शास्त्रस्य पितुरादेशं यो न वेद निवर्तकम् । कथं तदनुरूपाय गुणविस्रम्भ्युपक्रमेत् ॥ २० ॥
sastrasya pitur adesam yo na veda nivartakam katham tad-anurupaya guna-visrambhy upakramet
- sastrasya
- of the scriptures
- pituh
- of the father
- adesam
- the instruction
- yah
- one who
- na
- not
- veda
- understands
- nivartakam
- which brings about the cessation of the material way of life
- katham
- how
- tat-anurupaya
- to follow the instruction of the sastras
- guna-visrambhi
- a person entangled in the three modes of material nature
- upakramet
- can engage in the creation of progeny.
(Narada Muni had asked how one could ignorantly defy one’s own father. The Haryasvas understood the meaning of this question.) One must accept the original instructions of the sastra. According to Vedic civilization, one is offered a sacred thread as a sign of second birth. One takes his second birth by dint of having received instructions in the sastra from a bona fide spiritual master. Therefore, sastra, scripture, is the real father. All the sastras instruct that one should end his material way of life. If one does not know the purpose of the father’s orders, the sastras, he is ignorant. The words of a material father who endeavors to engage his son in material activities are not the real instructions of the father.