TEXT 19
tasmad etam aham tyaktva
brahmany adhyaya manasam
nirdvandvo nirahankaras
carisyami mrgaih saha
SYNONYMS
tasmattherefore; etamsuch strong desires for lusty affairs; ahamI; tyaktvagiving up; brahmaniupon the Supreme Absolute Truth; adhyayafixing; manasamthe mind; nirdvandvahwithout duality; nirahankarahwithout an identity of false prestige; carisyamiI shall loiter or wander in the forest; mrgaih sahawith the forest animals.
TRANSLATION
Therefore, I shall now give up all these desires and meditate upon the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Free from the dualities of mental concoction and free from false prestige, I shall wander in the forest with the animals.
PURPORT
To go to the forest and live there with the animals, meditating upon the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is the only means by which to give up lusty desires. Unless one gives up such desires, ones mind cannot be freed from material contamination. Therefore, if one is at all interested in being freed from the bondage of repeated birth, death, old age and disease, after a certain age one must go to the forest. pancasordhvam vanam vrajet. After fifty years of age, one should voluntarily give up family life and go to the forest. The best forest is Vrndavana, where one need not live with the animals but can associate with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who never leaves Vrndavana. Cultivating Krsna consciousness in Vrndavana is the best means of being liberated from material bondage, for in Vrndavana one can automatically meditate upon Krsna. Vrndavana has many temples, and in one or more of these temples one may see the form of the Supreme Lord as Radha-Krsna or Krsna-Balarama and meditate upon this form. As expressed here by the words brahmany adhyaya, one should concentrate ones mind upon the Supreme Lord, Parabrahman. This Parabrahman is Krsna, as confirmed by Arjuna in Bhagavad-gita (param brahma param dhama pavitram paramam bhavan [Bg. 10.12]). Krsna and His abode, Vrndavana, are not different. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, aradhyo bhagavan vrajesa-tanayas tad-dhama vrndavanam. Vrndavana is as good as Krsna. Therefore, if one somehow or other gets the opportunity to live in Vrndavana, and if one is not a pretender but simply lives in Vrndavana and concentrates his mind upon Krsna, one is liberated from material bondage. Ones mind is not purified, however, even in Vrndavana, if one is agitated by lusty desires. One should not live in Vrndavana and commit offenses, for a life of offenses in Vrndavana is no better than the lives of the monkeys and hogs there. Many monkeys and hogs live in Vrndavana, and they are concerned with their sexual desires. Men who have gone to Vrndavana but who still hanker for sex should immediately leave Vrndavana and stop their grievous offenses at the lotus feet of the Lord. There are many misguided men who live in Vrndavana to satisfy their sexual desires, but they are certainly no better than the monkeys and hogs. Those who are under the control of maya, and specifically under the control of lusty desires, are called maya-mrga. Indeed, everyone in the conditional stage of material life is a maya-mrga. It is said, maya-mrgam dayitayepsitam anvadhavad: [SB 11.5.34] Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu took sannyasa to show His causeless mercy to the maya-mrgas, the people of this material world, who suffer because of lusty desires. One should follow the principles of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and always think of Krsna in full Krsna consciousness. Then one will be eligible to live in Vrndavana, and his life will be successful.

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