Devanagari
वित्तैषणां यज्ञदानैर्गृहैर्दारसुतैषणाम् ।
आत्मलोकैषणां देव कालेन विसृजेद्बुध: ।
ग्रामे त्यक्तैषणा: सर्वे ययुर्धीरास्तपोवनम् ॥ ३८ ॥
Verse text
vittaiṣaṇāṁ yajṣa-dānair
gṛhair dāra-sutaiṣaṇām
ātma-lokaiṣaṇāṁ deva
kālena visṛjed budhaḥ
grāme tyaktaiṣaṇāḥ sarve
yayur dhīrās tapo-vanam
Synonyms
vitta
—
for wealth
;
eṣaṇām
—
the desire
;
yajṣa
—
by sacrifices
;
dānaiḥ
—
and by charity
;
gṛhaiḥ
—
by engagement in household affairs
;
dāra
—
for wife
;
suta
—
and children
;
eṣaṇām
—
the desire
;
ātma
—
for oneself
;
loka
—
for an exalted planet (in the next life)
;
eṣaṇām
—
the desire
;
deva
—
O saintly Vasudeva
;
kālena
—
because of time
;
visṛjet
—
one should renounce
;
budhaḥ
—
who is intelligent
;
grāme
—
for household life
;
tyakta
—
who renounced
;
eṣaṇāḥ
—
their desires
;
sarve
—
all
;
yayuḥ
—
they went
;
dhīrāḥ
—
sober sages
;
tapaḥ
—
of austerities
;
vanam
—
to the forest .
Translation
An intelligent person should learn to renounce his desire for wealth by performing sacrifices and acts of charity. He should learn to renounce his desire for wife and children by experiencing family life. And he should learn to renounce his desire for promotion to a higher planet in his next life, O saintly Vasudeva, by studying the effects of time. Self-controlled sages who have thus renounced their attachment to household life go to the forest to perform austerities.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
An intelligent person should learn to renounce his desire for wealth by performing sacrifices and acts of charity. He should learn to renounce his desire for wife and children by experiencing family life. And he should learn to renounce his desire for promotion to a higher planet in his next life, O saintly Vasudeva, by studying the effects of time. Self-controlled sages who have thus renounced their attachment to household life go to the forest to perform austerities.
KB 10.84.38
“All conditioned souls within this material world have deep-rooted desires to lord it over the resources of material nature. Everyone wants to accumulate riches, everyone wants to enjoy life to the greatest extent, everyone wants a wife, home and children, and everyone wants to become happy in this world and be elevated to the heavenly planets in the next life. But these desires are the causes of one’s material bondage. Therefore, to get liberation from this bondage, one has to sacrifice his honestly earned riches for the satisfaction of Lord Viṣṇu.
“The only process to counteract all sorts of material desires is to engage oneself in the devotional service of Lord Viṣṇu. In this way a self-controlled person, even while remaining in householder life, should give up the three kinds of material desires, namely the desire for the acquisition of material opulences, for the enjoyment of wife and children, and for elevation to higher planets. Eventually he should give up householder life and accept the renounced order, engaging himself completely in the devotional service of the Lord.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
One cannot destroy karma without giving up all desires. One can give up all desires by the following process. One should give up the desire for wealth by sacrifice and charity which are the result of the wealth. He then thinks "what is the use of wealth, if it just gets spent in sacrifice and charity?" One should give up the desire for children and enjoyment with wife by enjoying according to the rules of household life. By the experience itself one gives up the desire for it. One should give up the desire for svarga loka by understanding that it is temporary, since the body is subject to death. O Vasudeva (deva), there is proof of such conduct. Giving up their desires in the house, the wise went to the forest.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
By offering various objects to the Lord, by his mercy, one gives up desire for the objects. One gives up desire for wealth by performing sacrifices whose actions expend wealth for the purpose of worship of the Lord. One gives up desire for wife and sons by household life with wife and children meant as worship of the Lord. One should give up desire for selfish reasons or for enjoyment in this life and the next at all opportunities (kālena), looking for opportunities to worship the Lord, using time for the Lord. O Lord (deva)! Or one should give up desires for enjoyment in this life and the next by spending time in worshipping the Lord (deva). The person with discrimination should give up these desires. This means the wealthy householder will not perfect hearing and other devotional process properly by having a disturbed mind. If the attached person suddenly gives up his house without destroying desires for the gṛhasthāśrama, he cannot perfect hearing and meditation on the Lord. He will later give them up.
Purport (Sanatana Goswami)
By this method the desire for wealth decreases. There is no other way. Examples are given of householders. The discriminating person should act in this way. Otherwise, the wealthy man, with an impure mind, cannot practice bhakti with hearing etc. He should give up his house with it wealth to perfect pure hearing. Thus giving up everything, the intelligent householed (dhīraḥ) goes to the forest. This means that a person who has not become detached, and does not give his desire for wealth, should not renounce.