Devanagari
स्वं लोकं न विदुस्ते वै यत्र देवो जनार्दन: ।
आहुर्धूम्रधियो वेदं सकर्मकमतद्विद: ॥ ४८ ॥
Verse text
svaṁ lokaṁ na vidus te vai
yatra devo janārdanaḥ
āhur dhūmra-dhiyo vedaṁ
sakarmakam atad-vidaḥ
Synonyms
svam
—
own
;
lokam
—
abode
;
na
—
never
;
viduḥ
—
know
;
te
—
such persons
;
vai
—
certainly
;
yatra
—
where
;
devaḥ
—
the Supreme Personality of Godhead
;
janārdanaḥ
—
Kṛṣṇa, or Viṣṇu
;
āhuḥ
—
speak
;
dhūmra
—
dhiyaḥ — the less intelligent class of men
;
vedam
—
the four Vedas
;
sa
—
karmakam — full of ritualistic ceremonies
;
a
—
tat — vidaḥ — persons who are not in knowledge .
Translation
Those who are less intelligent accept the Vedic ritualistic ceremonies as all in all. They do not know that the purpose of the Vedas is to understand one’s own home, where the Supreme Personality of Godhead lives. Not being interested in their real home, they are illusioned and search after other homes.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Foolish people do not know the Lord’s planet where the Lord resides. Not knowing the Vedas, they speak of the Vedas in terms of prescribed karmas alone.
“Then why do my priests and the sages, learned men, make me do karmas such as sacrifices?” They do not know Vaikuṇṭha where the Lord resides. They know Svarga as their planet, because, having contaminated intelligence (dhūmra-dhiyaḥ), they say that karma is the ultimate message of the Vedas. They do not know the meaning of the Vedas. The Lord has said:
kālena naṣṭā pralaye vāṇīyaṁ veda-saṁjṣitā
mayādau brahmaṇe proktā dharmo yasyāṁ mad-ātmakaḥ
By the influence of time, the Vedic knowledge was lost at the time of annihilation. Therefore, when the subsequent creation took place, I spoke to Brahmā the Vedic knowledge in which bhakti is the essence. SB 11.14.3
Purport
Generally people are not aware of their interest in life — to return home, back to Godhead. People do not know about their real home in the spiritual world. In the spiritual world there are many Vaikuṇṭha planets, and the topmost planet is Kṛṣṇaloka, Goloka Vṛndāvana. Despite the so-called advancement of civilization, there is no information of the Vaikuṇṭhalokas, the spiritual planets. At the present moment so-called advanced civilized men are trying to go to other planets, but they do not know that even if they go to the highest planetary system, Brahmaloka, they have to come back again to this planet. This is confirmed 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.”
If one goes to the highest planetary system within this universe he still has to return after the effects of pious activities are finished. Space vehicles may go very high in the sky, but as soon as their fuel is finished, they have to return to this earthly planet. All these activities are performed in illusion. The real attempt should now be to return home, back to Godhead. The process is mentioned in
Bhagavad-gītā.
Yānti mad-yājino ’pi mām:
those who engage in the devotional service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead return home, back to Godhead. Human life is very valuable, and one should not waste it in vain exploration of other planets. One should be intelligent enough to return to Godhead. One should be interested in information about the spiritual Vaikuṇṭha planets, and in particular the planet known as Goloka Vṛndāvana, and should learn the art of going there by the simple method of devotional service, beginning with hearing (
śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ
). This is also confirmed in
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
(12.3.51)
:
kaler doṣa-nidhe rājann
asti hy eko mahān guṇaḥ
kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya
mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet
One can go to the supreme planet (
paraṁ vrajet
) simply by chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa
mantra.
This is especially meant for the people of this age (
kaler doṣa-nidhe
). It is the special advantage of this age that simply by chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa
mahā-mantra
one can become purified of all material contamination and return home, back to Godhead. There is no doubt about this.