SB 11.10.29 · Srimad-Bhagavatam

Devanagari

यद्यधर्मरत: सङ्गादसतां वाजितेन्द्रिय: । कामात्मा कृपणो लुब्ध: स्त्रैणो भूतविहिंसक: ॥ २७ ॥ पशूनविधिनालभ्य प्रेतभूतगणान् यजन् । नरकानवशो जन्तुर्गत्वा यात्युल्बणं तम: ॥ २८ ॥ कर्माणि दु:खोदर्काणि कुर्वन् देहेन तै: पुन: । देहमाभजते तत्र किं सुखं मर्त्यधर्मिण: ॥ २९ ॥

Verse text

yady adharma-rataḥ saṅgād asatāṁ vājitendriyaḥ kāmātmā kṛpaṇo lubdhaḥ straiṇo bhūta-vihiṁsakaḥ paśūn avidhinālabhya preta-bhūta-gaṇān yajan narakān avaśo jantur gatvā yāty ulbaṇaṁ tamaḥ karmāṇi duḥkhodarkāṇi kurvan dehena taiḥ punaḥ deham ābhajate tatra kiṁ sukhaṁ martya-dharmiṇaḥ

Synonyms

yadi — if ; adharma — in irreligion ; rataḥ — he is engaged ; saṅgāt — due to association ; asatām — of materialistic people ; vā — or ; ajita — due to not conquering ; indriyaḥ — the senses ; kāma — material lusty desires ; ātmā — living for ; kṛpaṇaḥ — miserly ; lubdhaḥ — greedy ; straiṇaḥ — a woman-hunter ; bhūta — against other living beings ; vihiṁsakaḥ — committing violence ; paśūn — animals ; avidhinā — without the authority of Vedic injunctions ; ālabhya — killing ; preta — bhūta — ghosts and spirits ; gaṇān — the groups of ; yajan — worshiping ; narakān — to hells ; avaśaḥ — helplessly, being under the control of fruitive activities ; jantuḥ — a living being ; gatvā — having gone ; yāti — approaches ; ulbaṇam — extreme ; tamaḥ — darkness ; karmāṇi — activities ; duḥkha — great unhappiness ; udarkāṇi — bringing in the future ; kurvan — performing ; dehena — with such a body ; taiḥ — by such activities ; punaḥ — again ; deham — a material body ; ābhajate — accepts ; tatra — therein ; kim — what ; sukham — happiness ; martya — always leading to death ; dharmiṇaḥ — of one sworn to activities .

Translation

If a human being is engaged in sinful, irreligious activities, either because of bad association or because of his failure to control his senses, then such a person will certainly develop a personality full of material desires. He thus becomes miserly toward others, greedy and always anxious to exploit the bodies of women. When the mind is so polluted one becomes violent and aggressive and without the authority of Vedic injunctions slaughters innocent animals for sense gratification. Worshiping ghosts and spirits, the bewildered person falls fully into the grip of unauthorized activities and thus goes to hell, where he receives a material body infected by the darkest modes of nature. In such a degraded body, he unfortunately continues to perform inauspicious activities that greatly increase his future unhappiness, and therefore he again accepts a similar material body. What possible happiness can there be for one who engages in activities inevitably terminating in death?

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

If a human being is engaged in sinful activities, either because of bad association or because of his inability to control his senses, such a person will be full of desires, miserable, greedy for pleasure, and attached to women. He becomes violent towards other beings and kills animals against the rules. He worships ghosts and spirits and goes to hell against his will. He attains the body of a plant. By his body he performs actions which create future suffering and attains another body by those actions. How can the person with a body leading to death attain happiness in that body? There are two types of people qualified for action--the religious and sinful. The destination of the religious has been described. The destination of sinful is now described. The word vā indicates that some people by their nature cannot control their senses. Because they are full of desires, they become miserable, and then become overcome by thirst for enjoyment. They indulge in women and for that purpose commit violence to other beings. They kill animals against the rules. It is said śyenenābhicaran yajeta: one should worship by offering sacrificial victims to inflict injury on others. (Apastambha Śrauta Sūtra 22.4.13) They end up in the worst darkness, as plants. Verse 29 summarizes: there is no happiness in performing actions.

Purport

In the Vedic analysis of civilized life there are two paths. One who takes to the path of nivṛtti-mārga immediately renounces material sense gratification and purifies his existence by performance of austerity and devotional activities. On the path of pravṛtti-mārga one furnishes a steady supply of sense objects to the senses, but one consumes such sense objects under strict regulations and through ritualistic ceremonies, thus gradually purifying the heart and satiating the material senses. Unfortunately, as explained in this and the previous verse, the path of pravṛtti-mārga is extremely volatile because rather than becoming detached, the living entity often becomes uncontrolled and fully addicted to further sense gratification. In the previous verse the path of regulated, authorized sense gratification was described, and in this verse the path of unauthorized, demoniac sense gratification is described. In this verse, the words saṅgād asatāṁ vājitendriyaḥ are very significant. One may fall down into sinful life by bad association, or even in good association one may fail to control his senses. Ultimately each living entity is responsible for his existential situation. The word adharma-rataḥ in this verse indicates those engaged in excessive sex life, meat-eating, drinking and other inauspicious activities that transgress the codes of civilized human life. Being in the mode of ignorance, these persons develop such a cruel mentality that they do not consider any festive occasion complete without the consumption of large quantities of meat obtained by slaughtering helpless animals. Eventually such persons become influenced by ghosts and spirits, who deprive them of all ability to discriminate between right and wrong. Losing all sense of decency, they become fit candidates for entrance into the darkest modes of material existence. Sometimes these lusty, intoxicated carnivores, considering themselves pious, pray to God in a useless way. Afflicted by innumerable material desires, they rotate from one material body to another without experiencing true happiness. Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura has noted that material life is so disturbing that even if one is allowed to live for an entire day of Brahmā — approximately 8,640,000,000 years — one will eventually be afflicted by the fear of death. In fact, Brahmā himself is disturbed by fear of death, what to speak of tiny human beings who live a paltry seventy or eighty years at most. Thus, as stated here, kiṁ sukhaṁ martya-dharmiṇaḥ: what possible happiness can one find within the painful grip of material illusion?