186
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 10, Ch. 10]
by a dog, and then when he became a dog, he was harassed by a tiger. But when he became a tiger, he stared at the saintly person, and when the saintly person asked him, “What do you want?” the tiger said, “I want to eat you.” Then the saintly person cursed him, saying, “May you again become a mouse.” A similar thing is going on all over the universe. One is going up and down, sometimes becoming a mouse, sometimes a tiger, and so on. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said:
brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja  (Cc. Madhya 19.151)
The living entities are promoted and degraded by the laws of nature, but if one is very, very fortunate, by association with saintly persons he gets the seed of devotional service, and his life becomes successful. Nārada Muni wanted to bring Nalakūvara and Maṇigrīva to the platform of devotional service through poverty, and thus he cursed them. Such is the mercy of a Vaiṣṇava. Unless one is brought to the Vaiṣṇava platform, one cannot be a good man.  Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇāḥ  ( Bhāg.  5.18.12). An  avaiṣṇava  never becomes a good man, however severely he is punished.
TEXT 14
यथा कण्टकविद्धाङ्गो जन्तोर्नेच्छति तां व्यथाम्। जीवसाम्यं गतो लिङ्गैर्न तथाविद्धकण्टकः ॥१४॥
yathā kaṇṭaka-viddhāngo jantor necchati tām vyathām jīva-sāmyam gato liṅgair na tathāviddha-kaṇṭakaḥ
yathā —just as;  kaṇṭaka-viddha-aṅgaḥ —a person whose body has been pinpricked;  jantoḥ —of such an animal;  na —not;  icchati —desires;  tām —a particular;  vyathām —pain;  jīva-sāmyam gataḥ —when he understands that the position is the same for everyone;  liṅgaiḥ —by