SB 5.14.17
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
TEXT 17
kadācin manorathopagata-pitṛ-pitāmahādy asat sad iti svapna-nirvṛti-lakṣaṇam anubhavati.
SYNONYMS
kadācit—sometimes; manoratha-upagata—obtained by mental concoction; pitṛ—the father; pitā-maha-ādi—or grandfather and others; asat—although long dead (and although no one knows that the soul has gone); sat—again the father or grandfather has come; iti—thus thinking; svapna-nirvṛti-lakṣaṇam—the kind of happiness found in dreams; anubhavati—the conditioned soul feels.
TRANSLATION
Sometimes the conditioned soul imagines that his father or grandfather has again come in the form of his son or grandson. In this way he feels the happiness one sometimes feels in a dream, and the conditioned soul sometimes takes pleasure in such mental concoctions.
PURPORT
Due to ignorance of the real existence of the Lord, the conditioned soul imagines many things. Influenced by fruitive activity, he comes together with his relatives, fathers, sons and grandfathers, exactly as straws gather together in a moving stream. In a moment the straws are thrown everywhere, and they lose contact. In conditional life, the living entity is temporarily with many other conditioned souls. They gather together as family members, and the material affection is so strong that even after a father or grandfather passes away, one takes pleasure in thinking that they return to the family in different forms. Sometimes this may happen, but in any case the conditioned soul likes to take pleasure in such concocted thoughts.