806 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 4, Ch. 20
by the sweet words of the Vedas, and they engage themselves again and
again in fruitive activities, enamored by the results of their actions.
PURPORT

Srila Narottama dasa Thakura, a great dcdrya of the Gaudiya-sampradaya,
has said that persons who are very much attached to the fruitive activities
of the Vedas, namely karma-kanda and jiiana-kanda, are certainly doomed.
In the Vedas there are three categories of activities known as karma-kanda,
fruitive activities, jfiana-kanda, philosophical research, and upasana-kanda,
worship of different demigods for receiving material benefits. Those who
are engaged in karma-kanda and jndna-kanda are doomed in the sense that
everyone is doomed who is entrapped by this material body, whether it is
a body of a demigod, a king, alower animal or whatever. The sufferings of
the threefold miseries of material nature are the same for all. Cultivation
of knowledge to understand one’s spiritual position is also, to a certain
extent, a waste of time. Because he is an eternal part and parcel of the
Supreme Lord, the immediate business of the living entity is to engage
himself in devotional service. Prthu Maharaja therefore says that the
allurement of material benedictions is another trap to entangle one in this
material world. He therefore frankly tells the Lord that the Lord’s offer-
ings of benedictions in the form of material facilities are certainly causes
for bewilderment. A pure devotee is not at allinterested in bhukti or mukti.

The Lord sometimes offers benedictions to the neophyte devotees who
have not yet understood that material facilities will not make them happy.
In the Caitanya-caritamrta the Lord therefore says that a sincere devotee
who is not very intelligent may ask some material benefit from the Lord,
but the Lord, being omniscient, does not generally give material rewards
but, on the contrary, takes away whatever material facilities are being en-
joyed by His devotee so that ultimately the devotee will completely
surrender unto Him. In other words, the offering of benedictions in the
form of material profit is never auspicious for the devotee. The statements
of the Vedas which offer elevation to heavenly planets in exchange for
great sacrifices are simply bewildering. Therefore in Bhagavad-gita the Lord
says: yam imam puspitam vacam pravadanty avipascitah (Bg. 2.42). The less
intelligent class of men (avipascitah) are attracted by the flowery language
of the Vedas and therefore engage in fruitive activities to become materially
benefited. Thus they continue life after life, in different bodily forms, to
search very, very hard.
