Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 11.14.11

ādy-anta-vanta evaishām

lokāh karma-vinirmitāh

duhkhodarkās tamo-nishthāh

kshudrā mandāh śucārpitāh

SYNONYMS

ādi-anta-vantah — possessing a beginning and end; eva — undoubtedly; eshām — of them (the materialistic); lokāh — achieved destinations; karma — by one's material work; vinirmitāh — produced; duhkha — misery; udarkāh — bringing as the future result; tamah — ignorance; nishthāh — situated in; kshudrāh — meager; mandāh — wretched; śucā — with lamentation; arpitāh — filled.

TRANSLATION

All the persons I have just mentioned obtain temporary fruits from their material work. Indeed, the meager and miserable situations they achieve bring future unhappiness and are based on ignorance. Even while enjoying the fruits of their work, such persons are filled with lamentation.

PURPORT

Those who have grasped temporary material things, mistaking them to be ultimate reality, are not considered very intelligent by anyone except themselves. Such foolish persons are always in anxiety because by the laws of nature the very fruits of their work are constantly being transformed in ways neither desired nor expected. The performer of Vedic rituals can elevate himself to heavenly planets, whereas one who is atheistic has the privilege of transferring himself to hell. The entire panorama of material existence is actually uninteresting and dull (mandāh). One can make no real progress within the material world; therefore one should take to Krishna consciousness and prepare oneself to go back home, back to Godhead.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
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