Mantra Two 19

not bind him to the law of karma. And there is no alternative to
this way for man.

PURPORT

No one wants to die, and everyone wants to live for as
long as he can drag on. This temperament is not only visible
individually, but also it is visible collectively in the community,
society and nation. There is a hard struggle for life in every
class of living entitics, and the Veda says that this is quite
natural for the living being. The living being is clernal by nature,
but due to his bondage in the material existence he has to
change his body from one to another. This process is called
transmigration of the soul. This transmigration is also called
Karma-bandhana, or being bound by one’s own work. The
living entity has to work for his livelihood because that is the
law of material Nature, and if he does not act according to the
prescribed dutics of his particular life he transgresses the law of
Nature, making himself bound more and more in the cycle of
birth and death.

The cycle of birth and death is present in life other than
the human form. When the living entity gets the chance for
human life, however, it is his chance to get free from the
chain of the law of karma. Karma, akarma, and vikarma
are principles very clearly deseribed in’ the Bhagavad-gita.
Actions which are done in’ terms of the prescribed duties
mentioned in the revealed Scriptures are called karma. Actions
which make one free from the cycle of birth and death are
called akarma. And actions which are performed by the misuse
of one’s freedom, thereby directing oneself toward the lower
regions of life, are called vikarma.

Of these three categories of activities, the one which makes
one free from the cycle of further bondage to karma is preferred
by intelligent men. Ordinary men want lo perform good work in
order to be recognized and to achieve some status of life in this
world or in heaven, but more advanced men want lo be free
