Prahlāda Mahārāja advised that "The best thing which I have learned is that you should give up this material world." Tyaktva . . . gṛham andha-kūpaṁ ātma-pātaṁ vanaṁ gato yad dharim āśrayeta: "My dear father, I have learned this best thing," that tyaktva . . . gṛham andha-kūpam. "This world, material world, which is just like a dark well . . . if a man is thrown into this dark well as he is in this precarious condition of life, similarly, anyone who is in the material world, he is put into the dark well. Therefore, somehow or other, we have to get out of this" and vanaṁ gato yad dharim āśrayeta (SB 7.5.5), "We shall accept the shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hari." The father became very much angry. Mūrkhāya upadeśa hi prakopāya na śāntaye: if you give good instruction to a mūrkha, to a foolish person, he will be angry. He will not rectify himself, but he will be angry on that count.
So Prahlāda Mahārāja was . . . (indistinct) . . . the great devotee in the world. There are many descriptions of his characteristic and activities. In Bhāgavata, Prahlāda-caritra is everyone knows. So when his father was killed, he said, naivodvije para deva duratyaya vaitaraṇyāḥ. Duratyayā. Duratyayā means very . . . very difficult to cross over this ocean of nescience, material world. It is very difficult. We do not know how we have been put into this ocean of nescience. We are traveling, going through 8,400,000 species of life. Sometimes in different species of life in different types of planets and different types of body we are passing through.
We do not know that. We know. We know even in this life we can understand that I have passed over so many bodies. I had my childhood body, I had my boyhood body, I had my youthhood body, now I have got a different body, which is old man's body. Similarly, I shall give up this body and I will have to accept another body by the laws of nature. Tatha dehāntara-prāptir. As we are changing our body even in this present life, similarly, after giving up this body, I have to accept another body. Tathā dehāntara prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). But the problem is what kind of body I am going to have in my next life. That is to be thought over.
Therefore, there is no guarantee. And this time I may have so very nice body in a very aristocratic family; next life it may be the same aristocratic standard or in the higher planetary system in heavenly body, and it may also be that I can get the body of a cat and dog. Therefore, it is very essential that we should be prepared for the next body. Because after we will give up this body, and our pains and pleasure is according to the body. That is also the statement of Prahlāda Mahārāja, sukham aindriyakaṁ daityā deha-yogena dehinām: we get a standard of happiness or distress. Take for example only happiness, forget our distress.
So Prahlāda Mahārāja says, sukham aindriyakaṁ daityā deha-yogena dehinām. One who has got his body in the Khatau's family or any nice family, so his standard of happiness is already fixed up according to the body. He has got a body in such family or in such species of life, so his standard of life is also fixed up according to his karma-yogena. Jantur dehopapattaye. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur deha upapattaye (SB 3.31.1). Karmaṇā, by our act. Janmaiśvarya-śruta-śrī (SB 1.8.26). By pious activities, one can get these four things: birth in high family, rich family, brāhmaṇa family, cultured family, janma; aiśvarya—riches, opulence; śruta—education; and śrī—beauty.
So I say to my American and European disciples always that your nation, American nation, you have got your birth in a very rich nation or rich family. In America every family is rich, because there the poorest man earns monthly not less than four to five thousand of rupees, according to our . . . (indistinct) . . . the poorest man. And what to speak of the richest man. So janma, aiśvarya, śruta, śrī, these things are achieved out of pious activities. Therefore in the Vedas, the karma-kāṇḍa vicāra, mean, performing great sacrifices, they are mentioned, saha-yajñāḥ prajāḥ sṛṣṭvā, performing yajña.