Srimad Bhagavatam — Saptama Skandha, Shloka 48
Hiraṇyakaśipu’s Wrath, the Assault on Vedic Culture, and the Boy-Yamarāja’s Teaching on the Soul
वितथाभिनिवेशोऽयं यद्गुणेष्वर्थदृग्वच: । यथा मनोरथ: स्वप्न: सर्वमैन्द्रियकं मृषा ॥ ४८ ॥
vitathābhiniveśo ’yaṁ yad guṇeṣv artha-dṛg-vacaḥ yathā manorathaḥ svapnaḥ sarvam aindriyakaṁ mṛṣā
It is fruitless to see and talk of the material modes of nature and their resultant so-called happiness and distress as if they were factual. When the mind wanders during the day and a man begins to think himself extremely important, or when he dreams at night and sees a beautiful woman enjoying with him, these are merely false dreams. Similarly, the happiness and distress caused by the material senses should be understood to be meaningless.
The happiness and distress derived from the activities of the material senses are not actual happiness and distress. Therefore Bhagavad-gītā speaks of happiness that is transcendental to the material conception of life ( sukham ātyantikaṁ yat tad buddhi-grāhyam atīndriyam ). When our senses are purified of material contamination, they become atīndriya, transcendental senses, and when the transcendental senses are engaged in the service of the master of the senses, Hṛṣīkeśa, one can derive real transcendental pleasure. Whatever distress or happiness we manufacture by mental concoction through the subtle mind has no reality, but is simply a mental concoction. One should therefore not imagine so-called happiness through mental concoction. Rather, the best course is to engage the mind in the service of the Lord, Hṛṣīkeśa, and thus feel real blissful life.
FAQs
This verse says that sense-based experience and the ‘meaning’ we assign to material qualities are ultimately false—like dreams—because they arise from māyā and the changing guṇas.
Prahlāda instructs his father that his intense fixation on material power, status, and qualities is misplaced; such perception and speech are dreamlike and cannot give real security or truth.
Treat sense-driven anxieties and obsessions as temporary and dreamlike; redirect attention to lasting spiritual practice—especially hearing and remembering the Lord—rather than chasing validation through the senses.