146
Śrimad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 6, Ch. 3]
TEXT 5
यदि स्युर्बहवो लोके शास्तारो दण्डधारिणः । कस्य स्यातां न वा कस्य मृत्युश्चामृतमेव वा ॥ ५ ॥
yadi syur bahavo loke śāstāro daṇḍa-dhāriṇaḥ kasya syātāṁ na vā kasya mṛtyuś cāmṛtam eva vā
yadi—if; syuḥ—there are; bahavaḥ—many; loke—in this world; śāstāraḥ—rulers or controllers; daṇḍa-dhāriṇaḥ—who punish the sinful men; kasya—of whom; syātāṁ—there may be; na—not; vā—or; kasya—of whom; mṛtyuḥ—distress or unhappiness; ca—and; amṛtam—happiness; eva—certainly; vā—or.
TRANSLATION
If in this universe there are many rulers and justices who disagree about punishment and reward, their contradictory actions will neutralize each other, and no one will be punished or rewarded. Otherwise, if their contradictory acts fail to neutralize each other, everyone will have to be both punished and rewarded.
PURPORT
Because the Yamadūtas had been unsuccessful in carrying out the order of Yamarāja, they doubted whether Yamarāja actually had the power to punish the sinful. Although they had gone to arrest Ajāmila, following Yamarāja's order, they found themselves unsuccessful because of the order of some higher authority. Therefore they were unsure of whether there were many authorities or only one. If there were many authorities who gave different judgments, which could be contradictory, a person might be wrongly punished or wrongly rewarded, or he might be neither punished nor rewarded. According to our experience in the material world, a person punished in one court may appeal to another. Thus the same man may be either punished or rewarded according to different judgments. However, in the law of nature or the court of the Supreme