Prahlada’s Teachers

Prahlada’s teachers

Prahlada’s teachers, the two sons of the depressed Hiranyakasipu’s guru, drew near Hiranyakasipu and asked him, 

“Why are you worried? You have conquered the entire world. You have conquered air, fire, all five elements. You can easily fly in the air, and you can take a thunderbolt and defeat Indra. So why are you worried? Wait a little. Our father will soon come and solve this problem.

Prahlada was again sent to school. 

Then, one day the teachers, desirous to engage in some household jobs, told him, 

“Prahlada, you should be the monitor and see that the other children do not do anything wrong. The boys can be somewhat naughty, so you must control them. We will return soon.”

 

Prahlada began teaching his fellow students about Krsna consciousness, but the boys initially resisted with the excuse that they would take up Krsna consciousness in their old age. They told Prahlada that now was the time to play.

Prahlada replied, 

“We may die at an early age. We may even die when we are seven, eight, nine, or ten. If you die at a young age, you will not become old.”

“In order to marry and become happy with family, and in order to nourish and support one’s children, a person thinks, 

“I will build a first-class house and make a very beautiful garden. I will have strong, beautiful dogs, and I will enjoy.’”

“This is a waste of time. We don’t want to suffer, but suffering comes to us by our past births’ impressions. We don’t want to become old, but old age also comes. If you have performed any pious activity in the past, your present happiness will come automatically. Maintenance of your life, your good wife, good children, and everything else will come automatically. Since happiness comes automatically as a result of our past lives’ activities, why are you making so many efforts to become happy? Why not chant Krsna’s name and remember Him from the beginning of life?”

 

Prahlada continued, 

“Now you are boys of three, four, five, six, and seven years of age. Now you are free from worldly entanglements and your hearts are like plain sheets of paper, without anything written there. Later, when you mature, you may marry a beautiful lady. At that time, if you want to leave this world to perform bhajana, she will weep. How will you be able to give up such a beautiful, qualified wife?”

“Moreover, if you also have some children, beautiful sons or daughters, you will be engaged in serving them. Even if you try to give them up, you will not be able to do so. If the children call out to you in their sweet voices and broken language, ‘Father, Father, Father,’ how will you ever be able to give them up? You will think, ‘I must support all these children. They are babies and cannot do anything. If I give up my household life, they will all die.’ 

You may also lament, 

“Oh, my beautiful dog and cow can’t live without me.” 

Suppose you make a good garden with many trees and flowers, and later you decide to give it up to associate with devotees to chant and remember Krsna. You will then consider, ‘Who will take care of this garden if I leave? All the flowers will die.’ You will not be able to leave.”

 

Prahlada continued, 

“It is better that you chant and remember Krsna from childhood, when you are free from all these worldly entanglements.” 

All the students were inspired, but at the same time they had some doubt.

“We accept that what you are telling is true,” they said. “Now we have great faith in you; but we want to know where you learned all these truths. You always remain within the palace, where it is very difficult to associate with any great personality.”

This is a section of the book “Brilliant As the Sun”(English).

To buy the complete book, click here