Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 4.25.6

gṛheṣu kūṭa-dharmeṣu

putra-dāra-dhanārtha-dhīḥ

na paraḿ vindate mūḍho

bhrāmyan saḿsāra-vartmasu

SYNONYMS

gṛheṣu — in family life; kūṭa-dharmeṣu — in false occupational duties; putra — sons; dāra — wife; dhana — wealth; artha — the goal of life; dhīḥ — one who considers; na — not; param — transcendence; vindate — achieves; mūḍhaḥ — rascal; bhrāmyan — wandering; saḿsāra — of material existence; vartmasu — on the paths.

TRANSLATION

Those who are interested only in a so-called beautiful life — namely remaining as a householder entangled by sons and a wife and searching after wealth — think that such things are life's ultimate goal. Such people simply wander in different types of bodies throughout this material existence without finding out the ultimate goal of life.

PURPORT

Those who are too much attached to family life — which consists of entanglement with wife, children, wealth and home — are engaged in kūṭa-dharma, pseudo duties. Prahlāda Mahārāja has likened these pseudo occupational duties to a dark well (andha-kūpam). Prahlāda has purposefully spoken of this dark well because if one falls into this well, he will die. He may cry for help, but no one will hear him or come to rescue him.

The words bhrāmyan saḿsāra-vartmasu are significant. In Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Madhya 19.151), Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu very clearly explains: brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva. All living entities are wandering in different types of bodies throughout different planets, and if, in the course of their wanderings, they come in contact with a devotee by the direction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, their lives become successful. Even though King Prācīnabarhiṣat was engaged in fruitive activity, the great sage Nārada appeared before him. The King was very fortunate to be able to associate with Nārada, who enlightened him in spiritual knowledge. It is the duty of all saintly persons to follow in the footsteps of Nārada Muni and travel all over the world to every country and village just to instruct illusioned persons about the goal of life and to save them from the entanglement of karma-bandha, fruitive activity.

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