So Śukadeva Goswāmī says that for ordinary man who is gṛhamedhī, gṛheṣu gṛha-medhi . . . gṛheṣu, they remain at home, nice apartment. That is gṛheṣu. Or gṛha means this body also, because I am not this body; this is also an apartment that I am living within. So, apaśyatām ātma-tattvaṁ gṛheṣu (SB 2.1.2): in the home, within the apartment. Gṛha-medhinām. Gṛhe, just like we are also living within the room, apartment. I may be a preacher, but I also live within the room, and others also living within the room. Then what is the difference? No. There is difference. Gṛha-medhinām means one who has made it his life that apartment only. That's all. Anything within this apartment, that's all. He does not know anything more. "This is my world. This my wife, my children, my nice decorated apartment, little bank balance, a car—finished. My life." This is all. They are called gṛhamedhī. Gṛhamedhī, when he has no other idea than that apartment. Within that apartment everything is finished. That's all.
But there is gṛhastha . There are two words. Gṛhastha means one who remains within the apartment, but he is not compact; he is not bound up within the boundaries of the apartment. He has got other business. What is that business? That is ātma-tattvaṁ. Just like we are sitting here in this room, apartment. Others are sitting. We are trying to cultivate ātma-tattvaṁ, self-realization, and little chanting; but others, they cannot tolerate, because they are gṛhamedhī. They are compact within the boundaries of their apartment, and they think, "These people are creating disturbance." So therefore the Bhāgavata says, apaśyatām ātma-tattvaṁ. They have no idea. They have no respect, that "These people are cultivating spiritual knowledge, ātma-tattvaṁ. We should go and join with them and learn from them." No: "Stop it. Stop it." That is the difference between gṛhastha and gṛhamedhī.
Two words are there. Gṛhamedhī . . . the idea is coming. I do not know whether in your country you have got experience that a bull is blinded, and his, I mean to say, with the rope he is bound on the center of a bamboo, and he is made him to walking around the bamboo. Whole day and night he is, by traveling over some paddies or walking on the grinding mill of oil. So he is blind. He is thinking that he is going miles and miles away, but he is within the room or within the place and simply going round and round. That is called gṛhamedhī. They are thinking that they are making progress. But they are not making progress, because their ideas are compact within this room. They are called gṛhamedhīs. And gṛhastha , gṛhastha is an āśrama. Āśrama. Āśrama means where spiritual culture is made. That is called āśrama.