Text 28] Maharaja Prthu’s Going Back Home 1011
ephemeral. Moreover, Krgna says, tad bhavaty alpa-medhasam: “They
are simply meant for men of small intelligence.” (Bg. 7.23) The word
visaya denotes sense gratification. The karmis flatly state that they want
sense gratification. The yogis also want sense gratification, but they want
it to a higher degree. It is their desire to show some miraculous results
through the practice of yoga. Thus they strive very hard to achieve success
in becoming smaller than the smallest or greater than the greatest, or in
creating a planet like the earth, or, as scientists, by inventing so many
wonderful machines. Similarly, the jranis are also engaged in sense
gratification, for they are simply interested in becoming one with the
Supreme. Thus the aim of all these activities is sense gratification to a
higher or a lower degree. The bhaktas, however, are not interested in
sense gratificatory practices; they are simply satisfied to get an opportu-
nity to serve the Lord. Although they are satisfied in any condition, there
is nothing they cannot obtain because they are purely engaged in the
service‘of the Lord.

The wives of the demigods condemn the performers of sense gratifica-
tory activities as vaficita, cheated. Those so engaged are actually killing
themselves (dtma-ha). As stated in Srimad-Bhdgavatam:

nr-deham adyam su-labham su-durlabham
plavam su-kalpam guru-karna-dharam
maydnukiilena nabhasvateritam
puman bhavabdhim na taret sa dtma-ha
(Bhag. 11.20.17)

When one wants to cross a large ocean, he requires a strong boat. It is
said that this human form of life is a good boat by which one can cross the
ocean of nescience. In the human form of life one can obtain the guidance
of a good navigator, the spiritual master. He also gets a favorable wind by
the mercy of Krsna, and that wind is the instructions of Krsna. The human
body is the boat, the instructions of Lord Krsna are the favorable winds,
and the spiritual master is the navigator. The spiritual master knows well
how to adjust the sails to catch the winds favorably and steer the boat to
its destination. If, however, one does not take advantage of this opportu-
nity, he wastes the human form of life. Wasting time and life in this way is
the same as committing suicide.

The word labdhvapavargyam is significant in this verse because, accord-
ing to Jiva Gosvami, dpavargyam, or the path of liberation, does not refer
to merging into the impersonal Brahman but to sdlokyddi-siddhi which
