SB 5.13.1 · Srimad-Bhagavatam

Devanagari

ब्राह्मण उवाच दुरत्ययेऽध्वन्यजया निवेशितो रजस्तम:सत्त्वविभक्तकर्मद‍ृक् । स एष सार्थोऽर्थपर: परिभ्रमन् भवाटवीं याति न शर्म विन्दति ॥ १ ॥

Verse text

brāhmaṇa uvāca duratyaye ’dhvany ajayā niveśito rajas-tamaḥ-sattva-vibhakta-karmadṛk sa eṣa sārtho ’rtha-paraḥ paribhraman bhavāṭavīṁ yāti na śarma vindati

Synonyms

brāhmaṇaḥ uvāca — the brāhmaṇa Jaḍa Bharata continued to speak ; duratyaye — which is very difficult to traverse ; adhvani — on the path of fruitive activities (performing actions in this life, creating a body in the next life by those actions, and in this way continuously accepting birth and death) ; ajayā — by māyā, the external energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead ; niveśitaḥ — caused to enter ; rajaḥ — tamaḥ — sattva — vibhakta — karma — dṛk — a conditioned soul who sees only immediately beneficial fruitive activities and their results, which are divided into three groups by the modes of goodness, passion and ignorance ; saḥ — he ; eṣaḥ — this ; sa — arthaḥ — the living entity falsely seeking sense gratification ; artha — paraḥ — intent upon gaining wealth ; paribhraman — wandering all over ; bhava — aṭavīm — the forest known as bhava, which means the repetition of birth and death ; yāti — enters ; na — not ; śarma — happiness ; vindati — obtains .

Translation

Jaḍa Bharata, who had fully realized Brahman, continued: My dear King Rahūgaṇa, the living entity wanders on the path of the material world, which is very difficult for him to traverse, and he accepts repeated birth and death. Being captivated by the material world under the influence of the three modes of material nature (sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa and tamo-guṇa), the living entity can see only the three fruits of activities under the spell of material nature. These fruits are auspicious, inauspicious and mixed. He thus becomes attached to religion, economic development, sense gratification and the monistic theory of liberation (merging with the Supreme). He works very hard day and night exactly like a merchant who enters a forest to acquire some articles to sell later for profit. However, he cannot really achieve happiness within this material world.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Jaḍa Bharata said: The merchant who sees only obligation to scriptural actions divided into rajas, tamas and sattva, who, out of ignorance, is fixed on the path of material enjoyment, difficult to cross, and who is absorbed in material acquisition, while wandering about, comes to the forest of material life but cannot enjoy happiness. In the Thirteenth Chapter, by describing the forest of the material world, Bharata puts the King on the horse of detachment so that the King will cross over it. The last verse of the previous chapter mentioned crossing over material life. What is that path and what is the traveler on the path? This chapter answers. He sees the activities divided into tamas, rajas and sattva as obligatory because of ignorance (ajayā) on the difficult to cross path of pravṛtti-marga (adhvani). Sārthaḥ is well known as a wealthy merchant. Medinī says sārtho vaṇika-samūhe syāt: sārtha means a gathering of merchants. All the jīvas in the world are like merchants, interested in material acquisition (artha-paraḥ). The explanation of all these terms will be given in the next chapter. However to make understanding easier, some explanation is given here.

Purport

One can very easily understand how difficult and insurmountable the path of sense gratification is. Not knowing what the path of sense gratification is, one becomes implicated in the repetition of birth and accepts different types of bodies again and again. Thus one suffers in material existence. In this life one may think that he is very happy being an American, Indian, Englishman or German, but in the next life one has to accept another body among 8,400,000 species. The next body has to be immediately accepted according to karma. One will be forced to accept a certain type of body, and protesting will not help. That is the stringent law of nature. Due to the living entity’s ignorance of his eternal blissful life, he becomes attracted to material activities under the spell of māyā. In this world, he can never experience happiness, yet he works very hard to do so. This is called māyā.