Study a Verse

• Human life is not meant to be wasted, like that of the animals, in sense gratificatory activities.
• Animals always engage in sense gratification — eating, sleeping, fearing and mating — but that is not the engagement of the human being, although, because of the material body, there is need of sense gratification according to a regulative principle.
• These boons have come by your grace, but they have all been for sense gratification.

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

Longing and service → Preparedness. Family devotion turns toward higher spiritual fulfillment.

Chapters 20–24 of Canto 3: Kardama, Devahūti, family and renunciation. An editorial reading of the story's mood, not the text itself. See the emotional arc

Chapter 23: Devahūti’s Lamentation

Devahūti serves Kardama, shares his extraordinary household life, and asks who will comfort her after his departure.