### SB 2.2.2

> शाब्दस्य हि ब्रह्मण एष पन्था यन्नामभिर्ध्यायति धीरपार्थैः ।\
> परिभ्रमंस्तत्र न विन्दतेऽर्थान्मायामये वासनया शयानः ॥२॥

> śābdasya hi brahmaṇa eṣa panthā\
> yan nāmabhir dhyāyati dhīr apārthaiḥ\
> paribhramaṁs tatra na vindate 'rthān\
> māyāmaye vāsanayā śayānaḥ

*śābdasya*—of the Vedic sound; *hi*—certainly; *brahmaṇaḥ*—of the *Vedas*; *eṣaḥ*—these; *panthāḥ*—the way; *yat*—what is; *nāmabhiḥ*—by different names; *dhyāyati*—ponders over; *dhīḥ*—intelligence; *apārthaiḥ*—by meaningless ideas; *paribhraman*—wandering; *tatra*—there; *na*—never; *vindate*—enjoys; *arthān*—realities; *māyā-maye*—in illusory things; *vāsanayā*—by different desires; *śayānaḥ*—as if dreaming in sleep.

**The way of presentation of the Vedic sounds is so bewildering that the intelligence of the people is directed to meaningless things, like the heavenly kingdoms, etc. The conditioned souls hover in a dream of such heavenly illusory pleasures, but actually they do not relish any tangible happiness in such places.**

The conditioned soul is always engaged in laying out plans for happiness within the material world, even up to the end of the universal limit. He is not even satisfied with available amenities within this planet earth, where he has exploited the resources of nature tc the best of his capacity. He wants to go to the moon or the planet Venus to exploit resources there. But the Lord has warned us in the Bhagavad-gītā (Bg. 8.16) about the worthlessness of all the innumerable planets of this universe, as well as those planets within other systems. There are innumerable universes and also innumerable planets in each of them. But none of them is immune to the chief miseries of material existence, namely the pangs of birth, the pangs of death, the pangs of old age and the pangs of disease. The Lord says that even the topmost planet known as the Brahmaloka or Satyaloka (and what to speak of other planets, like the heavenly planets, etc.) is not a happy land for residential purposes due to the presence of material pangs, as above mentioned. Conditioned souls are strictly under the laws of fruitive activities, and as such they go up to Brahmaloka sometimes and again come down to the Pātālaloka, as if they were unintelligent children on a merry-go-round. The real happiness is in the kingdom of God, where no one has to undergo the pangs of material existence. Therefore, the Vedic ways of fruitive activities by the living entities are misleading. One thinks of a superior way of life in this country or that, or in this planet or another, but nowhere in the material world can he fulfill his real desire of life, namely eternal life, full intelligence and complete bliss. Indirectly Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī affirms that Mahārāja Parīkṣit, in the last stage of life, should not desire to transfer himself to the so-called heavenly planets, but should prepare himself for going back home, back to Godhead. None of the material planets, nor the amenities available there for living conditions, is everlasting; therefore one must have a factual reluctance to enjoy such temporary happiness as they afford.