124 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 7, Ch. 2

atah Socata mé yiiyam
param cdtmadnam eva va

ka &tmaé kah paro vatra
sviyah parakya eva va

sva-parabhinivesena
vinajnanena dehinam

atah—therefore; Socata—lament for; maé—do not; yiiyam—all of
you; param—another; ca—and; adtmanam—yourself; eva—certainly;
va—or; kah—who; atma—self; kah—who; parah—other; vd—or;
atra—in this material world; sviyah—one’s own; parakyah—for others;
eva—indeed; vd—or; sva-para-abhinivesena—consisting of absorption
in the bodily concept of oneself and others; vina—besides; ajndnena—
the lack of knowledge; dehinam—of all the embodied living entities.

TRANSLATION

Therefore none of you should be aggrieved for the loss of the
body—whether your own or those of others. Only in ignorance
does one make bodily distinctions, thinking “‘Who am I? Who are
the others? What is mine? What is for others?”

PURPORT

In this material world, the conception of self-preservation is the first
law of nature. According to this conception, one should be interested in
his personal safety and should then consider society, friendship, love,
nationality, community and so on, which have all developed because of
the bodily conception of life and a lack of knowledge of the spirit soul.
This is called ajfdna. As long as human society is in darkness and ig-
norance, men will continue to make huge arrangements in the bodily
conception of life. This is described by Prahlada Maharaja as bharam. In
the materialistic conception, modern civilization makes enormous ar-
rangements for huge roads, houses, mills and factories, and this is man’s
conception of the advancement of civilization. People do not know,
however, that at any time they themselves may be kicked out of the scene
and forced to accept bodies that have nothing to do with these enormous
houses, palaces, roads and automobiles. Therefore when Arjuna was
