are detrimental to the attainment of final beatitude (and not a single moment is left for spiritual progress—Padaratnāvalī).

9. What person who has not conquered his senses can have the power to liberate his own self; who is attached to his house-hold (including wife, children and property) and is tightly bound down with unbreakable ties of love and affection (to them).

10. Who indeed would forego his thirst (passion) for wealth which is dearer than life itself—wealth which thieves (in the house broken by them), servants (while on duty) and merchants (while accompanying their merchandise or cargo) barter in exchange of their life.

11. How can a man renounce his beloved sympathetic wife while remembering his dalliance with her in privacy and her sweet consultation and counsel? (How can one do so) with his friends while being tied down with bonds of friendship and with his sweet-lisping children to whom his heart is deeply attached?

12. Remembering his sons and his beloved daughters (who are staying away in the houses of their fathers-in-law), his brothers, sisters and poor helpless parents, his houses furnished with beautiful abundant furniture, hereditary professions or vocations and his cattle (horses, elephants etc.) and retinue of servants, how can one go away from them?

13. Like a silk-worm (which gets imprisoned by enveloping itself in a sheath without any outlet), he, due to his unsated desires and through boundless infatuation, goes on performing actions out of cupidity (in the hope of accomplishing them), holding pleasures relating to sex and palate in high estimation.—How can he become disgusted with the world (and renounce all worldly attachment)?

14. The careless fellow, deeply attached to his family, does not realize that his turn of existence in this world is being wasted away, and that the purpose of his life (viz. attainment of the highest bliss by devotion to God) is being thwarted in his efforts to maintain his family. Though he is afflicted by three types of misery everywhere, he is not disgusted with the world (worldly objects) as he feels that his family is the (source of) delight to him.

15. With his heart always ever set on amassing wealth and knowing full well the punishment meted out here and the consequences of the sin hereafter, the householder of unsubdued senses and with desires unsated, misappropriates another’s wealth.

16. Even a person noted for his erudition in scriptures, who is bent on maintaining his family in the manner described above, is not verily capable of realizing his own Self (OR of realizing himself as to who he is and what he is committing etc.). (Then what of you?) Oh descendants of Danu! He (even if he be well-versed in Śāstras) whose mind is corrupted with the notion of difference between one’s own and another’s (“mine and yours”) enters the dark hell even as an ignorant person.

17. For the poor fellow whoever he be, who has become a tool of amusement like a toy deer (or a monkey) for (the entertainment of) lascivious women, and who has forged fetters for himself, in the form of progeny, will not be able to liberate himself at any time.

18. Therefore, Oh descendants of Diti, avoiding from a distance the association with Daityas whose minds are absorbed in (enjoyment of) objects of senses, approach for refuge the most ancient God Nārāyaṇa who is the veritable Supreme bliss (liberation) coveted by recluses who have renounced all association with the world.

19. Being the very Soul of all (mobile and immobile) creatures, and being omnipresent and all-pervading, there is not much trouble and exertion in propitiating the unfailing Lord Viṣṇu, Oh sons of Asuras!

20-21. It is none else than the only one Supreme Soul (Brahman) that the Almighty, immutable Ruler who exists in and pervades the higher and the lower order of beings commencing from the immovables (e.g. vegetations etc.) and culminating in god Brahmā, in all the transformations of elements (the inanimate world of matter or bhūtas) in bhūtas (gross elements e.g. the sky, the wind), in guṇas (like sattva) in Pradhāna (the stage in which all guṇas are in a state of equilibrium)^[1] and in Principles like Mahat^[2] (which are evolved due to the uneven mixture of guṇas).

22. He, as the Inner Controller (of every being) is the seer, the enjoyer and as such is indicated as ‘the pervader’. He is also the object of perception, the objective world enjoyed and is described as ‘the pervaded’. He is, however, beyond description, and undifferentiated (though he is spoken of as being different).

23.^[3] The Supreme Lord is essentially pure consciousness and absolute bliss. But he conceals his glorious Lordly nature by his Māyā Power which gives rise to guṇas—the creation of the world.

24. Therefore, eschewing out your demonic nature, show kindness and friendliness to all beings, whereby Lord Viṣṇu (God transcendental to sense perception) will be pleased.

25. When the Lord of infinite excellences, the Prime Cause of all, is pleased, what can there be unattainable (to his devotees)? What is the use to us of the objects of human life: Dharma (artha and kāma) which accrue of their own accord by the product of guṇas (designated as Providence, the result of one’s past deeds)? Of what attraction is the Mokṣa (Final Liberation) which is so covetable to all,—to us who sing of the glory of his feet and taste the nectar-like sweetness therefrom?

26. The triad of the highest purposes of human life, viz. dharma (religious merits), artha (attainment of wealth) and kāma (fulfilment of desires), the spiritual lore, the ritualistic lore, logic, politics and various means of livelihood—I regard all these, the subject matter of the Vedas, as true—only if it serves as the means of offering one’s self to the Supreme Person who is the true friend of all. (Otherwise they are meaningless).

27. It is traditionally reported that Lord Nārāyaṇa, the companion of (the sage) Nara, imparted to Nārada this pure and sanctifying knowledge which is so difficult to obtain. It will, however, be attainable to those who have bathed their bodies in the dust of the lotus-like feet of the absolutely devoted votaries of the Lord—votaries who are devoid of all desires except God-realization.

28. It is from the (sage) Nārada who has realized God. that I heard (learnt) formerly this knowledge with the immediate apprehension of truth as well as teaching in the pure course of righteous duties and devotion to the Lord.

Sons of Daityas said:

29. Oh Prahlāda! You and we do not know any other person except the sons of preceptor (Śukrācārya,) as our teachers, as they have been our masters since our childhood.^[4]

30. Association with the great (sages) is extremely difficult for a child who is (brought up) in the harem. Please remove our doubt by confiding us with some evidence to give credence to your version, Oh gentle one.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

guṇa-sāmya—(i) The primordial matter, Pradhāna—Bhāvāratha Dīpikā, Siddhāntapradīpa, Bālaprabodhini, Bhaktamanorañjanī etc.

(ii) At the time of the Pralaya—Padaratnāvalī

[2]:

guṇa-vyatikara—(i) The evolute Mahat—Bhāvāratha Dīpikā, Siddhāntapradīpa, Bālaprabodhini, Bhaktamanorañjanī etc.

(ii) At the time of the creation of the world—Padaratnāvalī

[3]:

Bhāgavata Candrikā puts forward the Viśiṣṭāḍvaita theory re: God and the world as follows:

The Lord has Jīva as his special body and the perceptible inanimate or unconscious world as the gross body. Being incomparable, he is One Supreme Being who enters the body to support it but is unaffected by the modifications of the body and hence immutable. The Lord is perfect in his six excellences and he controls the jīva according to his karma.

Padaratnāvalī He is within everything an antaryāmin. Inner controller. He pervades them from outside, in the form of Time. Under another designation Brahman, he is the one who is indicated both as pervaḍer and the pervaded. He cannot be defined like a material object like a pitcher. Though Omnipresent he is invisible as he is concealed by Māyā or Prakṛti who is the source of Sattva and other attributes so essential for creation.

[4]:

We who are engaged in our studies are not seeking God—Padaratnāvalī