Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 12.3.42
Ūti· What drives us to actFamily Responsibility Beyond Personal Pleasure
“Men will no longer protect their elderly parents, their children or their respectable wives. Thoroughly degraded, they will care only to satisfy their own bellies and genitals.”
What the purport teaches
- The verse describes men neglecting elderly parents, children and respectable wives while caring only for eating and sex.
- The purport describes elderly parents being left lonely despite a lifetime of serving their children. It also emphasizes the suffering of children under selfish parents.
- Parents have a primary responsibility to guide their children on the path of liberation. Ignorance of spiritual science and preference for pleasure over the Absolute Truth obstruct that responsibility.
Try this today
Set aside one personal indulgence today and use that time to attend to a family member's need.
Ask yourself
Where might my desire for personal comfort be crowding out care for my family?
Carry the question through the day, then answer it in your own words before sleep.
From Canto 10, chapter 14 onward, the translation and purports were completed by Śrīla Prabhupāda's disciples after his departure, and published by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust.