Expanding Our Love.
By His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Lecture given in New Vrindaban, West Virginia, on June 25, 1976
With practice, we can become free from limited affection centered on the body and can then realize the ideal of loving everyone.
ko griheshu puman saktam
atmanam ajitendriyah
sneha-pashair dridhair baddham
utsaheta vimochitum
“What person too attached to household life due to being unable to control his senses can liberate himself? An attached householder is bound very strongly by ropes of affection for his family [wife, children, and other relatives].” – Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.6.9
This material life is our bondage. We may be in gold handcuffs or iron handcuffs, but that doesn’t matter; in this material world we are handcuffed, imprisoned. Our aim of life should be to get out of this material bondage, or prison house. When Prahlada Maharaja, who is speaking this verse, was asked by his father what was the best education he had received from his teachers, he replied hitvatma-patam griham andha-kupam vanam gato yad dharim ashrayeta (Bhagavatam 7.5.5). Family life, Prahlada replied, is andha-kupam, a dark well. If a man has fallen into a dark well, it is sure death, atma-ghatam. Therefore, one should give up that life and take shelter of the Lord.
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