SB 5.5.5

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

SB 5.5.4 - SB 5.5.6

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

TEXT 5

parābhavas tāvad abodha-jāto

yāvan na jijñāsata ātma-tattvam

yāvat kriyās tāvad idaṁ mano vai

karmātmakaṁ yena śarīra-bandhaḥ

SYNONYMS

parābhavaḥ — defeat, misery; tāvat — so long; abodha-jātaḥ — produced from ignorance; yāvat — as long as; na — not; jijñāsate — inquires about; ātma-tattvam — the truth of the self; yāvat — as long as; kriyāḥ — fruitive activities; tāvat — so long; idam — this; manaḥ — mind; vai — indeed; karma-ātmakam — absorbed in material activities; yena — by which; śarīra-bandhaḥ — bondage in this material body.

TRANSLATION

As long as one does not inquire about the spiritual values of life, one is defeated and subjected to miseries arising from ignorance. Be it sinful or pious, karma has its resultant actions. If a person is engaged in any kind of karma, his mind is called karmātmaka, colored with fruitive activity. As long as the mind is impure, consciousness is unclear, and as long as one is absorbed in fruitive activity, he has to accept a material body.

PURPORT

Generally people think that one should act very piously in order to be relieved from misery, but this is not a fact. Even though one engages in pious activity and speculation, he is nonetheless defeated. His only aim should be emancipation from the clutches of māyā and all material activities. Speculative knowledge and pious activity do not solve the problems of material life. One should be inquisitive to understand his spiritual position. As stated in Bhagavad-gītā (BG 4.37):

yathaidhāṁsi samiddho 'gnir

bhasmasāt kurute 'rjuna

jñānāgniḥ sarva-karmāṇi

bhasmasāt kurute tathā

"As a blazing fire turns firewood to ashes, O Arjuna, so does the fire of knowledge burn to ashes all reactions to material activities."

Unless one understands the self and its activities, one has to be considered in material bondage. In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (SB 10.2.32) it is also said: ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninas tvayy asta-bhāvād aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ. A person who doesn't have knowledge of devotional service may think himself liberated, but actually he is not. Āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adho 'nādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ: (SB 10.2.32) such people may approach the impersonal Brahman effulgence, but they fall down again into material enjoyment because they have no knowledge of devotional service. As long as one is interested in karma and jñāna, he continues enduring the miseries of material life—birth, old age, disease and death. Karmīs certainly take on one body after another. As far as jñānīs are concerned, unless they are promoted to the topmost understanding, they must return to the material world. As explained in Bhagavad-gītā (BG 7.19): bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate. The point is to know Kṛṣṇa, Vāsudeva, as everything and surrender unto Him. Karmīs do not know this, but a devotee who is one hundred percent engaged in the devotional service of the Lord knows fully what is karma and jñāna; therefore a pure devotee is no longer interested in karma or jñāna. Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam (CC Madhya 19.167). The real bhakta is untouched by any tinge of karma and jñāna. His only purpose in life is to serve the Lord.

SB 5.5.4 - SB 5.5.6