(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 02 May 2015, Simhachalam, Germany, Seminar, Srimad Bhagavatam 5.18.8)
trasto ‘smy ahaḿ kṛpaṇa-vatsala duḥsahogra-
saḿsāra-cakra-kadanād grasatāḿ praṇītaḥ
baddhaḥ sva-karmabhir uśattama te ‘ńghri-mūlaḿ
prīto ‘pavarga-śaraṇaḿ hvayase kadā nu (Srimad Bhagavatam 7.9.16)
“O most powerful, insurmountable Lord, who are kind to the fallen souls, I have been put into the association of demons as a result of my activities, and therefore I am very much afraid of my condition of life within this material world. When will that moment come when You will call me to the shelter of Your lotus feet, which are the ultimate goal for liberation from conditional life?”
In this verse, Prahlad is not presenting himself as a liberated soul. Prahlad is remembering how he took birth in a family of demons due to his previous impious activities therefore he thinks that he does not have full shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. It is true, so many bad habits we have from our childhood and it is not easy to give them up. They are still influencing us. We have not been supported by pure devotee parents from the moment we grew up. Rather, we have been pushed by materialistic people who themselves were confused about the goal of life and who told us to do many things that were wrong. Now, we have to break our habits.
One of my disciples, who was a bit of a poet, said, “When I go to the house of my parents, I am going to a museum of my old habits.” I thought that was pretty good because as soon as you are there, you are back in your old identity. The parents also call you by your old name and you are in your old room. If you stay too long, you are going to slip back into it. The mind, just slots back into it, just like that. “The museum of our old habits,” and they die hard but we have to break them. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura points out that all those things that were dear to us once, we have to break in order to be able to take up Krsna consciousness. This is there in the example of Prahlad who is taking a very transcendental position. So we also have to change our life and make it more favourable for Krsna consciousness.