Devanagari
दृष्टं श्रुतमसद्बुद्ध्वा नानुध्यायेन्न सन्दिशेत् ।
संसृतिं चात्मनाशं च तत्र विद्वान् स आत्मदृक् ॥ २० ॥
Verse text
dṛṣṭaṁ śrutam asad buddhvā
nānudhyāyen na sandiśet
saṁsṛtiṁ cātma-nāśaṁ ca
tatra vidvān sa ātma-dṛk
Synonyms
dṛṣṭam
—
the material enjoyment we experience in our present life
;
śrutam
—
material enjoyment as promised to the fruitive workers for future happiness (either in this life or in the next, in the heavenly planets and so on)
;
asat
—
all temporary and bad
;
buddhvā
—
knowing
;
na
—
not
;
anudhyāyet
—
one should even think of
;
na
—
nor
;
sandiśet
—
should actually enjoy
;
saṁsṛtim
—
prolongation of material existence
;
ca
—
and
;
ātma
—
nāśam — forgetfulness of one’s own constitutional position
;
ca
—
as well as
;
tatra
—
in such a subject matter
;
vidvān
—
one who is completely aware
;
saḥ
—
such a person
;
ātma
—
dṛk — a self-realized soul .
Translation
One who knows that material happiness, whether good or bad, in this life or in the next, on this planet or on the heavenly planets, is temporary and useless, and that an intelligent person should not try to enjoy or even think of such things, is the knower of the self. Such a self-realized person knows quite well that material happiness is the very cause of continued material existence and forgetfulness of one’s own constitutional position.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Seeing the Supreme Lord, and thus having understood the temporary nature of material enjoyment either seen or heard, a person gives up that enjoyment and does not speak about it. He knows that meditating on enjoyment produces rebirth and destruction of spiritual consciousness.
It is possible to give up thinking of material enjoyment by contemplating the truth when one achieves maturity in meditation on the Supreme Lord. He who sees the Lord by meditation (ātmā-dṛk), thus understanding the tastelessness of material happiness either seen or heard, does not constantly meditate on those objects (anudhyāyet), does not enjoy those objects, since it is improper. He knows (vidvān) that meditating on material objects (tatra) will produce saṁsāra and destruction spiritual consciousness.
Purport
The living entity is a spiritual soul, and the material body is his encagement. This is the beginning of spiritual understanding.
dehino ’smin yathā dehe
kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
tathā dehāntara-prāptir
dhīras tatra na muhyati
“As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change.” (
Bg. 2.13
) The real mission of human life is to get free from encagement in the material body. Therefore Kṛṣṇa descends to teach the conditioned soul about spiritual realization and how to become free from material bondage.
Yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata.
The words
dharmasya glāniḥ
mean “pollution of one’s existence.” Our existence is now polluted, and it must be purified (
sattvaṁ śuddhyet
). The human life is meant for this purification, not for thinking of happiness in terms of the external body, which is the cause of material bondage. Therefore, in this verse, Mahārāja Yayāti advises that whatever material happiness we see and whatever is promised for enjoyment is all merely flickering and temporary.
Ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino ’rjuna.
Even if one is promoted to Brahmaloka, if one is not freed from material bondage one must return to this planet earth and continue in the miserable condition of material existence (
bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate
). One should always keep this understanding in mind so as not to be allured by any kind of sense enjoyment, in this life or in the next. One who is fully aware of this truth is self-realized (
sa ātma-dṛk
), but aside from him, everyone suffers in the cycle of birth and death (
mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani
). This understanding is one of true intelligence, and anything contrary to this is but a cause of unhappiness.
Kṛṣṇa-bhakta
—
niṣkāma, ataeva ‘śānta.
’ Only a Kṛṣṇa conscious person, who knows the aim and object of life, is peaceful. All others, whether
karmīs, jṣānīs
or
yogīs,
are restless and cannot enjoy real peace.