Hiranyakasipu was not happy - at least he was not happy that his son Prahlada was becoming a devotee of the Lord, which he did not like. So he inquired from his son that "How you are feeling? You are a small boy, child, how you are feeling so much comfortable despite all my threatening. So what is your actual asset?" So he replied, "My dear father, na te viduh svartha-gatim hi visnum [SB 7.5.31]. Foolish persons, they do not know that their ultimate goal of happiness is Visnu, God, the Supreme Lord." Durasaya ye bahir-artha-maninah. Durasaya, dur, hope against hope, they're hoping something which is never to be fulfilled. What is that? Durasaya ye bahir-artha-maninah. Bahir-artha, bahir means external, artha means interest.
Letter to Bali Mardan das, 5 September, 1974