BHAGAVAD-GITA 9:21

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BHAGAVAD-GITA 9:21

 

te tam bhuktva svarga-lokam visalam

ksine punye martya-lokam visanti

evam trayi-dharmam anuprapanna

gatagatam kama-kama labhante

 

WORD FOR WORD

 

te--they; tam--that; bhuktva--enjoying; svarga-lokam--heaven;

visalam--vast; ksine--being exhausted; punye--the results of their

pious activities; martya-lokam--to the mortal earth; visanti--fall

down; evam--thus; trayi--of the three Vedas; dharmam--doctrines;

anuprapannah--following; gata-agatam--death and birth;

kama-kamah--desiring sense enjoyments; labhante--attain.

 

TRANSLATION

 

When they have thus enjoyed vast heavenly sense pleasure and the

results of their pious activities are exhausted, they return to this

mortal planet again. Thus those who seek sense enjoyment by adhering

to the principles of the three Vedas achieve only repeated birth and

death.

 

PURPORT

 

One who is promoted to the higher planetary systems enjoys a longer

duration of life and better facilities for sense enjoyment, yet one is

not allowed to stay there forever. One is again sent back to this

earth upon finishing the resultant fruits of pious activities. He who

has not attained perfection of knowledge, as indicated in the

Vedanta-sutra (janmady asya yatah), or, in other words, he who fails

to understand Krsna, the cause of all causes, becomes baffled about

achieving the ultimate goal of life and is thus subjected to the

routine of being promoted to the higher planets and then again coming

down, as if situated on a ferris wheel which sometimes goes up and

sometimes comes down. The purport is that instead of being elevated to

the spiritual world, from which there is no longer any possibility of

coming down, one simply revolves in the cycle of birth and death on

higher and lower planetary systems. One should better take to the

spiritual world to enjoy an eternal life full of bliss and knowledge

and never return to this miserable material existence.

 

Copyright 1983 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International. Used with

permission.