Study a Verse

• Being anxious about the education of his boy Prahlāda, Hiraṇyakaśipu was very much dissatisfied.
• Disease is the symptom of the body of a sinful person.
• Murderers of brāhmaṇas are later afflicted by tuberculosis, drunkards become toothless, those who have stolen gold are afflicted by diseased nails, and sinful men who have sexual connections with the wife of a superior are afflicted by leprosy and similar skin diseases.

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

Threat → Steady faith. A vulnerable child remains inwardly unshaken.

Chapters 5–7 of Canto 7: Prahlāda refuses to abandon his devotion. An editorial reading of the story's mood, not the text itself. See the emotional arc

Chapter 5: Prahlāda Mahārāja, the Saintly Son of Hiraṇyakaśipu

From the chapter summary, the lines nearest this verse:

However, when the teachers inquired from Prahlāda Mahārāja why he was going against their teachings, Prahlāda Mahārāja taught the teachers that the mentality of ownership is false and that he was therefore trying to become an unalloyed devotee of Lord Viṣṇu. The teachers, being very angry at this answer, chastised and threatened the boy with many fearful conditions.