Bg. 9.12

BG 9.12
Srila Prabhupada

Devanagari

मोघाशा मोघकर्माणो मोघज्ञाना विचेतस: । राक्षसीमासुरीं चैव प्रकृतिं मोहिनीं श्रिता: ॥ १२ ॥

Verse text

moghāśā mogha-karmāṇo mogha-jṣānā vicetasaḥ rākṣasīm āsurīṁ caiva prakṛtiṁ mohinīṁ śritāḥ

Synonyms

mogha-āśāḥ baffled in their hopes ; mogha-karmāṇaḥ baffled in fruitive activities ; mogha-jṣānāḥ baffled in knowledge ; vicetasaḥ bewildered ; rākṣasīm demonic ; āsurīm atheistic ; ca and ; eva certainly ; prakṛtim nature ; mohinīm bewildering ; śritāḥ taking shelter of.

Translation

Those who are thus bewildered are attracted by demonic and atheistic views. In that deluded condition, their hopes for liberation, their fruitive activities, and their culture of knowledge are all defeated.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

12. Among those who cannot distinguish this truth, those who are devotees do not gain sālokya, those who are karmīs do not attain their material fruits, and those who are jṣānīs do not attain liberation. They assume the nature of Rākṣasas and asuras.

Translation (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)

12. Among those who cannot distinguish this truth, the devotees do not gain liberation, the karmīs do not attain their material fruits, and the jṣānīs get no result from their knowledge. They assume the nature of rakṣasas and asuras.

Purport

There are many devotees who assume themselves to be in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and devotional service but at heart do not accept the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, as the Absolute Truth. For them, the fruit of devotional service – going back to Godhead – will never be tasted. Similarly, those who are engaged in fruitive pious activities and who are ultimately hoping to be liberated from this material entanglement will never be successful either, because they deride the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. In other words, persons who mock Kṛṣṇa are to be understood to be demonic or atheistic. As described in the Seventh Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, such demonic miscreants never surrender to Kṛṣṇa. Therefore their mental speculations to arrive at the Absolute Truth bring them to the false conclusion that the ordinary living entity and Kṛṣṇa are one and the same. With such a false conviction, they think that the body of any human being is now simply covered by material nature and that as soon as one is liberated from this material body there is no difference between God and himself. This attempt to become one with Kṛṣṇa will be baffled because of delusion. Such atheistic and demoniac cultivation of spiritual knowledge is always futile. That is the indication of this verse. For such persons, cultivation of the knowledge in the Vedic literature, like the Vedānta-sūtra and the Upaniṣads, is always baffled. It is a great offense, therefore, to consider Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, to be an ordinary man. Those who do so are certainly deluded because they cannot understand the eternal form of Kṛṣṇa. The Bṛhad-viṣṇu-smṛti clearly states: yo vetti bhautikaṁ dehaṁ kṛṣṇasya paramātmanaḥ sa sarvasmād bahiṣ-kāryaḥ śrauta-smārta-vidhānataḥ mukhaṁ tasyāvalokyāpi sa-celaṁ snānam ācaret “One who considers the body of Kṛṣṇa to be material should be driven out from all rituals and activities of the śruti and the smṛti. And if one by chance sees his face, one should at once take bath in the Ganges to rid himself of infection.” People jeer at Kṛṣṇa because they are envious of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Their destiny is certainly to take birth after birth in the species of atheistic and demoniac life. Perpetually, their real knowledge will remain under delusion, and gradually they will regress to the darkest region of creation.

Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

What is the destination of those who do not accept You, Kṛṣṇa, as the Lord and think that You have a human material body? Even if devotees are in this condition, their aspirations are in vain (moghāśaḥ). They do not achieve sālokya or whatever else they have desired. If they are karmīs, they do not attain the desired results of their actions such as Svarga (mogha-karmaṇaḥ). If they are jṣānīs, they do not attain the result of knowledge, liberation (mogha-jṣāna). Then what do they attain? They assume the nature (prakṛtim) of Rākṣasas.

Purport (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)

“What is the destination of those who deride You in your human form, thinking that You have a material body and have attained great power by very great acts of puṇya?” Even if they are devotees of the Lord, they are deprived of obtaining moksa (mogha āśā). If they are fixed in fruitive sacrifices, those actions are without result, being a waste of energy (mogha karmaṇā). If they are devoted to study of vedānta for jṣāna, their understanding bears no result. Why? They are perplexed (vicetasaḥ), having destroyed their power of discrimination by the sin of rejecting Me, the supreme Brahman, directly visible in an eternal, spiritual, human form. Therefore is said: yo vetti bhautikaṁ dehaṁ kṛṣṇasya paramātmanaḥ sa sarvasmād bahiṣkāryaḥ śrauta-smārta-vidhānataḥ mukhaṁ tasyāvalokyāpi sa-celaṁ snānam ācaret One who considers the body of Kṛṣṇa to be material should be driven out from all rituals and activities of the śruti and the smṛti. And if one by chance sees his face, one should at once take bath in the Ganges with clothing on to rid himself of infection. Bṛhad Viṣṇu Smṛti [Note: It could also be Viṣṇu Purāṇa, but I have found the quotation in neither work, unless there is a bigger version called “brhad.”] What result do they attain? Taking shelter of dispositions (prakṛtim) without power of discrimination, of entities in the mode of ignorance predominated by violence (rākṣasīm) and entities in the mode of passion with intense lust and pride (āsurīm), they are qualified to live in hell.

Surrender Unto Me

The result of not accepting Krsna's form as transcendental and thus be disrespectfull towards Krsna, is that one becomes bewildered and attracted by demoniac and atheistic views. This means if one is practicing karma‑kanda or yoga or jnana‑ yoga, looking for fruitive results, mystic powers, liberation, if he thinks that Krsna's form is not eternal, he will not attain none of those results he is looking for. 'Mogha‑asah', all their hopes are baffled, ruined; 'Mogha‑karmanah, all their hopes for fruitive results are baffled, ruined; 'Mogha‑jnanah', all their hopes for knowledge are baffled, ruined. There is no success for a person who doesn't accept Krsna's transcendental form. Mayavadis say that Brahman is Supreme but He is taking on the mode of goodness and becomes Krsna. The future of those 'rakasim asurim' is to become 'yaksas and raksasas', because their mentality is demoniac. Texts 13 and 15 explain those who are divine.