Text 27]
Mahārāja Pṛthu's Going Back Home
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head.” Thus the destination of the devotees is the abode of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
In this verse the word  naiṣkarmyam , which means transcendental knowledge, is also significant. Unless one comes to the platform of transcendental knowledge and offers devotional service to the Lord, he is not perfect. Generally the processes of  jñāna ,  yoga  and  karma  are executed life after life before one gets a chance to render pure devotional service to the Lord. This chance is given by the grace of a pure devotee, and it is in this way only that one can actually attain liberation. In the context of this narration, the wives of the demigods repeated because although they had the opportunity of a birth in a higher planetary system, a lifetime spanning many millions of years and all material comforts, they were not as fortunate as Pṛthu Mahārāja and his wife, who were actually surpassing them. In other words, Pṛthu Mahārāja and his wife scorned promotion to the higher planetary systems and even to Brahmaloka because the position which they were attaining was incomparable. In  Bhagavad-gītā  the Lord affirms,  ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna : “From the highest planet in the material world to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place.” (Bg. 8.16) In other words, even if one goes to the highest planet, Brahmaloka, he has to return to the miseries of birth and death. In the Ninth Chapter of  Bhagavad-gītā , Lord Kṛṣṇa also asserts:
te taṁ bhuktvā svarga-lokaṁ viśālaṁ kṣīṇe puṇye martya-lokaṁ viśanti
“When they have thus enjoyed heavenly sense pleasure, they return to this mortal planet again.” (Bg. 9.21) Thus after exhausting the results of pious activities, one has to come again to the lower planetary systems and begin a new chapter of pious activities. It is therefore said in  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam ,  naiṣkarmyam apy acyuta-bhāva-varjitam : “The path of liberation is not at all secure unless one attains the devotional service of the Lord.” ( Bhāg.  1.5.12) Even if one is promoted to the impersonal  brahmajyoti , he runs every chance of falling down into this material world. If it is possible to fall down from the  brahmajyoti , which is beyond the higher planetary systems in this material world, then what can be said of the ordinary  yogīs  and  karmīs  who can only be elevated to the higher material planets? Thus the wives of the denizens of the higher planetary systems did not very much appreciate the results of  karma ,  jñāna  and  yoga .