Just like Prahlāda Mahārāja. Prahlāda Mahārāja was standing, and his father was being killed. Is it a very good thing? Suppose if I am here and somebody kills me, and if you do not protest, is it a very good business? People will be surprised, that "So many disciples are there, and this man is being killed, and nobody do anything?" So from material point of view, Prahlāda Mahārāja could have asked Nṛsiṁha-deva, "My Lord, do not kill my father." He could have asked, and immediately his request would have been granted. But he did not do that. He was standing and seeing. But he knows that, "This killing of the body of my father is not killing. I shall save him. I shall save him." That he did. When he was offered benediction, he did not take anything. He said: "My Lord, what shall I do, all this material benediction? I have seen in the case of my father, He was so strong that even the demigods were frightened for his presence. His position was so strong, and You finished it within a minute. So what is the benefit of taking? No, no. Please do not request me." But although he did not ask anything for his personal self, but he asked the Lord, prayed that, "One thing I request." "What is that?" "My father was a great demon, and he was against You. He has committed so many sinful life. So I know he'll have to suffer for these things. I request You to excuse him." This is Vaiṣṇava son. "Oh, yes. Immediately." Immediately.
So he knew that, "What is this of asking for this material . . .? My father is not this body, but he has to suffer so many things for his sinful activities. I shall save him in due course of time." Therefore that is called putra. Putra means pun-nāmno narakād trāyate yasmāt putra. Pun-nāmno narakād, this is represented by the alphabet pu, and trāyate, tra. Combined together, putra. The putra's duty is to save the father from hellish condition of life. Therefore there is śrāddha ceremony. So here is a putra, real putra, Prahlāda Mahārāja, that he saved his father from the hellish condition of life. Similarly, a father should be the protector of his child not only simply by feeding him, making him very fat in this life, but from death. Na mocayed yaḥ samupeta-mṛtyum, pitā na sa syāt (SB 5.5.18). One should not become father, one should not become mother, one should not become guru, one should not become relative, husband, and so many. The list is there. Why? If he cannot save his subordinate from imminent death. That is father; that is mother; that is guru. And how one can be saved from imminent death or repeated death? Simply by Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
- janma karma me divyaṁ
- yo jānāti tattvataḥ
- tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma
- naiti . . .
- (BG 4.9)
You can save your son, your disciple, your relative or anyone whom you love, real affection, then give him Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and he'll be saved from death. That is the purport of this.
Thank you very much.