Shloka 61
अत्यन्तस्तिमिताङ्गानां व्यायामेन सुखैषिणाम् भ्रान्तिज्ञानवतां पुंसां प्रहारो ऽपि सुखायते
atyantastimitāṅgānāṃ vyāyāmena sukhaiṣiṇām bhrāntijñānavatāṃ puṃsāṃ prahāro 'pi sukhāyate
For those whose limbs have grown utterly inert, who seek pleasure through exertion, and whose understanding is clouded by delusion—even a blow comes to be felt as pleasure.
Sage Parāśara (in instruction to Maitreya)
Speaker: Parasara
Topic: Vairāgya toward bodily pleasure and the delusive nature of sense-enjoyment
Teaching: Ethical
Quality: authoritative
Concept: When the mind is deluded and the senses are dulled, even pain can be misconstrued as pleasure, showing the unreliability of sensory happiness.
Vedantic Theme: Maya
Application: Notice how craving can normalize harmful habits; cultivate restraint and seek steadier joy through discipline and devotion.
Vishishtadvaita: Sensory pleasures are contingent and misleading; lasting sukha is grounded in turning the mind toward the Lord rather than the body.
Vishnu Form: Para-Brahman
Bhakti Type: Shanta
FAQs
This verse highlights how mistaken cognition can invert values so radically that even harm is interpreted as pleasure, underscoring the need for discernment and dharmic self-mastery.
By pointing to people who, driven by craving and confusion, pursue stimulation through exertion and lose the ability to judge what truly benefits them—so perception itself becomes unreliable.
Implicitly, the verse supports the Purāṇa’s larger teaching that true well-being depends on right knowledge and dharma grounded in the Supreme Reality (Vishnu), not on sense-driven, delusive “pleasures.”