Study a Verse

• Unfortunately, at sunset the lotus flower closes, and thus the infatuated honeybee is trapped.
• Thus he will become bewildered by the illusion of family life and fall down from the platform of renunciation.
• An ideal sage should, like the honeybee, travel from place to place, but he must be careful not to become a chubby bee by going to many houses and eating sumptuously at each house.

The purport's own sentences, chosen from the purport as its central points. Read the full purport on Vedabase to see them in place.

Grief and dependence → Detachment. The temporary world becomes a source of spiritual instruction.

Chapters 7–9 of Canto 11: The avadhuta's twenty-four teachers. An editorial reading of the story's mood, not the text itself. See the emotional arc

Chapter 8: The Story of Piṅgalā

From the chapter summary, the lines nearest this verse:

The instruction the avadhūta brāhmaṇa received from the python is that an intelligent person should cultivate a mentality of detachment and should maintain his body by accepting whatever comes of its own accord or is easily obtained. In this way, he should remain always engaged in the worship of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.