Text 32] Prayers by the Demigods 173

achieving; krcchrena—by undergoing severe austerities, penances and
hard labor; param padam—the highest position (according to their
imagination and speculation); tatah—from that position; patanti—they
fall; adhah—down into material existence again; anddrta—neglecting
devotion to; yusmat—Your; arighrayah—lotus feet.

TRANSLATION

[Someone may say that aside from devotees, who always seek
shelter at the Lord’s lotus feet, there are those who are not devo-
tees but who have accepted different processes for attaining salva-
tion. What happens to them? In answer to this question, Lord
Brahma and the other demigods said:] O lotus-eyed Lord, al-
though nondevotees who accept severe austerities and penances to
achieve the highest position may think themselves liberated, their
intelligence is impure. They fall down from their position of
imagined superiority because they have no regard for Your lotus
feet.

PURPORT

Aside from devotees, there are many others, nondevotees, known as
karmis, jfidnis or yogis, philanthropists, altruists, politicians, imper-
sonalists and voidists. There are many varieties of nondevotees who have
their respective ways of liberation, but simply because they do not know
the shelter of the Lord’s lotus feet, although they falsely think that they
have been liberated and elevated to the highest position, they fall down.
As clearly stated by the Lord Himself in Bhagavad-gita (9.3):

asraddadhanah purusa
dharmasydsya parantapa

aprapya mam nivartante
mrtyu-samsdra-vartmani

“Those who are not faithful on the path of devotional service cannot at-
tain Me, O conqueror of foes, but return to birth and death in this ma-
terial world.” It doesn’t matter whether one is a karmi, jridni, yogi,
philanthropist, politician or whatever; if one has no love for the lotus
