Canto 11: General HistoryChapter 17: Lord Krishna's Description of the Varnāśrama System

Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 11.17.56

yas tv āsakta-matir gehe

putra-vittaishanāturah

strainah kripana-dhīr mūdho

mamāham iti badhyate

SYNONYMS

yah — one who; tu — however; āsakta — attached; matih — whose consciousness; geheto his home; putra — for children; vitta — and money; eshana — by ardent desire; āturah — disturbed; strainah — lusty to enjoy women; kripana — miserly; dhīh — whose mentality; mūdhah — unintelligent; mama — everything is mine; ahamI am everything; iti — thus thinking; badhyate — is bound.

TRANSLATION

But a householder whose mind is attached to his home and who is thus disturbed by ardent desires to enjoy his money and children, who is lusty after women, who is possessed of a miserly mentality and who unintelligently thinks, "Everything is mine and I am everything," is certainly bound in illusion.

PURPORT

Although one may try by various analytical or psychological processes to detach the mind from illusory family attachment, one will inevitably be drawn back into the network of material attachment unless the heart is purified by Krishna consciousness. A miserly householder thinks only of his own family or community, without mercy for outsiders. Being egoistic, lusty, attached and always disturbed by ardent desires to enjoy money and children, a materialistic householder is hopelessly bound in a web of anxiety.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
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