Srimad Bhagavatam – day 285
Illusion is always under the control of the Supreme Lord Mahavishnu. Based on His command, these 6 indriyas throw the entity into trap of samsāra. The sum-total of human beings, who eternally chase wealth and prosperity, has been explained as the group of traders who always accumulate wealth.
The human being performs frutitive actions through the medium of the body, subsequently experiences its resultant fruits and thus wanders eternally in the inauspicious forest known as samsāra. He undergoes tremendous difficulties to perform frutitive actions. When these actions do not yield expected results, he sinks into dejection.
Even after these failures he fails to hold on to the feet of God or Guru. Just as the bee seeks shelter in the flowers, the spiritual aspirant should seek shelter in the Lord Srihari’s feet. With this all afflictions that arise due to samsāra are subdued.
The 6 senses (5 senses plus mind) have been explained as the dacoits who loot him in this forest called samsāra. After tremendous efforts the person earns some wealth. The truth is that such wealth which is earned is the basis for dharma. Dharma means directly worshipping the Supreme Lord Purushottama. It elevates the person to higher planetary systems (lokas).
However due to his impure crooked mind, the person is unable to control his senses and dictate to them. Instead he succumbs to them. Through the eye which sees objects; through the skin which feels the objects; through the ear which hears; the nose that smells the object; the tongue that tastes and the mind which creates thoughts he enjoys insignificant worthless bodily comforts. His actions are thus oriented towards pleasing and satisfying the senses!
Through the tongue he tastes dishes and enjoys. Through the eye he sees some enchanting scene and enjoys. Through the sounds that fall into his ear he enjoys. Through the skin he enjoys some comforts. Instead of helping him, these senses actually cause his downfall. They cause him to crave insignificant worthless desires. They ensure that he is thrown into the deepest dark well. This is their aim.
Just as dacoits loot the rightfully earned wealth of traders these 6 senses destroy the wealth which he had earned through righteous means. Here the individual is addressed as a merchant who trades. This is because he earns some merit (punya) and trades in it.
Jackals and wild foxes referred to in the story represent the selfish spouse and children. For fulfilling their selfish desires they pretend to love and worry about him when in reality they pounce upon him and loot him completely.
Being extremely stingy and attached to wealth the trader never agrees to fulfill their whims. While he spends money for his own enjoyments he is not extremely inclined towards fulfilling the demands of these foxes, jackals and crocodiles that surround him. However these family members, undeterred by his unwillingness, forcefully extract his wealth even when he is watching just as foxes and jackals forcefully drag a goat.
In order to ensure a good crop, every year the farmer has to pluck out all the weeds and burn their seeds completely. In case he skips this step, the weeds and wild grasses cover the farm completely preventing him from sowing seeds of any good crop. Similarly in this house-holder’s life, which is the field of action, actions can never be burnt out completely. House is the birthplace of desires in entirety. Desires endlessly rise one after another.
Hence those who have accepted the house-holder’s life and who are attached to these material possessions suffer like the trader who is tormented by the wild mosquitoes, rats, snakes and flies in the wild forest. Just like the animals bite and harm him, in life he is bitten by many. His mind is filled with ignorance, the desires which stem from ignorance and the resultant frutitive actions which chase desires. Hence he is eternally engaged in frutitive actions. Thus he is unable to understand that this human birth is as impermanent and unreal as the city of Gandharvas.
Believing that which does not exist as existing is Gandharva city. The ignorant human believes this unreal, illusory world to be real and impermanent. “This is factual; I am seeing with my eyes; it happened exactly as I saw it; this is the truth’ they claim.
He becomes slave to comforts such as eating, drinking, dancing and enjoying other bodily comforts. He eternally chases sensory pleasures that can be compared to mirages.
Gold is the residence for impurities. It is the root for all disasters. Golden colour symbolizes passion (rajas). Just as a person freezing in the cold chases a will-o’-the-wisp (foolish fire) mistaking it to be real, the mind of the trader which is pre-dominantly filled with traits of passion chases gold.
In the forest the individual struggles to acquire comforts such as home, water, clothing, wealth and other essential items. He runs throughout the forest seeking to obtain them.
A bundle of ignorance that he is, the individual at times throws away his good character to sleep in the arms of an enchanting woman, who is like a huge whirlwind that infatuates him. As he is overflowing with passion and is unable to overcome his sexual needs his eyes are closed and he is blind to everything else around him. At such time he does not even fear that Dik-devatas (presiding deities for the different directions) are watching over all his sinful actions.
Vishṇave namah