Dehāpatya-kalatrādiṣu ātma-sainyeṣu. Just like a nation thinks himself well-protected when the nation has got good defense measure, similarly, a ordinary man, he thinks that, "If I have got strong built body and very faithful wife and nice children," dehāpatya-kalatrādiṣu, "and after this," means, "some good bank balance, some landed property, security, these things," one person accepts, "they will give me protection. Yes.
They will give. I am now well-protected. I have got nice children. I have got nice wife. I have got good bank balance. I have got so many properties. So why shall I go to Kṛṣṇa consciousness? I am well-protected. These boys and girls, they have no bank balance. They have no home. Therefore they should go."
But they are blind. How they are blind? They are thinking that these things will give him protection. Pramatta. Pramatta means crazy. (laughter) Crazy. By craziness he is thinking that, "These things will give me protection." No. Teṣāṁ pramatto nidhanaṁ paśyann api na paśyati. Because he is crazy, he does not see to the destruction of these things, although he is seeing others, that they are being destroyed every moment. My father has died. Naturally I shall die. Naturally my sons also will die. So why I am so much anxious of protecting this family? Everyone will die. Paśyann api na paśyati. They see, but still do not see.
They see daily that, "I am working so hard for these things, but these things will be destroyed, as it has been destroyed previously in the history." So many empires were destroyed. The British empire destroyed, the Roman empire destroyed, the Egyptian empire destroyed, the, I mean to say, the Indian empire . . . formerly . . . just like Parīkṣit Mahārāja, he was the emperor of the world.
So these things, paśyann api na paśyati, they see that, "They cannot give me protection. When I shall be called for death"—just like Parīkṣit Mahārāja, he is preparing—"at that time, all these, my soldiers, my bank balance, my good wife, my good children, my good countrymen—no. Nobody can give me any protection." Just like when you have to fly in the sky, you have to protect yourself.
No other can . . . take it for the birds or for the airplanes. If you are being crushed in the airplane, no other airplane can protect you. You'll have to come down from the sky. (laughter) Similarly, when death will come, none of you will be able to give me protection. Either my good state or good family or good bank balance or good this, that. No. That's all. Finished. You see?
So Śukadeva Gosvāmī giving right instruction to Parīkṣit Mahārāja. Then what should be the subject matter? This so-called rascaldom news, they are not meant for hearing. Therefore he concludes:
- tasmād bhārata sarvātmā
- bhagavān īśvaro hariḥ
- śrotavyaḥ kīrtitavyaś ca
- smartavyaś cecchatābhayam
- (SB 2.1.5)
Icchatā abhayam. Abhayam. Bhaya means fear, and abhayam means fearlessness. If one is actually expecting that he should be protected, abhayam, there should be no more anything of fearfulness. Then Parīkṣit Mahārāja . . . Śukadeva Gosvāmī is instructing that tasmāt. Because these things, if you simply divert your attention to the varieties of newspaper or any other information of this world which is full of this gṛhamedhī, whose business is to sleep at night and work hard at daytime, that will not give you protection.