Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Srimad Bhagavatam 9.19.12

tathaham kripanah subhru

bhavatyah prema-yantritah

atmanam nabhijanami

mohitas tava mayaya

SYNONYMS

tatha -- exactly like the he-goat; aham -- I; kripanah -- a miser with no sense of the importance of life; su-bhru -- O my wife, with beautiful eyebrows; bhavatyah -- in your company; prema-yantritah -- as if tied in love, although it is actually lust; atmanam -- self-realization (what I am and what my duty is); na abhijanami -- I could not realize even until now; mohitah -- being bewildered; tava -- your; mayaya -- by the materially attractive feature.

TRANSLATION

O my dear wife with beautiful eyebrows, I am exactly like that he-goat, for I am so poor in intelligence that I am captivated by your beauty and have forgotten the real task of self-realization.

PURPORT

If one remains a victim of the so-called beauty of his wife, his family life is nothing but a dark well. Hitvatma-patam griham andha-kupam. Existence in such a dark well is certainly suicidal. If one wants relief from the miserable condition of material life, one must voluntarily give up his lusty relationship with his wife; otherwise there is no question of self-realization. Unless one is extremely advanced in spiritual consciousness, household life is nothing but a dark well in which one commits suicide. Prahlada Maharaja therefore recommended that in due time, at least after one's fiftieth year, one must give up household life and go to the forest. Vanam gato yad dharim asrayeta [SB 7.5.5]. There one should seek shelter at the lotus feet of Hari.

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