712
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 1, Ch. 13]
TEXT 43
यथा क्रीडोपस्कराणां संयोगविगमाविह । इच्छया क्रीडितुः सातां तथैवेशेच्छया नृणाम् ॥४३॥
yathā krīḍopaskarāṇām saṁyoga-vigamāv iha icchayā krīḍituḥ syātām tathaiveśecchayā nṛṇām
yathā —as much as;  krīḍa-paskarāṇām —playthings;  saṁyoga —union;  vigamau —disunion;  iha —as much as;  icchayā —by the will of;  krīḍituḥ —just to play a part;  syātām —takes place;  tathā —so also;  eva —certainly;  īśa —the Supreme Lord;  icchayā —by the will of;  nṛṇām —of the human being.
TRANSLATION
As a player sets up and disperses his playthings according to his own sweet will, so the supreme will of the Lord brings men together and separates them.
PURPORT
We must know for certain that the particular position in which we are now set up is an arrangement of the supreme will in terms of our own acts in the past. The Supreme Lord is present as the localized Paramātmā in the heart of every living being, as it is said in the  Bhagavad-gītā  (Bg. 13.22), and therefore He knows everything of our activities in every stage of our lives. The reactions of our actions are rewarded by Him by placing us in some particular place. A rich man gets his son born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but the child who came as the rich man's son deserved such a place, and therefore he is placed there by the will of the Lord. And at a particular moment when the child has to be removed from that place, he is also carried by the will of the Supreme, even if the child or the father does not wish to be separated from the happy relation. The same thing happens in the case of a poor man also. Neither rich man nor poor man has any control over such meetings or separations of living beings. The example of a player and his playthings should not be misunderstood. One may argue that the Lord is bound to award the reactionary results of our own actions, and thus the example of a player cannot be applied. But it is not so. We