Devanagari
न हि क्रमश्चेदिह मृत्युजन्मनो:
शरीरिणामस्तु तदात्मकर्मभि: ।
य: स्नेहपाशो निजसर्गवृद्धये
स्वयं कृतस्ते तमिमं विवृश्चसि ॥ ५५ ॥
Verse text
na hi kramaś ced iha mṛtyu-janmanoḥ
śarīriṇām astu tad ātma-karmabhiḥ
yaḥ sneha-pāśo nija-sarga-vṛddhaye
svayaṁ kṛtas te tam imaṁ vivṛścasi
Synonyms
na
—
not
;
hi
—
indeed
;
kramaḥ
—
chronological order
;
cet
—
if
;
iha
—
in this material world
;
mṛtyu
—
of death
;
janmanoḥ
—
and of birth
;
śarīriṇām
—
of the conditioned souls, who have accepted material bodies
;
astu
—
let it be
;
tat
—
that
;
ātma
—
karmabhiḥ — by the results of one’s karma (fruitive activities)
;
yaḥ
—
that which
;
sneha
—
pāśaḥ — bondage of affection
;
nija
—
sarga — Your own creation
;
vṛddhaye
—
to increase
;
svayam
—
personally
;
kṛtaḥ
—
made
;
te
—
by You
;
tam
—
that
;
imam
—
this
;
vivṛścasi
—
you are cutting .
Translation
My Lord, You may say that there is no law that a father must die in the lifetime of his son and that a son must be born in the lifetime of his father, since everyone lives and dies according to his own fruitive activity. However, if fruitive activity is so strong that birth and death depend upon it, there is no need of a controller, or God. Again, if You say that a controller is needed because the material energy does not have the power to act, one may answer that if the bonds of affection You have created are disturbed by fruitive action, no one will raise children with affection; instead, everyone will cruelly neglect his children. Since You have cut the bonds of affection that compel a parent to raise his child, You appear inexperienced and unintelligent.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
If you say there is no rule that the son should not die while the father lives, then let birth and death happen by karma, but still, you have created bonds of affection for increasing your creation, and then you have cut those bonds and caused undue suffering.
“What is my offense, since I only give birth and death according to a jīva’s karma? There is no law that while the son lives, the father dies, or that after the father dies, the son should die, since it depends on karma.” Then let birth and death happen by karma, but then what action do you perform? “How can all this be accomplished by insentient karma, without my control?” True, it is accomplished by you. But you have created bonds of affection for increasing your creation, and you cut those bonds. Seeing such misery arising from affection, who will have affection for their children? And without affection of children, how will they survive? You are certainly a fool because of this fault in your creation. Or there is another meaning if the present tense stands for the imperative. “Affection is the cause of happiness and distress. Without affection let the children be born and let them die. Then there will be no happiness and distress.”
Purport
As stated in the
Brahma-saṁhitā, karmāṇi nirdahati kintu ca bhakti-bhājām:
one who has taken to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, devotional service, is not affected by the results of
karma.
In this verse,
karma
has been stressed on the basis of
karma-mīmāṁsā
philosophy, which says that one must act according to his
karma
and that a supreme controller must give the results of
karma.
The subtle laws of
karma,
which are controlled by the Supreme, cannot be understood by ordinary conditioned souls. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says that one who can understand Him and how He is acting, controlling everything by subtle laws, immediately becomes freed by His grace. That is the statement of
Brahma-saṁhitā
(
karmāṇi nirdahati kintu ca bhakti-bhājām
). One should take to devotional service without reservations and surrender everything to the supreme will of the Lord. That will make one happy in this life and the next.