Hare Krsna,
Upon reflecting on this chapter deeply, I am quite alarmed at the way Lord Kapiladeva is unraveling the perils of unregulated family life. Typically, what we consider to be a safe comfort zone turns out to be a gateway to hell if handled carelessly. Family household life is a source of great joy and happiness to millions across the world. But the same family life can lead us to hell if there is no Krsna consciousness or God consciousness in it. The sad part is that in the name of family, we have normalized abnormal practices. Just as Mother Chatamayi so graciously shared in her last post, drinking was normalized in her family. While growing up, my family normalized meat and fish eating. Millions in the USA normalize possession of guns and commit violence in the name of self-defense. Schools normalize free intermingling of opposite sex; the prom culture is nothing but subtle sexuality. Treating women as objects of enjoyment is normalized through advertisement and marketing. Unfortunately, millions do not realize how dangerous this situation is. When families, directly or indirectly, encourage sinful behavior, the end result will be nothing but descend to lower forms and planets. Even the popular culture of keeping pets is quite dangerous. Didn’t Bharata Maharaja, who was situated in the stage if bhava, fall down from human platform because he developed too much attachment for a fawn? Srimad Bhagavatam is filled with teachings on how to lead a sinless, pious, and regulated life. Unfortunately, the abnormalities have become so normal in today’s world that we dare not even speak about them. Try telling someone that keeping pets and developing too much attachment for them is dangerous for the progression of the soul? Try telling someone that maintaining slaughterhouses and possessing guns will always lead to negative consequences?
In this chapter, Lord Kapiladeva is gradually enlightening us how the path to hell is quite open if we are careless, even in household life. He explains the pains in youth, old age and death for person agitated by attachment to family and children. The root cause of bondage is sexual desire. Sex life is the cause of bondage of the conditioned soul to remain in the material world. From sexual desire, one gradually develops attachment to one’s partner, family, children, relatives, property, etc. When one develops sexual bondage, prakṣepātmikā and āvaraṇātmikā subtly takes over. Praksepatmika makes us forget our eternal relationship with the Lord and throws us into a household life. Avaraṇātmikā keeps us in ignorance and gives us a false impression that a peaceful happy family life is ultimate happiness. Gradually this avaranatmika potency makes us commit all sorts of sinful actions. We end up working crazy long hours for our livelihood, we have mounting expenses, our health is compromised, we are stressed and always disturbed, we worry about our future, we worry about retirement, and so on. But still, we think we are happy. This is how avaranatmika works.
I want to share a strong purport by Srila Prabhupada from Second Canto. I happened to read it recently during SB study with another group. I think it is relevant to this forum topic.
SB 2.6.8 Purport: The genitals and the pleasure of begetting counteract the distresses of family encumbrances. One would cease to generate altogether if there were not, by the grace of the Lord, a coating, a pleasure-giving substance, on the surface of the generative organs. This substance gives a pleasure so intense that it counteracts fully the distress of family encumbrances. A person is so captivated by this pleasure-giving substance that he is not satisfied by begetting a single child, but increases the number of children, with great risk in regard to maintaining them, simply for this pleasure-giving substance. This pleasure-giving substance is not false, however, because it originates from the transcendental body of the Lord. In other words, the pleasure-giving substance is a reality, but it has taken on an aspect of pervertedness on account of material contamination. In the material world, sex life is the cause of many distresses on account of material contact. Therefore, the sex life in the material world should not be encouraged beyond the necessity. There is a necessity for generating progeny even in the material world, but such generation of children must be carried out with full responsibility for spiritual values. The spiritual values of life can be realized in the human form of material existence, and the human being must adopt family planning with reference to the context of spiritual values, and not otherwise. The degraded form of family restriction by use of contraceptives, etc., is the grossest type of material contamination. Materialists who use these devices want to fully utilize the pleasure potency of the coating on the genitals by artificial means, without knowing the spiritual importance. And without knowledge of spiritual values, the less intelligent man tries to utilize only the material sense pleasure of the genitals.
The theme of household life being a gateway to hell comes up repeatedly in Srimad Bhagavatam. Prahlada Maharaja says to his father, “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.“ (SB 7.5.5)
Similarly, Lord Kapiladeva says, “After leaving this body, the man who maintained himself and his family members by sinful activities suffers a hellish life, and his relatives suffer also. He goes alone to the darkest regions of hell after quitting the present body, and the money he acquired by envying other living entities is the passage money with which he leaves this world. Thus, by the arrangement of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the maintainer of kinsmen is put into a hellish condition to suffer for his sinful activities, like a man who has lost his wealth.” (SB 3.30-32)
It is therefore a time for re-awakening and realizing that we need to keep Krsna consciousness at the center of everything and stay away from sinful habits. It is time to revisit as a family what we are doing wrong and that needs correction. Otherwise, we run the risk of falling into hell.
However, there is always hope. The fact that we have a human body is a thing of rare privilege and should not be wasted. After going through all the miserable hellish conditions, and then many births in the lower forms, we became purified and reborn as human beings. It is, therefore, important that we practice bhakti intensely and try diligently to stay away from sinful actions.
“Just as a prisoner, who has undergone troublesome prison life, is set free again, the person who has always engaged in impious and mischievous activities is put into hellish conditions, and when he has undergone different hellish lives, namely those of lower animals like cats, dogs and hogs, by the gradual process of evolution he again comes back as a human being… It can be concluded that if someone is not willing to enter into hellish life, as in Tāmisra or Andha-tāmisra, then he must take to the process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, which is the first-class yoga system, because even if one is unable to attain complete Kṛṣṇa consciousness in this life, he is guaranteed at least to take his next birth in a human family. He cannot be sent into a hellish condition. Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the purest life, and it protects all human beings from gliding down to hell to take birth in a family of dogs or hogs.” (SB 3.30.34 Purport)
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Krsna Katha 