Prahlāda Mahārāja is recommending. There are different kinds of yoga and the purpose of yoga is bīja-nirharaṇam. Bīja—the seed, which is sprouting in so many trees and branches; or material entanglement. So that bīja, that seed has to be, what is called, extinguished. Bīja-nirharaṇam. Just like during rainy season we find various kinds of vegetation and during summer season they all dry. During winter. Eh? Just like in your country during winter season there is no leaves. All trees are simply wood standing. But as soon as there is spring the leaves come out, sprout. So why? Because the source or the cause of the leaves coming out is already there, so bīja-nirharaṇam.
This propensity for sense gratification is just like a bīja, the same example. The all the grasses, all the different vegetation's dry up. And as soon as there is favorable conditions, little water, but because the tree is there, they again come out. Again come out. So artificially stopping the senses will not help us. This is yogīs. They were by artificial means they try to control the senses but that will not help. As soon as there is favorable circumstances they will come. There are many instances. That is repeat . . . repeatedly expressed in Bhagavad-gītā (2.59), paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate.
Even Viśvāmitra Muni, great yogī, he also failed. He was in great meditation and as soon as there was a chance of meeting a very nice beautiful woman, he failed.
So Prahlāda Mahārāja is recommending not that type of yoga. Which will fail. It will fail. There is so many instances. He says that:
- bīja-nirharaṇaṁ yogaḥ
- pravāhoparamo dhiyaḥ
So you accept this, what is called, extinguishing or impotency. Impotency. Making the seeds impotent, no more fructifying. Stop the fructifying process. So actually bīja never becomes impotent, it remains potent. In the case of devotee that, the potency is there but devotee becomes so advanced that they have no more any interest in these potencies. That is . . . it is not that a devotee is impotent. Just like this Ramakrishna, he became impotent and a falsely claimed that he called his wife mother. That is the history, I heard it from my Guru Mahārāja, it is not a false statement.
Devotee: . . . (indistinct)
Prabhupāda: Yes. This man was in his young days, he was very, very much fond of women and in India there is no free mixing with women. He appeared to be in a high-class Brāhmin family, so he had no chance. So these lower-class young girls, they would hanker after that. He and one of his friends and just friend he stated personally, he was right So when his brother thought that, "My brother is spoiling," so that is the duty of the guardian. He got him married and settled him as a priest, assistant priest in the temple. His brother was priest. But he was impotent. There was no possibility of sex life therefore he adopted this philosophy that, "I am seeing everyone as my mother." That made him famous, you see.