Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Srimad Bhagavatam 3.32.21

tatas te ksina-sukrtah

punar lokam imam sati

patanti vivasa devaih

sadyo vibhramsitodayah

SYNONYMS

tatah -- then; te -- they; ksina -- exhausted; su-krtah -- results of their pious activities; punah -- again; lokam imam -- to this planet; sati -- O virtuous mother; patanti -- fall; vivasah -- helpless; devaih -- by higher arrangement; sadyah -- suddenly; vibhramsita -- caused to fall; udayah -- their prosperity.

TRANSLATION

When the results of their pious activities are exhausted, they fall down by higher arrangement and again come back to this planet, just as any person raised to a high position sometimes all of a sudden falls.

PURPORT

It is sometimes found that a person elevated to a very high position in government service falls down all of a sudden, and no one can check him. Similarly, after finishing their period of enjoyment, foolish persons who are very much interested in being elevated to the position of president in higher planets also fall down to this planet. The distinction between the elevated position of a devotee and that of an ordinary person attracted to fruitive activities is that when a devotee is elevated to the spiritual kingdom he never falls down, whereas an ordinary person falls, even if he is elevated to the highest planetary system, Brahmaloka. It is confirmed in Bhagavad-gita (abrahma-bhuvanal lokah) that even if one is elevated to a higher planet, he has to come down again. But Krsna confirms in Bhagavad-gita (8.16), mam upetya tu kaunteya punar janma na vidyate: "Anyone who attains My abode never comes back to this conditioned life of material existence."

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