SB 5.5.6

Srimad-Bhagavatam - Fifth Canto - Chapter 5: Lord Ṛṣabhadeva's Teachings to His Sons

SB 5.5.5 - SB 5.5.7

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

TEXT 6

evaṁ manaḥ karma-vaśaṁ prayuṅkte

avidyayātmany upadhīyamāne

prītir na yāvan mayi vāsudeve

na mucyate deha-yogena tāvat

SYNONYMS

evam — thus; manaḥ — the mind; karma-vaśam — subjugated by fruitive activities; prayuṅkte — acts; avidyayā — by ignorance; ātmani — when the living entity; upadhīyamāne — is covered; prītiḥ — love; na — not; yāvat — as long as; mayi — unto Me; vāsudeve — Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṇa; na — not; mucyate — is delivered; deha-yogena — from contact with the material body; tāvat — so long.

TRANSLATION

When the living entity is covered by the mode of ignorance, he does not understand the individual living being and the supreme living being, and his mind is subjugated to fruitive activity. Therefore, until one has love for Lord Vāsudeva, who is none other than Myself, he is certainly not delivered from having to accept a material body again and again.

PURPORT

When the mind is polluted by fruitive activity, the living entity wants to be elevated from one material position to another. Generally everyone is involved in working hard day and night to improve his economic condition. Even when one understands the vedic ritualals, he becomes interested in promotion to heavenly planets, not knowing that one's real interest lies in returning home, back to Godhead. By acting on the platform of fruitive activity, one wanders throughout the universe in different species and forms. Unless he comes in contact with a devotee of the Lord, a guru, he does not become attached to the service of Lord Vāsudeva. Knowledge of Vāsudeva requires many births to understand. As confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (BG 7.19): vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ''. After struggling for existence for many births one may take shelter at the lotus feet of Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṇa. When this happens. one actually becomes wise and surrenders unto Him. That is the only way to stop the repetition of birth and death. This is confirmed in Caitanya-caritāmṛta (CC Madhya 19.151) in the instructions given by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu to Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī at Daśāśvamedha-ghāṭa.

brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva

guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja

The living entity wanders throughout different planets in different forms and bodies, but if by chance he comes in contact with a bona fide spiritual master, by the grace of the spiritual master he receives Lord Kṛṣṇa's shelter, and his devotional life begins.

SB 5.5.5 - SB 5.5.7