710
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 1, Ch. 13]
Ordinarily no one can change the course of one's due happiness and distress by plan. Everyone has to accept them as they come under the subtle arrangement of  kāla , or invincible time. There is no use trying to counteract them. The best thing is, therefore, that one should endeavor to achieve salvation, and this prerogative is given only to man because of his developed condition of mental activities and intelligence. Only for man are there different Vedic instructions for attainment of salvation during the human form of existence. One who misuses this opportunity of advanced intelligence is verily condemned and put into different types of miseries, either in this present life or in the future. That is the way the Supreme controls everyone.
TEXT 42
यथा गावो नसि प्रोतास्तन्त्यां बद्धाः चदामभिः । बाक्तन्त्यां नामभिर्बद्धा वहन्ति बलिमीशितुः॥४२॥
yathā gāvo nasi protās tantyām baddhās ca dāmabhiḥ vāktantyām nāmabhir baddhā vahanti balim īsituḥ
yathā—as much as; gāvaḥ—cow; nasi—by the nose; protāḥ—women; tantyām—by the thread; baddhāḥ—bound up by; ca—also; dāmabhiḥ—by ropes; vāktantyām—in the network of Vedic hymns; nāmabhiḥ—by nomenclatures; baddhāḥ—conditioned; vahanti—carry on; balim—orders; īsituḥ—for being controlled by the Supreme Lord.
TRANSLATION
As a cow, bound through the nose by a long rope, is conditioned, so also human beings are bound by different Vedic injunctions and are conditioned to obey the orders of the Supreme.
PURPORT
Every living being, whether a man or an animal or a bird, etc., thinks that he is free by himself, but actually no one is free from the severe laws of the Lord. The laws of the Lord are severe because they cannot be disobeyed in any circumstance. The manmade laws may be evaded by cunning outlaws, but in the codes of the supreme lawmaker, there is not the slightest possibility of neglecting the laws. A slight change in the course of