1216 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 4, Ch. 26
the three qualities [goodness, passion and ignorance]. In this way a living
entity becomes devoid of his real intelligence and becomes perpetually lost
in the cycle of birth and death. Thus he goes up and down from a microbe
in stool to a high position in the Brahmaloka planet.

PURPORT

There are many important words in this verse. The first is anyatha,
‘otherwise,’ which indicates one who does not care for the Vedic rules
and regulations. The rules and regulations laid down in the Vedas are called
Sastra-vidhi. Bhagavad-gita clearly states that one who does not accept the
Sastra-vidhi, or rules and regulations mentioned in the Vedic scriptures,
and acts whimsically or puffed up with false pride, never attains perfection
in this life, nor does he attain happiness or liberation from the material
condition.

yah sastra-vidhim utsrjya
vartate kama-karatah
na sa siddhim avapnoti
na sukham na param gatim
“He who discards scriptural injunctions and acts according to his own
whims attains neither perfection, nor happiness, nor the supreme destina-
tion.” (Bg. 16.23)

Thus one who is deliberately transgressing the rules and regulations of
the sastras is simply involving himself more and more in material existence
in the three modes of material nature. Human society should therefore
follow the Vedic principles of life, which are summarized in Bhagavad-gita.
Otherwise life in material existence will continue. Foolish persons do not
know that the soul is passing through 8,400,000 species of life. By the
gradual process of evolution, when one comes to the human form of life,
he is supposed to follow the rules and regulations laid down in the Vedas.
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu says that the living entity, since time immemorial,
is suffering the threefold miseries of material nature due to his demoniac
attitude, which is his spirit of revolt against the Supreme Personality of
Godhead. Krsna also confirms this in Bhagavad-gita:

mamaivamso jiva-loke
jiva-bhiitah sandtanah

manah sasthanindriyani
prakrti-sthani karsati
