Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 5.14.15
Ūti· What drives us to actMaterial Life Burns Like a Forest Fire
“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. In household life, there is nothing favorable for perpetual happiness. Being implicated in home life, the conditioned soul is burned by the fire of lamentation. Sometimes he condemns himself as being very unfortunate, and sometimes he claims that he suffers because he performed no pious activities in his previous life.”
What the purport teaches
- Material life is compared to a blazing forest fire. Just as a forest can catch fire without anyone deliberately setting it, suffering arises although everyone wants happiness.
- Attachment to household life does not provide perpetual happiness. The conditioned soul instead becomes burned by lamentation and increasing disappointment.
- A suffering person may condemn himself as unfortunate. Yet the bodily conception keeps him entangled, so self-condemnation alone does not free him.
Try this today
Write down one household worry and examine the expectation of lasting happiness behind it, without turning the reflection into self-blame.
Ask yourself
Am I expecting lasting happiness from arrangements that repeatedly bring worry and lamentation?
Carry the question through the day, then answer it in your own words before sleep.
The study points, practice and question are short summaries drawn from Śrīla Prabhupāda's translation and purport. Read the full purport to go deeper.