Do not be carried away by material affection; execute your spiritual duty with detachment and consciousness of Krishna.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.8.47 — October 27, 1974, Māyāpur 741027SB-MAYAPUR [40:13 Minutes] SB-01.08.47_741027SB-MAYAPUR Pradyumna: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. [devotees repeat] [leads chanting of verse, etc.] āha rājā dharma-sutaś cintayan suhṛdāṁ vadham prākṛtenātmanā viprāḥ sneha-moha-vaśaṁ gataḥ [SB 1.8.47] [break] [01:18] Translation: "King Yudhiṣṭhira, son of Dharma, overwhelmed by the death of his friends, was aggrieved just like a common, materialistic man.
O sages, thus deluded by affection, he began to speak." Prabhupāda: āha rājā dharma-sutaś cintayan suhṛdāṁ vadham prākṛtenātmanā viprāḥ sneha-moha-vaśaṁ gataḥ [SB 1.8.47] Sneha, love, affection; and moha, illusion. So, prākṛtena. Prākṛtena means on the bodily conception of life. Actually, sneha is different.
There are affection in different stages. This morning we..., I was reading the statement of a fisherman who caught Caitanya Mahāprabhu in His trance, and by touching Caitanya Mahāprabhu he became spiritually ecstatic, but he thought that he has become ghostly haunted: "Here is a ghost." And he was thinking, "I am ghostly haunted, so if I become mad, who will take care of my wife and children?" This is the position. The fisherman was actually, spiritually, by the grace of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, simply by touching Him, he was so much spiritually advanced that he was chanting, dancing, crying—means all the symptoms of spiritual ecstatic transformation was visible in his body—but he thought that he had gone mad on account of touching the body, ghost. He was thinking like that.
And the man thinking was that "If I become mad like this, then who will take care of my wife and children?" This is sneha. Everyone is thinking. Even the lower animals, they are also thinking of giving protection to the children. I have got personal experience in Kanpur, I was sitting in my room, and one monkey was outside the door with his [her] kiddy to take something out of my eating.
But by chance the small kiddy entered through the bars of the window within the room, and I saw the mother became almost mad immediately: "Oh, my son has gone inside, and it will not be allowed to come again." Anyway, I managed to push the small kiddy to go away; then she was relieved. So this affection for children, for wife, for family members increase, then to society, to country, even to the whole human society. There are so many persons, they have given their state [estate] for benefit of the whole human society. There are many, many philanthropists, charitably disposed men, they do that. But all these activities are simply moha, illusion.
Only moha. It has no value. If you say that "So many things, it has no value?" it has value—temporary, puṇya. Puṇya...
There is also pāpa also. Suppose if you give charity. Charity is pious activities, but if you give charity to a brāhmaṇa, then it is—proper brāhmaṇa, I mean to say, qualified brāhmaṇa, Vaiṣṇava—then your charity is properly utilized. And if you give the same charity to a drunkard, then you commit sinful activity.