136 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 5, Ch. 17
thunderbolts. The youthful duration of their lives is very pleasing,
and both men and women enjoy sexual union with great pleasure
for a long time. After years of sensual pleasure—when a balance of
one year of life remains—the wife conceives a child. Thus the stan-
dard of pleasure for the residents of these heavenly regions is ex-
actly like that of the human beings who lived during Treta-yuga.
PURPORT

There are four yugas: Satya-yuga, Treta-yuga, Dvapara-yuga and
Kali-yuga. During the first yuga, Satya-yuga, people were very pious.
Everyone practiced the mystic yoga system for spiritual understanding
and realization of God. Because everyone was always absorbed in
samadhi, no one was interested in material sense enjoyment. During
Treta-yuga, people enjoyed sense pleasure without tribulations. Material
miseries began in Dvapara-yuga, but they were not very stringent.
Stringent material miseries really began from the advent of Kali-yuga.

Another point in this verse is that in all eight of these heavenly varsas,
although men and women enjoy sex pleasure, there is no pregnancy.
Pregnancy takes place only in lower-grade life. For example, animals
like dogs and hogs become pregnant twice a year, and each time they
beget at least half a dozen offspring. Even lower species of life such as
snakes give birth to hundreds of young at one time. This verse informs
us that in grades of life higher than ours, pregnancy occurs once in a
lifetime. People still have sex life, but there is no pregnancy. In the
spiritual world, people are not very attracted to sex life, due to their ex-
alted devotional attitude. Practically speaking, there is no sex life in the
spiritual world, but even if sometimes it does occur. there is no preg-
nancy at all. On the planet earth, however, human beings do become
pregnant, although the tendency is to avoid having children. In this sin-
ful age of Kali, people have even taken to the process of killing the child
in the womb. This is the most degraded practice; it can only perpetuate
the miserable material conditions of those who perform it.

TEXT 13
a ac Reon ¢ oe

YA & SaqTTA: tq; care fatetaalent: WaAdsaa-
waTEnaaetaassaaaaaciaa = frefifieraranaefar
