54 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 6, Ch. 15
PURPORT
The misunderstanding of the conditioned soul is the bodily conception
of life. The body is material, but within the body is the soul. This is
spiritual understanding. Unfortunately, one who is in ignorance, under
the spell of material illusion, accepts the body to be the self. He cannot
understand that the body is matter. Like small particles of sand, bodies
come together and are separated by the force of time, and people falsely
lament for unification and separation. Unless one knows this, there is no
question of happiness. Therefore in Bhagavad-gita (2.13) this is the first
instruction given by the Lord:
dehino ’smin yatha dehe
kaumaram yauvanam jara
tatha dehantara-praptir
dhiras tatra na muhyati
“*As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to
youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The
self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change.”’ We are not the
body; we are spiritual beings trapped in the body. Our real interest lies
in understanding this simple fact. Then we can make further spiritual
progress. Otherwise, if we remain in the bodily conception of life, our
miserable material existence will continue forever. Political adjustments,
social welfare work, medical assistance and the other programs we have
manufactured for peace and happiness will never endure. We shall have
to undergo the sufferings of material life one after another. Therefore
material life is said to be duhkhdlayam asdasvatam; it is a reservoir of
miserable conditions.
TEXT 4
TH MATS & TAT ahead a aT |
at Yaa YAY Beata I 2 I
yatha dhandsu vai dhana
bhavanti na bhavanti ca
evam bhitani bhitesu
coditanisa-mayaya
