So what is their business? Their business is: Pārvatī is perpetually asking her husband about spiritual matters, everything, and the husband is replying. That is the duty of husband, and that is also the duty of wife. Wife should get enlightenment from the husband, and she should give service. The husband is well situated; she is not discomforted, always looking to the comfort of the husband. And it is the duty of the husband to enlighten the wife always. Therefore husband is accepted as guru, pati-guru. In India, when a woman speaks of her husband, she says pati-guru, "my husband-master,"pati-guru. And it is not the system, Vedic system, to call the husband by name, as in the Western country the husband is called by his name. No. Out of respect, the wife does not call the husband by his real name.
So this talking is going on perpetually. So when Pārvatī, Durgā, she is asking her husband, "What is this Māyāvada philosophy?" That is there mentioned in the śāstras of the Māyāvada. So Lord Śiva is explaining what is this Māyāvada philosophy. He said that māyāvādam asac-chāstraṁ (Padma Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa 25.7). Asac-chāstraṁ is a temporary information. Asat means "temporary," "that will not exist." There are two things: sat and asat. Sat means what is eternal, perpetual—no beginning, no end. Sanātana. And asat means just the opposite: "which is temporary." So śāstra means it must give you knowledge of the eternal world. That is śāstra. Whole śāstra, whole Vedic literature is meant for, to awaken you to your sat position, eternal position. Now we are in temporary position with this body, on account of getting this material body. Everything here temporary. Now anyone can understand: nothing in this world is permanent. Everything is temporary. It may be for few years or few hours or few minutes, but it is limited. Even your life in the Brahmāloka, that is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, so many millions of years you can live there, but it is also temporary. It may be millions of years; that is also limited, because within the time eternal, some millions of years, that is also temporary; some hundreds of years, that is also temporary. So everything here, temporary.