Nobody wants to die. That's a fact. So gṛheṣu saktasya. Generally, people become too much attached to family life. I sometimes say that in the Western countries the young boys, they come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, their only one great asset is they are not family-wise attached. That is very good qualification. Some way or other, they have become. Therefore their attachment to Kṛṣṇa becoming staunch. In India they have got organized family attachment. They are not interested. They are after money now. That I have experienced. Yes.
So family attachment is the greatest impediment in the matter of advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. But if the whole family is Kṛṣṇa conscious, that is very nice. Just like Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. He was a family man, but all of them—Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, his wife, his children—and the best children is our Guru Mahārāja, best child . . . So he has sung by his experience, ye dina gṛhe bhajana dekhi gṛhete goloka bhaya (Śaraṇāgati 31.6). If family-wise, everyone is engaged in Kṛṣṇa's service, that is very nice. That is not ordinary family. That attachment is not ordinary attachment. But generally people are attached materially. That is condemned here. Śeṣaṁ gṛheṣu saktasya pramattasya apayāti hi (SB 7.6.8). They are called pramatta. Everyone is thinking that "My family, my wife, my children, my nation, my community, that is everything. What is Kṛṣṇa?" This is the greatest illusion imposed by māyā. But nobody will able to give you protection.
- dehāpatya-kalatrādiṣv
- ātma-sainyeṣv asatsv api
- teṣāṁ pramatto nidhanaṁ
- paśyann api na paśyati
- (SB 2.1.4)
Everything will be finished. Nobody can give us any protection except Kṛṣṇa. If we want to be freed from the clutches of māyā—janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9)—we must take shelter of the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa through the spiritual master and live with devotees who have engaged themselves for the same purpose. It is called . . . What is that exact word? Sakhi or something. Now I am forgetting. But in the same category we must live and execute our Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then these impediments, gṛheṣu saktasya pramattasya . . . Anyone who is . . . all the karmīs, they are attached to this family life, but family life is good, provided there is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Gṛhe vā vanete thāke, hā gaurāṅga bole dāke. It doesn't matter, either he is in family life or he's in sannyāsī life, if he's a devotee, then his life is successful.