Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, to give us a special teaching, performed one pastime in Nilachal Dham. Gadadhar Goswami used to read Srimad Bhagavatam. When Mahaprabhu heard Dhruva and Prahlad charitra from him, He desired to hear them again and again. We have not heard Dhruva charitra narrated in Srimad Bhagavatam fourth canto, from the starting till the end, even once. We might have heard a portion of it; still we say that we have heard. How can we say? But here, Mahaprabhu told to Gadadhar Goswami, “I want to hear it again. I want to hear it a hundred times.” After hearing it one hundred times, He again told, “I want to hear it again!!” In Sri Chaitanya Bhagavat, Vrindavandas Thakur has narrated this pastime. Mahaprabhu has appeared to bestow auspiciousness to the conditioned souls of this world. If conditioned soul tries to imitate Him without knowing His ontological aspects then they might get opposite results. But if we read biographies of devotees then that will be more inspiring for us. We will come to know how they have attained the grace of the Supreme Lord. Like the Biography of Prahlad Maharaj. It is beneficial for us to hear them.

In schools and colleges also, we should include biography of Prahlad Maharaj for the welfare of students. Prahlad is an ideal character. How to behave with people younger than us, how to behave with elders, how to behave with teachers and parents, everything we can learn from Prahlad charitra. That is why Mahaprabhu instructed to hear it again and again.

Prahlad was sent to gurukul by his father Hiranyakasipu. In ancient times, children had to go to gurukul to get education. That time Asuras also used to be religious. They used to follow varnāshram-dharma. But now in kaliyuga, people do not follow the religious ethics. Those days, the teachers were not giving education to earn money. The students used to beg to maintain the gurukul. Lord Krishna, Balaram and Sudama did the same during their gurukul days for their Guru. That was the conduct in those days, but now Guru has to take care of his disciples like Prabhupad told to his disciples “I will beg for you and maintain your livelihood but please come and perform hari bhajan. Do not worry, I will provide you with food”. Things became reversed now. This is kaliyuga.

Prahlad’s conduct was perfect, according to the prescribed regulations in the sāstras. With other children, who were of a demoniac nature, he was getting education from Shanda and Amarka, the two sons of Shukracharya. Though, Prahlad was not accepting the teachings of his gurus internally, externally he was giving all due respect to them as they were elder and respectable. He was paying his attention to them, giving appropriate answers to their questions also. He was behaving like an ideal student.

As Prahlad was an elder son of the king and in future he would take the position of his father, he was supposed to learn politics. Thinking like this, Shanda and Amarka instructed Prahlad about the political philosophy, based on the dualities of worldly affairs. Politics is completely based on dualities of mine and yours. This is my country, this is yours. This is my party, this is your party, like that. But sādhus do not like it. They think everything belongs to Bhagavan only. 'This is mine and that is yours'—that kind of mentality is not good. So, Shanda and Amarka instructed him in politics but he did not tell them, “Gurudev! You do not know anything, listen to me.” He gave them due respect, as externally, he was their disciple, but internally, he did not like their instructions.

They instructed him in three kinds of material advancement called religion (dharma), economic development (artha) and sense gratification (kāma) which are temporary and perishable worldly affairs. Human life is not meant for those things. Human life is only meant for hari bhajan. Here, I can talk briefly. If I go on explaining each and every shloka from Prahlad's charitra then it will take a very long time, so I will not. Now one day, Shanda and Amarka thought, “Prahlad is a nice boy, he is submissive and humble. He listens to us carefully and also gives answers to our questions very nicely. So if we take him to his father Hiranyakasipu then he will be pleased with us after witnessing his proper education. And if the king is pleased then he will give us some reward”. They told Prahlad to go and visit his parents. Prahlad went to his mother first. He offered his prostrated obeisances to her. Mother has a natural love towards her children so there is no harm in offering obeisances to her. If a younger brother offers pranams to his elder brother, is there any harm in it? If students offer pranams to teacher, is there any harm in it? So, he used to give due respect to all. His mother took him in her lap. We get love and blessings by offering respect to them, there is no harm, rather we will be benefited by it. If children learn this then the whole world will benefit. If a child does not give respect to his father, how will he get respect or care when he will become a father? That time, he will be in pain. Here, mother made him bathe and decorated him with dress and ornaments. She then sent him to Hiranyaksipu, his father. Prahlad went to the assembly of his father where the king was seated along with his cabinet ministers. On arriving, Prahlad offered prostrated obeisance to him. Seeing his son offering him pranams with so much respect, Hiranyakasipu was pleasantly astonished! Such a small child giving him so much respect, thinking like that he immediately stood up, took Prahlad on his lap and sat on his throne. He was crying out of love for his child, tears were constantly rolling down from his eyes, making him wet. What harm was incurred to Prahlad by offering respect to his father?

And after that, Hiranyakasipu affectionately, inquired, “ekadāsura-rāṭ putram aṅkam āropya pāṇḍava papraccha kathyatāṁ vatsa manyate sādhu yad bhavān—my dear son Prahlad! Please let me know what you have liked the most amongst the subjects you have studied from your teachers.” He did not ask his small son any specific question that would be difficult for him to answer and would make him sad. Here, 'sādhu' word is used; Prahlad Maharaj understood the question of his father correctly. But all the ministers present there in the assembly knew Prahlad as a gyāni (a scholar), so he thought, “If I give answer according to my father's wish and from the teachings of Shanda and Amarka then it will hide the actual meaning of a ‘sādhu’ (the best)”. So, he decided to speak about the real meaning of a ‘sādhu’, not according to his father's wish.

śrī-prahlāda uvāca
tat sādhu manye 'sura-varya dehināṁ
sadā samudvigna-dhiyām asad-grahāt
hitvātma-pātaṁ gṛham andha-kūpaṁ
vanaṁ gato yad dharim āśrayeta
(Srimad Bhagavatam 7.5.5)

Here, he did not address Harianyakasipu as 'father', he addressed him as 'asur śreṣṭha—best amongst the asura'. Asura normally do not like sādhus. Being the best amongst the asura, he inquired about sādhu. That was astonishing! And, to express this, Prahlad addressed him like that.

The possessor of the 'deha (body)' is known as 'dehi', like one who has possessed 'grih (house)' is known as 'grihi (owner of the house)'. 'Grih' is different from 'grihi’ like that 'deha' is property and one who possesses this property is soul.

Prahlad replied, “O best of the asuras, King of the demons, as far as I have learned from my spiritual master, any person who has accepted a temporary body and temporary household life is certainly embarrassed by anxiety because of having fallen in a dark well where there is no water but only suffering. One should give up this position and go to the forest (vana).”

What is the dry well (andha-kūpaṁ)? The well in which there is no water is known as a dry well. Because there is no water in that, no one will visit or go near to it. So if someone falls down in that well, what will happen? Nobody will be there to rescue or to bring him out from it. Without the help from outside you cannot come out of it.

One such incidence had happened during parikrama. One lady fell down in a well. But that well was full with water and many people used to visit it. So when that lady started shouting, 'Gurudev! Gurudev!' Many people gathered there and after lots of efforts they were successful in pulling that lady out of that well. What would have happened if it would have been a dry well and nobody would have gone there?

Like that a house where no glories of the Lord (harikatha) is sung, is like a dry well, where a conditional soul, being completely engrossed in enjoyment of perishable worldly things, finally moves towards hell (naraka). Who will rescue him? Everyone in that house are like him only, giving advice about temporary body and body related material things. Therefore, that house—satsang varjit grih—is the place for the soul to fall down. In a house where sādhus are not being respected, a sinner being completely engrossed in sinful activity finally goes to hell. So, one should leave that satsang-varjit-grih, which is like a dry well and should go to vana. What is the meaning of vana here? Vanaṁ tu sāttviko vāso—if you remain in a house but with sāttvik mood (mode of goodness) and perform all your activity in sāttvik mood then it is also vanavās (staying in vana). Sattva-guṇa (mode of goodness) also belongs to māya but in this word sattva- guṇa is good. But Lord's devotees always remain in nirguṇa (beyond the three modes of material nature) platform. Lord is nirguṇa, His devotion is also nirguṇa. Devotion in association of sādhu, honouring Lord's remnant (prasadam), all are nirguṇa. If you chant Lord's holy name but you eat what is not offer to Lord, like you take medicines but you do not follow other food restrictions (parheja) then will your illness go? Will you be cured? Sometime food restrictions only also work, like in naturopathy, they do not give any medicine. They cure you only by some restrictions. Therefore, one should not eat those things which are not offered to Lord, like onion, garlic, masoor (red lentils) etc.

One time our Niskinchan Maharaj told me, “There are ten persons who want to take Harinam initiation. They all are good, they perform so many services. You should give them Harinam initiation.” I told, “Okay, whatever you wish.” He said, “But..” I told, “But what?” He said, “They will leave everything, but they cannot leave onion.” I told, “I do not give Harinam initiation, Gurudev gives it. He has ordered, we should not eat what is not offered to Lord. We perform Gurupuja before Harinam initiation, take his permission and Guruji takes all the responsibility. We should not cross over his order. We have to follow all rules and regulations. We should pray to Gurudev that we will be able to follow his instructions. You should tell them to leave onion.” I think that time two people took Harinam initiation and slowly others also took Harinam initiation.

vanaṁ tu sāttviko vāso
grāmo rājasa ucyate
tāmasaṁ dyūta-sadanaṁ
man-niketaṁ tu nirguṇam
(Srimad Bhagavatam 11.25.25)

To stay in the Holy abode (dhāma) is good but wherever the glories of Supreme Lord are being sung is also a dhāma. We should take absolute shelter of the lotus feet of Supreme Lord.