Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 7.13.28

ity etad ātmanah svārtham

santam vismritya vai pumān

vicitrām asati dvaite

ghorām āpnoti samsritim

SYNONYMS

iti — in this way; etat — a person materially conditioned; ātmanah — of his self; sva-artham — own interest; santam — existing within oneself; vismritya — forgetting; vai — indeed; pumān — the living entity; vicitrām — attractive false varieties; asati — in the material world; dvaite — other than the self; ghorām — very fearful (due to continuous acceptance of birth and death); āpnoti — one becomes entangled; samsritim — in material existence.

TRANSLATION

In this way the conditioned soul living within the body forgets his self-interest because he identifies himself with the body. Because the body is material, his natural tendency is to be attracted by the varieties of the material world. Thus the living entity suffers the miseries of material existence.

PURPORT

Everyone is trying to be happy because, as explained in the previous verse, sukham asyātmano rūpam sarvehoparatis tanuh: when the living entity is in his original spiritual form, he is happy by nature. There is no question of miseries for the spiritual being. As Krishna is always happy, the living entities, who are His parts and parcels, are also happy by nature, but because of being put within this material world and forgetting their eternal relationship with Krishna, they have forgotten their real nature. Because every one of us is a part of Krishna, we have a very affectionate relationship with Him, but because we have forgotten our identities and are considering the body to be the self, we are afflicted by all the troubles of birth, death, old age and disease. This misconception in materialistic life continues unless and until one comes to understand his relationship with Krishna. The happiness sought by the conditioned soul is certainly only illusion, as explained in the next verse.

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