258 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 7, Ch. 9

PURPORT

Throughout the entire world, everyone is making big, big plans to ad-
just the miseries of the material world, and this is true at present, in the
past and in the future. Nonetheless, although they make elaborate politi-
cal, social and cultural plans, they have all been described herein as
vimiidha—fools. The material world has been described in Bhagavad-
gita as duhkhdlayam asdsvatam—temporary and miserable—but these
fools are trying to turn the material world into sukhdlayam, a place of
happiness, not knowing how everything acts by the arrangement of ma-
terial nature, which works in her own way.

prakrteh kriyamanani
gunaih karmani sarvasah

ahankdara-vimidhatma
kartaham iti manyate

“The bewildered spirit soul, under the influence of the three modes of
material nature, thinks himself to be the doer of activities that are in ac-
tuality carried out by nature.” (Bg. 3.27)

There is a plan for material nature, personally known as Durga, to
punish the demons. Although the asuras, the godless demons, struggle
for existence, they are directly attacked by the goddess Durga, who is
well equipped with ten hands with different types of weapons to punish
them. She is carried by her lion carrier, or the modes of passion and ig-
norance. Everyone struggles very hard to fight through the modes of pas-
sion and ignorance and conquer material nature, but at the end everyone
is vanquished by nature’s laws.

There is a river known as Vaitarani between the material and spiritual
worlds, and one must cross this river to reach the other side, or the spiri-
tual world. This is an extremely difficult task. As the Lord says in
Bhagavad-gita (7.14), daivi hy esa gunamayi mama maya duratyaya:
“This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material
nature, is difficult to overcome.” The same word duratyaya, meaning
“very difficult,” is used here. Therefore one cannot surpass the stringent
laws of material nature except by the mercy of the Supreme Lord. None-
theless, although all materialists are baffled in their plans, they try again
and again to become happy in this material world. Therefore they have
