Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.84.38
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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eṣaṇām
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desire, craving
From √iṣ (to desire). The technical Upaniṣadic word (Bṛhad-āraṇyaka 3.5) for the three primal cravings — vitta, putra, loka. Gauḍīyas note that bhakti, when developed, dissolves all three by the substitute desire for Kṛṣṇa.
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ātma-loka-eṣaṇām
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the desire for a higher planet for oneself
ātma (self) + loka (planet) + eṣaṇā (desire). Even the desire for Svarga must be renounced. Gauḍīyas hold that this verse implicitly contains the entire BG 9.21 teaching — kṣīṇe puṇye martya-lokaṁ viśanti — Svarga is impermanent.
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tapaḥ-vanam
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to the forest of austerity
tapas (austerity) + vana (forest). The vānaprastha destination. Gauḍīyas read this as one of two valid late-life paths — the other being a Vaiṣṇava ashram of bhajana, the second often preferred in Kali-yuga.
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dhīrāḥ
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sober sages
From √dhṛ (to hold, sustain). The steadied one — the same dhīra of BG 2.13 (dhīras tatra na muhyati). Gauḍīyas hold that dhairya is one of the six limbs of śaraṇāgati (rakṣiṣyatīti viśvāsaḥ rests on dhairya).
One cannot destroy karma without giving up all desires. One can give up all desires by the following process. One should give up the desire for wealth by sacrifice and charity which are the result of the wealth. He then thinks "what is the use of wealth, if it just gets spent in sacrifice and charity?" One should give up the desire for children and enjoyment with wife by enjoying according to the rules of household life. By the experience itself one gives up the desire for it. One should give up the desire for svarga loka by understanding that it is temporary, since the body is subject to death. O Vasudeva (deva), there is proof of such conduct. Giving up their desires in the house, the wise went to the forest.
By offering various objects to the Lord, by his mercy, one gives up desire for the objects. One gives up desire for wealth by performing sacrifices whose actions expend wealth for the purpose of worship of the Lord. One gives up desire for wife and sons by household life with wife and children meant as worship of the Lord. One should give up desire for selfish reasons or for enjoyment in this life and the next at all opportunities (kālena), looking for opportunities to worship the Lord, using time for the Lord. O Lord (deva)! Or one should give up desires for enjoyment in this life and the next by spending time in worshipping the Lord (deva). The person with discrimination should give up these desires. This means the wealthy householder will not perfect hearing and other devotional process properly by having a disturbed mind. If the attached person suddenly gives up his house without destroying desires for the gṛhasthāśrama, he cannot perfect hearing and meditation on the Lord. He will later give them up.
By this method the desire for wealth decreases. There is no other way. Examples are given of householders. The discriminating person should act in this way. Otherwise, the wealthy man, with an impure mind, cannot practice bhakti with hearing etc. He should give up his house with it wealth to perfect pure hearing. Thus giving up everything, the intelligent householed (dhīraḥ) goes to the forest. This means that a person who has not become detached, and does not give his desire for wealth, should not renounce.
- What structured act of giving could begin to dissolve a grip I have on wealth?
- Where am I trying to renounce inwardly without changing outward patterns?
The intelligent householder uses each phase of life as a small fire that burns off the corresponding eṣaṇā — yajña and dāna burn off the desire for wealth; family experience burns off the desire for spouse and children; the study of time burns off the desire for heaven. By the time the forest beckons, there is little left to renounce.
At the end of the Mahābhārata (Mahāprasthānika-parva), Yudhiṣṭhira, having performed his sacrifices and seen his kingdom settled, walks toward the Himalayas with his brothers and Draupadī. The forest is not an escape — it is the after-image of completed eṣaṇā-renunciation.
Gauḍīyas treat his walk as the operating procedure this verse describes: the sage moves to tapas-vana only after eṣaṇās are quietly burned.
My note
Source: vedabase.io