928 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 4, Ch. 22

joyment is the cause of our falldown in this material world, and thus we
suffer the threefold miseries and continuous birth, death, old age and
disease. However, if we turn our desires toward the transcendental loving
service of the Lord, our desires become purified. We cannot kill desires.
We have to purify them of different designations. If we constantly think
of being a member of a particular nation, society or family and continuous-
ly think about them, we become very strongly entangled in the con-
ditioned life of birth and death. But if our desires are applied to the
service of the Lord, they become purified, and thus we become immediate-
ly freed from material contamination.

TEXT 31
WTA MAT: eafay |
TR BAA! | MEMEATTETATCAA: 113 21

bhrasyaty anusmrtis cittam
jnana-bhramsah smrti-ksaye

tad-rodham kavayah prahur
atmapahnavam atmanah

bhrasyati—becomes destroyed; anusmrtih—constantly thinking; cittam—
consciousness; jiiana-bhramsah—bereft of real knowledge; smrti-ksaye —by
destruction of remembrance; tat-rodham—choking that process; kavayah—
great learned scholars; prahuh—have opined ;atma—of the soul; apahnavam—
destruction; atmanah—of the soul.

TRANSLATION

When one deviates from his original consciousness, he loses the capacity
to remember his previous position or recognize his present one. When re-
membrance is lost, all knowledge that is acquired is based on a false foun-
dation. When this occurs, learned scholars consider that the soul is lost.

PURPORT

The living entity or the soul is ever existing and eternal. It cannot be
lost, but learned scholars say that it is lost when actual knowledge is not
working. That is the difference between animals and human beings. Accord-
ing to less intelligent philosophers, animals have no soul. But factually
animals have souls. Due to the animals’ gross ignorance, however, it appears
that they have lost their souls. Without the soul, a body cannot move. That
is the difference between a living body and a dead body. When the soul is
out of the body, the body is called dead. The soul is said to be lost when
