Text 12
tathāhaṁ kṛpaṇaḥ subhru
bhavatyāḥ prema-yantritaḥ
ātmānaṁ nābhijānāmi
mohitas tava māyayā
tathā — exactly like the he-goat; aham — I; kṛpaṇaḥ — a miser with no sense of the importance of life; su-bhru — O my wife, with beautiful eyebrows; bhavatyāḥ — in your company; prema-yantritaḥ — as if tied in love, although it is actually lust; ātmānam — self-realization (what I am and what my duty is); na abhijānāmi — I could not realize even until now; mohitaḥ — being bewildered; tava — your; māyayā — by the materially attractive feature.
O my dear wife with beautiful eyebrows, I am exactly like that he-goat, for I am so poor in intelligence that I am captivated by your beauty and have forgotten the real task of self-realization.
If one remains a victim of the so-called beauty of his wife, his family life is nothing but a dark well. Hitvātma-pātaṁ gṛham andha-kūpam. Existence in such a dark well is certainly suicidal. If one wants relief from the miserable condition of material life, one must voluntarily give up his lusty relationship with his wife; otherwise there is no question of self-realization. Unless one is extremely advanced in spiritual consciousness, household life is nothing but a dark well in which one commits suicide. Prahlāda Mahārāja therefore recommended that in due time, at least after one’s fiftieth year, one must give up household life and go to the forest. Vanaṁ gato yad dharim āśrayeta. There one should seek shelter at the lotus feet of Hari.