Text 20] Punishment and Reward of Kali 899

also it is confirmed (Bg. 6.5) that by one’s mind, freed from material
affection, one can deliver himself from the sufferings of material pangs.
So one should not entangle oneself in matter by the mind’s material
affections. Thus one’s own mind is one’s friend or enemy in one’s material
happiness and distress.

Atheistic materialistic Sankhyaites conclude that material nature is the
cause of all causes. According to them, combinations of material elements
are the causes of material happiness and distress, and disintegration of
matter is the cause of freedom from all material pangs. Gautama and
Kanada find out that the atomic combination is the cause of everything,
and impersonalists like Agtavarkra discover that the spiritual effulgence of
Brahman is the cause of all causes. But in the Bhagavad-gita the Lord
Himself declares that He is the source of impersonal Brahman also, and
therefore He, the Personality of Godhead, is the ultimate cause of all
causes. It is also confirmed in the Brahma-samhita that Lord Krsna is the
ultimate cause of all causes.

TEXT 20

wraeaeraesaata Beate era: |
aed wey fay aaa loll

apratarkyad anirdesyad
iti kesv api nigscayah

atranurupam rajarse
vimrsa sva-manisaya

apratarkyat—beyond the power of reasoning; anirdesyat—beyond the
power of thinking; iti—thus; kesu— someone; api~also; niscayah—definite-
ly concluded; atra—herein; anurupam—which of them is right; rajarse—O
sage amongst the kings; vimrsa—judge yourself; sva—by your own;
manisaya—power of intelligence.

TRANSLATION

There are also some thinkers who believe that no one can ascertain
the cause of distress by argumentation, nor can one know it by imagina-
tion, nor can it be expressed by words. O sage amongst kings, judge for
yourself by thinking over all this with your own intelligence.
