Story of Ajamila - Arguments by Yamadutas

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SB

6.1.40: The Yamadūtas replied: That which is prescribed in the

Vedas constitutes dharma, the religious principles, and the opposite of

that is irreligion. The Vedas are directly the Supreme Personality of

Godhead, Narayana, and are self-born. This we have heard from Yamarāja.

 

SB

6.1.41: The supreme cause of all causes, Narayana, is situated

in His own abode in the spiritual world, but nevertheless He controls

the entire cosmic manifestation according to the three modes of material

nature - sattva guna, rajo-guna and tamo-guna. In this way all living

entities are awarded different qualities, different names [such as

brahmana, ksatriya and vaisya], different duties according to the

varnasrama institution, and different forms. Thus Narayana is the cause

of the entire cosmic manifestation.

SB

6.1.42: The sun, fire, sky, air, demigods, moon, evening, day,

night, directions, water, land and Supersoul Himself all witness the

activities of the living entity.

SB

6.1.43: The candidates for punishment are those who are

confirmed by these many witnesses to have deviated from their prescribed

regulative duties. Everyone engaged in fruitive activities is suitable

to be subjected to punishment according to his sinful acts.

SB

6.1.44: O inhabitants of Vaikuntha you are sinless, but those

within this material world are all karmīs, whether acting piously or

impiously. Both kinds of action are possible for them because they are

contaminated by the three modes of nature and must act accordingly. One

who has accepted a material body cannot be inactive, and sinful action

is inevitable for one acting under the modes of material nature.

Therefore all the living entities within this material world are

punishable.

SB

6.1.45: In proportion to the extent of one's religious or

irreligious actions in this life, one must enjoy or suffer the

corresponding reactions of his karma in the next.

SB

6.1.46: O best of the demigods, we can see three different

varieties of life, which are due to the contamination of the three modes

of nature. The living entities are thus known as peaceful, restless and

foolish; as happy, unhappy or in-between; or as religious, irreligious

and semireligious. We can deduce that in the next life these three kinds

of material nature will similarly act.

SB

6.1.47: Just as springtime in the present indicates the nature

of springtimes in the past and future, so this life of happiness,

distress or a mixture of both gives evidence concerning the religious

and irreligious activities of one's past and future lives.

SB

6.1.48: The omnipotent Yamarāja is as good as Lord Brahma, for

while situated in his own abode or in everyone's heart like the

Paramatma, he mentally observes the past activities of a living entity

and thus understands how the living entity will act in future lives.

SB

6.1.49: As a sleeping person acts according to the body

manifested in his dreams and accepts it to be himself, so one identifies

with his present body, which he acquired because of his past religious

or irreligious actions, and is unable to know his past or future lives.

SB

6.1.50: Above the five senses of perception, the five working

senses and the five objects of the senses is the mind, which is the

sixteenth element. Above the mind is the seventeenth element, the soul,

the living being himself, who, in cooperation with the other sixteen,

enjoys the material world alone. The living being enjoys three kinds of

situations, namely happy, distressful and mixed.

SB

6.1.51: The subtle body is endowed with sixteen parts — the

five knowledge-acquiring senses, the five working senses, the five

objects of sense gratification, and the mind. This subtle body is an

effect of the three modes of material nature. It is composed of

insurmountably strong desires, and therefore it causes the living entity

to transmigrate from one body to another in human life, animal life and

life as a demigod. When the living entity gets the body of a demigod, he

is certainly very jubilant, when he gets a human body he is always in

lamentation, and when he gets the body of an animal, he is always

afraid. In all conditions, however, he is actually miserable. His

miserable condition is called samsrti, or transmigration in material

life.

SB

6.1.52: The foolish embodied living entity, inept at

controlling his senses and mind, is forced to act according to the

influence of the modes of material nature, against his desires. He is

like a silkworm that uses its own saliva to create a cocoon and then

becomes trapped in it, with no possibility of getting out. The living

entity traps himself in a network of his own fruitive activities and

then can find no way to release himself. Thus he is always bewildered,

and repeatedly he dies.

SB

6.1.53: Not a single living entity can remain unengaged even

for a moment. One must act by his natural tendency according to the

three modes of material nature because this natural tendency forcibly

makes him work in a particular way.

SB

6.1.54: The fruitive activities a living being performs,

whether pious or impious, are the unseen cause for the fulfillment of

his desires. This unseen cause is the root for the living entity's

different bodies. Because of his intense desire, the living entity takes

birth in a particular family and receives a body which is either like

that of his mother or like that of his father. The gross and subtle

bodies are created according to his desire.

SB

6.1.55: Since the living entity is associated with material

nature, he is in an awkward position, but if in the human form of life

he is taught how to associate with the Supreme Personality of Godhead or

His devotee, this position can be overcome.