Text 31]
The Behavior of a Perfect Person
119
If he again misses the opportunity, he is again put into the cycle of birth and death, going sometimes higher and sometimes lower, turning on the  saṅsāra-cakra , the wheel of material existence. As a wheel sometimes goes up and sometimes comes down, the stringent laws of material nature make the living entity in material existence sometimes happy and sometimes distressed. How he suffers in the cycle of happiness and distress is described in the next verse.
TEXT 31
आन्यात्मिकादिभिर्दुःखैरविमुक्तस्य कर्हिन्ति । मर्त्यस्य कृन्छ्रोपनतैरर्थैः कामैः क्रियेत किम् ॥३१॥
ādhyātmikādibhir duḥkhair avimuktasya karhicit martyasya kṛcchropanatair arthaiḥ kāmaiḥ kriyeta kim
ādhyātmika-ādibhiḥ—adhyātmika, adhidaivika and adhibhautika; duḥkhaiḥ—by the threefold miseries of material life; avimuktasya—of one who is not freed from such miserable conditions (or one who is subjected to birth, death, old age and disease); karhicit—sometimes; martyasya—of the living entity subjected to death; kṛcchra-upanataiḥ—things obtained because of severe miseries; arthaiḥ—even if some benefit is derived; kāmaiḥ—which can fulfill one's material desires; kriyeta—what do they do; kim—and what is the value of such happiness.
TRANSLATION
Materialistic activities are always mixed with three kinds of miserable conditions—adhyātmika, adhidaivika and adhibautika. Therefore, even if one achieves some success by performing such activities, what is the benefit of this success? One is still subjected to birth, death, old age, disease and the reactions of his fruitive activities.
PURPORT
According to the materialistic way of life, if a poor man, after laboring very, very hard, gets some material profit at the end of his life, he is