Text 22] Prayers by the Demigods 149

region of hellish life because of his cruelty. It is said that a cruel person
like a butcher is advised not to live and not to die. While living, a cruel
person creates a hellish condition for his next birth, and therefore he
should not live; but he is also advised not to die, because after death he
must go to the darkest region of hell. Thus in either circumstance he is
condemned. Karnsa, therefore, having good sense about the science of
the soul’s transmigration, deliberately refrained from killing Devaki.

In this verse the words gantdé tamo ’ndham tanu-ménino dhruvam are
very important and require extensive understanding. Srila Jiva Gosvami,
in his Vaisnava-tosani-tikd, says: tatra tanu-maninah pdpina iti
dehatma-buddhyaiva pdpabhiniveso bhavati. One who lives in the
bodily concept, thinking, “I am this body,” involves himself, by the very
nature of this conception, in a life of sinful activities. Anyone living in
such a conception is to be considered a candidate for hell.

adanta-gobhir visatam tamisram
punah punas carvita-carvananam

(Bhag. 7.5.30)

One who is in a bodily concept of life has no control over sense gratifica-
tion. Such a person can do anything sinful to eat, drink, be merry and
enjoy a life of sense gratification, not knowing of the soul’s transmigra-
tion from one body to another. Such a person does whatever he likes,
whatever he imagines, and therefore, being subject to the laws of nature,
he suffers miserably again and again in different material bodies.

ydavat kriyds tavad idarh mano vai
karmatmakam yena Sarira-bandhah
(Bhag. 5.5.5)

In the bodily concept of life, a person is karmanubandha, or conditioned
by karma, and as long as the mind is absorbed in karma, one must accept
a material body. Sarira-bandha, bondage to the material body, is a source

of misery (klesa-da).

na sddhu manye yata Gtmano ’yam

asann api klesada dasa dehah
