Worldly Pleasures are Pain

On one of his visits to Vishnu loka, Narada found Lord Narayana with His Divine Consort, Mahalakshmi in solitude. He asked the Lord, ‘I thought you would be very busy; but you seem to be relaxing’, to which Narayana laughed in jest, ‘Well, no one seems to have time for me in this Kali yuga; people are engrossed in the luxuries of the world’. Narada refused to believe this. So Narayana said that if Narada found a person willing to come to Vishnu loka, He would permit that person in without any test.

Narada apprised every person who seemed a devotee, of the good news that the Lord had consented to grant free entry. But to his amazement, he did not find any single mortal willing to accept his invitation. Narada finally located one person who was prepared to accompany him, but only after the latter’s son got married.

Narada went to him again after the marriage was over, and the old man wanted to play with his grandchildren before departing from Earth. This went on, till the day came for the person’s natural death. The man’s attachment towards his family caused him to take birth as a dog in the same house. Narada told the person, ‘If you had heeded my words, you would have been blessed by Narayana’s company. Now you have taken birth as a dog.’ The man replied, ‘I am guarding my son’s house’. The grandchild pelted a stone at the dog but the old man tolerated this, saying, ‘after all, it is my grandson who hit me’. Narada decided that his wait for the man was fruitless. Meanwhile the man’s wife also took birth as a dog in the same house. Narada approached her and asked her if she was ready to come with him to heaven. Before she could say ‘yes’, a few dogs chased her and she seemed to relish the chase much better than Heaven!!

This is the state of affairs in society today. People pursue perishable commodities. Just like the dog gnaws at a bone, unaware that the taste is caused by its bleeding jaws, so too, people do not realize that what they think as the pleasures of this world, are, in fact, pain.