T: Sage Shuka explained to Parikshit: "The materialist is one who considers this body with its "I" and "Mine" identifications as everything. This entire narrative describes what such a person undergoes. From beginningless time, the soul (Jiva) assumes various bodies based on the accumulated lot of Karma riding on the admixture of the three Gunas. The world of Maya created by Bhagavan Sri Maha Vishnu then gives him all the experiences - which are good and bad, happy and unhappy, painful and pleasant, demeaning and ennobling, all the time. The worldly man does not get any wiser. He simply carries on going through this, life after life. The analogy to an inveterate trader who roams from place to place for business and gets lost in a terrible forest is most appropriate for the worldly man's condition."
"The senses are plunderers because they make one spend money unnecessarily for seeing, smelling, tasting, touching, hearing, desiring and planning for the future. In this way, the Jiva is obliged to gratify his senses, and thus all his money is spent, whereas all that one earns should indeed be devoted to serving the Lord."
"Worldly bondage makes one's relatives behave like tigers and jackals. A herdsman tries to protect his sheep to the best of his ability, but the tigers and foxes take them away by force. Similarly, although a miserly man wants to guard his money very carefully, his relatives take away all his assets forcibly, even though he is very vigilant."
"Before sowing the seeds in his land, a farmer tills it and does his best to remove the weeds. Yet the weeds come up densely. Similarly, the worldly family life has its due share of troubles. There is escape only through dispassion. Desire is like camphor that leaves behind its fragrance in the pot, such is the ineradicability of worldly desire."
"The man lost in the forest is tormented by gadflies and mosquitoes. Sometimes locusts, birds of prey and rats give him trouble. Nonetheless, he still continues to wander about. So is the worldly man, clutching at worldly hopes."
"Fantasizing about heavenly pleasures, man chases after the objects of the senses just as a deer chases a mirage in the desert. What man considers is most valuable, i.e. gold, is in the end no different from faeces. Gold builds envy and greed and passion. Attraction to gold is like the case of a man suffering from cold in the forest who runs after a phosphorescent light in a marshy land, considering it to be fire."
"In the lap of a woman, man's good senses are overcome by the force of passion. He thus becomes almost blind with lusty desire and disobeys the rules moderating sex life, suffering the consequences of bondage. Occasional flashes of disenchantment with this world do not make a man change his lifestyle."
"Man cultivates rich people with great hope, not knowing that he is approaching the living dead who possess these things. Such people are compared to impure trees, creepers and poisonous wells."
"There are fake gurus, charlatans and atheists ready to mislead a worldly man with promises of good. This is just like a man who thinks he will cool himself and jumps into a shallow river and hurts himself."
"A worldly man will try to grab wealth. If he cannot acquire things from his father, son or other relatives, he is prepared to give them all kinds of trouble. In this world, family life is exactly like a blazing fire in the forest. There is not the least happiness, and gradually one becomes more and more implicated in unhappiness. It is lip service to blame past Karmas without a wise course correction."
"To perform the prescribed ceremonies (weddings etc.) and rituals entails expense and effort, like the piercing of thorns and pebbles endured by one attempting to climb a hill. The man in trouble loses his patience and becomes angry with his own beloved sons, daughters and wife. Thus, being unkind to them, he suffers all the more."
"Sleep is exactly like a python. Those who wander in the forest of material life are always devoured by the python of sleep. Also, the conditioned soul is sometimes bitten by jealous enemies, which are compared to serpents and other creatures. In that state, he becomes almost a blind man who has fallen into a dark well of ignorance."
"Illicit pleasures bring in their wake ready punishment. To give that punishment, there are people around or the government."
"Let us say a man cheats Mr. Devadutta for gain. He in turn is then cheated by Mr. Vishnumitra. What misery!"
"In addition, there are psychological difficulties arising experiences of so-called happiness, distress, attachment, hate, fear, false prestige, illusion, madness, lamentation, bewilderment, greed, envy, enmity, insult, hunger, thirst, tribulation, disease, birth, old age and death. All these combine together to give the materialistic Jiva nothing but misery."
"Man becomes overly attached to a woman and tries to provide for all her comforts and luxuries. He thus throws himself in the dense darkness of material existence."
"Bhagavan's cakra is the wheel of time. It expands from the beginning nascent matter up to the time of Brahma’s death, and it controls all activities. It is always revolving and wearing down the lives of the living entities, from Lord Brahma down to an insignificant blade of grass. "
"Hoping to be saved by false gods is like trusting buzzards, vultures, herons and crows. Imminent death is like the attack of a lion, and neither vultures, buzzards, crows nor herons can save one from such an attack. "
"Without accepting the devotional path of Bhakti, one cannot get out of the clutches of material existence. The conclusion is that no one can be happy in material life. One must develop Bhakti to Bhagavan.
Saintly persons, who are friendly to all living entities, have a peaceful consciousness. They have controlled their senses and minds, and they easily attain liberation, the path back to Bhagavan. Being unfortunate and attached to a life of miserable materialism, man finds it hard to associate with them."
"Even great kings could not conquer the false consciousness of “I am this body, and this is my property.” Thus they simply created enmity with rival kings, fought with them and died without realising life's real potential."
"The path of Bhakti is the flight of Garuda, the god of birds. How can a materialistic life match it, just like the trivial flight of insects!?"
"Bharata was a lofty soul whose prosperity was envied even by the gods. He gave up his kingdom, family, comfort and luxury to cultivate Bhakti to Bhagavan."
य इदं भागवतसभाजितावदातगुणकर्मणो राजर्षेर्भरतस्यानुचरितं स्वस्त्ययनमायुष्यं धन्यं यशस्यं स्वर्ग्यापवर्ग्यं वानुशृणोत्याख्यास्यत्यभिनन्दति च सर्वा एवाशिष आत्मन आशास्ते न काञ्चन परत इति ॥
T: "One who studies the life of the supreme devotee (Bhagavata) Bharata, the Rajarshi, will inherit great auspiciousness and welfare in this world and develop devotion to the Lord through a soul-centric life and not a body-centric life."
