SB 4.29.20 · Srimad-Bhagavatam

Devanagari

देहो रथस्त्विन्द्रियाश्व: संवत्सररयोऽगति: । द्विकर्मचक्रस्त्रिगुणध्वज: पञ्चासुबन्धुर: ॥ १८ ॥ मनोरश्मिर्बुद्धिसूतो हृन्नीडो द्वन्द्वकूबर: । पञ्चेन्द्रियार्थप्रक्षेप: सप्तधातुवरूथक: ॥ १९ ॥ आकूतिर्विक्रमो बाह्यो मृगतृष्णां प्रधावति । एकादशेन्द्रियचमू: पञ्चसूनाविनोदकृत् ॥ २० ॥

Verse text

deho rathas tv indriyāśvaḥ saṁvatsara-rayo ’gatiḥ dvi-karma-cakras tri-guṇa- dhvajaḥ paṣcāsu-bandhuraḥ mano-raśmir buddhi-sūto hṛn-nīḍo dvandva-kūbaraḥ paṣcendriyārtha-prakṣepaḥ sapta-dhātu-varūthakaḥ ākūtir vikramo bāhyo mṛga-tṛṣṇāṁ pradhāvati ekādaśendriya-camūḥ paṣca-sūnā-vinoda-kṛt

Synonyms

dehaḥ — body ; rathaḥ — chariot ; tu — but ; indriya — the knowledge-acquiring senses ; aśvaḥ — the horses ; saṁvatsara — total years ; rayaḥ — duration of life ; agatiḥ — without advancing ; dvi — two ; karma — activities ; cakraḥ — wheels ; tri — three ; guṇa — modes of nature ; dhvajaḥ — flags ; paṣca — five ; asu — life airs ; bandhuraḥ — bondage ; manaḥ — the mind ; raśmiḥ — rope ; buddhi — intelligence ; sūtaḥ — chariot driver ; hṛt — heart ; nīḍaḥ — sitting place ; dvandva — duality ; kūbaraḥ — the posts for the harness ; paṣca — five ; indriya — artha — sense objects ; prakṣepaḥ — weapons ; sapta — seven ; dhātu — elements ; varūthakaḥ — coverings ; ākūtiḥ — attempts of the five working senses ; vikramaḥ — prowess or processes ; bāhyaḥ — external ; mṛga — tṛṣṇām — false aspiration ; pradhāvati — runs after ; ekādaśa — eleven ; indriya — senses ; camūḥ — soldiers ; paṣca — five ; sūnā — envy ; vinoda — pleasure ; kṛt — doing .

Translation

Nārada Muni continued: What I referred to as the chariot was in actuality the body. The senses are the horses that pull that chariot. As time passes, year after year, these horses run without obstruction, but in fact they make no progress. Pious and impious activities are the two wheels of the chariot. The three modes of material nature are the chariot’s flags. The five types of life air constitute the living entity’s bondage, and the mind is considered to be the rope. Intelligence is the chariot driver. The heart is the sitting place in the chariot, and the dualities of life, such as pleasure and pain, are the knotting place. The seven elements are the coverings of the chariot, and the working senses are the five external processes. The eleven senses are the soldiers. Being engrossed in sense enjoyment, the living entity, seated on the chariot, hankers after fulfillment of his false desires and runs after sense enjoyment life after life.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

The chariot is the body. The horses are the senses. Its speed is the force of time. The two wheels are sin and piety. The three flags are the guṇas. The five connecting rods are the five life airs. The bridle is the mind. The driver is the intelligence. The seat is the heart. The two poles attached to the yoke are happiness and distress. The five weapons are the five sense objects. The seven coverings are the seven dhātus. The five exploits are the actions of the action senses. The eleven commanders are the eleven senses. Going hunting on the chariot means seeking material pleasure through the five senses. The momentum (rayaḥ) of the year is the chariot’s quick motion, mentioned as aśugam in SB 4.26.1. Another version of the first line is samvatsaraśca tat kṛtaṁ rayaś: the chariot’s speed is the year. The flags refer to triveṇum in SB 4.26.1. These are the three guṇas-- sattva, rajas and tamas. The five weapons (prakṣepaḥ) are the five sense objects such as sound. The five action senses (ākūtiḥ) are the exploits (vikramaḥ). Paṣca-sūnā-vinoda-kṛt means enjoying objects sinfully through the five senses. This is an explanation of going out hunting.

Purport

The entanglement of the living entity in sense enjoyment is very nicely explained in these verses. The word saṁvatsara, meaning “the progress of time,” is significant. Day after day, week after week, fortnight after fortnight, month after month, year after year, the living entity becomes entangled in the chariot’s progress. The chariot rests on two wheels, which are pious and impious activities. The living entity attains a certain position in life in a particular type of body according to his pious and impious activities, but his transmigration into different bodies should not be taken as progress. Real progress is explained in Bhagavad-gītā (4.9) . Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti: one makes real progress when he does not have to take on another material body. As stated in Caitanya-caritāmṛta ( Madhya 19.138) : eita brahmāṇḍa bhari’ ananta jīva-gaṇa caurāśī-lakṣa yonite karaye bhramaṇa The living entity is wandering throughout the entire universe and taking birth in different species on different planets. Thus he moves up and down, but that is not real progress. Real progress is getting out of this material world altogether. As stated in Bhagavad-gītā (8.16) : ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino ’rjuna mām upetya tu kaunteya punar janma na vidyate “From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. But one who attains to My abode, O son of Kuntī, never takes birth again.” Even if one is promoted to Brahmaloka, the highest planet in the universe, he has to come down again to the lower planetary systems. Thus he is wandering up and down perpetually, under the influence of the three modes of material nature. Being illusioned, he thinks he is making progress. He is like an airplane encircling the earth day and night, incapable of leaving the earth’s gravitational field. Factually there is no progress because the airplane is conditioned by the earth’s gravity. Just as a king is seated on a chariot, the living entity is seated in the body. The sitting place is the heart, and the living entity sits there and engages in the struggle for existence, which goes on without progress perpetually. In the words of Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura: karma-kāṇḍa, jṣāna-kāṇḍa, kevala viṣera bhāṇḍa, amṛta baliyā yebā khāya nānā yoni sadā phire, kadarya bhakṣaṇa kare, tāra janma adhaḥ-pāte yāya The living entity struggles very hard due to the influence of fruitive activity and mental speculation and simply gets a different type of body life after life. He eats all kinds of nonsense and is condemned by his activities of sense enjoyment. If one really wants to progress in life, he must give up the ways of karma-kāṇḍa and jṣāna-kāṇḍa, fruitive activities and mental speculation. Being fixed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, one can become free from the entanglement of birth and death and the vain struggle for existence. In these verses the words mṛga-tṛṣṇāṁ pradhāvati are very significant because the living entity is influenced by a thirst for sense enjoyment. He is like a deer that goes to the desert to search out water. In a desert an animal simply searches in vain for water. Of course there is no water in the desert, and the animal simply sacrifices his life in an attempt to find it. Everyone is planning for future happiness, thinking that if he can somehow or other reach a certain point he will be happy. In actuality, however, when he comes to that point he sees that there is no happiness. He then plans to go further and further to another point. This is called mṛga-tṛṣṇā, and its basis is sense enjoyment in this material world.