710 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 1, Ch. 13

Ordinarily no one can change the course of one’s due happiness and
distress by plan. Everyone has to accept them as they come under the
subtle arrangement of kala, or invincible time. There is no use trying to
counteract them. The best thing is, therefore, that one should endeavor
to achieve salvation, and this prerogative is given only to man because of
his developed condition of mental activities and intelligence. Only for
man are there different Vedic instructions for attainment of salvation
during the human form of existence. One who misuses this opportunity
of advanced intelligence is verily condemned and put into different types
of miseries, either in this present life or in the future. That is the way the
Supreme controls everyone.

TEXT 42

AIT TN AA MATA AST: ATTAHA! |
Teal Aare aed TITY

yatha gavo nasi protas
tantyam baddhas ca damabhih
vaktantyam namabhir baddha
vahanti balim isituh

yatha—as much as; gavah—cow; nasi—by the nose; protah—women;
tantyam—by the thread; baddhah— bound up by; ca—also; damabhih—by
ropes; vaktantyam—in the network of Vedic hymns; namabhih—by
nomenclatures; baddhah— conditioned; vahanti—carry on; balim—orders;
isituh—for being controlled by the Supreme Lord.

TRANSLATION

As a cow, bound through the nose by a long rope, is conditioned,
so also human beings are bound by different Vedic injunctions and are
conditioned to obey the orders of the Supreme.

PURPORT

Every living being, whether a man or an animal or a bird, etc., thinks
that he is free by himself, but actually no one is free from the severe laws
of the Lord. The laws of the Lord are severe because they cannot be
disobeyed in any circumstance. The manmade laws may be evaded by
cunning outlaws, but in the codes of the supreme lawmaker, there is not the
slightest possibility of neglecting the laws. A slight change in the course of
