SB 11.28.30 · Srimad-Bhagavatam

Devanagari

करोति कर्म क्रियते च जन्तु: केनाप्यसौ चोदित आनिपातात् । न तत्र विद्वान् प्रकृतौ स्थितोऽपि निवृत्ततृष्ण: स्वसुखानुभूत्या ॥ ३० ॥

Verse text

karoti karma kriyate ca jantuḥ kenāpy asau codita ā-nipātāt na tatra vidvān prakṛtau sthito ’pi nivṛtta-tṛṣṇaḥ sva-sukhānubhūtyā

Synonyms

karoti — he performs ; karma — material work ; kriyate — is acted upon ; ca — also ; jantuḥ — the living entity ; kena api — by some force or other ; asau — he ; coditaḥ — impelled ; ā — nipātāt — up to the point of death ; na — not ; tatra — there ; vidvān — a wise person ; prakṛtau — in material nature ; sthitaḥ — situated ; api — even though ; nivṛtta — having given up ; tṛṣṇaḥ — material desire ; sva — by his own ; sukha — of happiness ; anubhūtyā — experience .

Translation

An ordinary living entity performs material work and is transformed by the reaction to such work. Thus he is driven by various desires to continue working fruitively up to the very moment of his death. A wise person, however, having experienced his own constitutional bliss, gives up all material desires and does not engage in fruitive work.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

The jīva performs action, inspired by Paramātmā, and is made to take a different body by that action. This cycle continues until universal devastation. The jṣānī, however, though situated in his body, having experienced his own constitutional bliss, gives up all material desires and does not engage in action or its effects. The jṣānī does not become bound like the karmī. The jīva inspired by antaryāmī performs actions. By this action, he takes birth as pig or dog, until final devastation. The jṣānī however, though situated in the body, does not do activity, and is not placed in other bodies by those actions.

Purport

By sexual association with women, a man is driven to enjoy the female form again and again, and indeed he remains lusty up to the moment of death. Similarly, through association with family and friends the knot of material attachment becomes very tight. Thus the reactions of fruitive work bind one more and more in the cycle of material defeat. But a learned person, one who is in touch with the Supreme Lord within his heart, realizes the ultimate frustration of material work and the danger of entering the womb of a pig or dog in a future life as the result of sinful activities. One on the platform of self-realization does not regard himself as an enjoyer of the world. Rather, he regards the entire cosmos as simply an insignificant expansion of the Lord’s potency — and himself as the Lord’s humble servant.