Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrī Caitanya Caritāmṛta Ādi 12.70

caitanya-rahita deha — śuṣkakāṣṭha-sama

jīvitei mṛta sei, maile daṇḍe yama

SYNONYMS

caitanya-rahita — without consciousness; deha — body; śuṣka-kāṣṭha-sama — exactly like dry wood; jīvitei — while living; mṛta — dead; sei — that; maile — after death; daṇḍe — punishes; yama — Yamarāja.

TRANSLATION

A person without Kṛṣṇa consciousness is no better than dry wood or a dead body. He is understood to be dead while living, and after death he is punishable by Yamarāja.

PURPORT

In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Sixth Canto, Third Chapter, twenty-ninth verse, Yamarāja, the superintendent of death, tells his assistants what class of men they should bring before him. There he states, "A person whose tongue never describes the qualities and holy name of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, whose heart never throbs as he remembers Kṛṣṇa and His lotus feet, and whose head never bows in obeisances to the Supreme Lord must be brought before me for punishment." In other words, nondevotees are brought before Yamarāja for punishment, and thus material nature awards them various types of bodies. After death, which is dehāntara, a change of body, nondevotees are brought before Yamarāja for justice. By the judgment of Yamarāja, material nature gives them bodies suitable for the reactions of their past activities. This is the process of dehāntara, or transmigration of the self from one body to another. Kṛṣṇa conscious devotees, however, are not subject to be judged by Yamarāja. For devotees there is an open road, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā. After giving up the body (tyaktvā deham), a devotee never again has to accept another material body, for in a spiritual body he goes back home, back to Godhead. The punishments of Yamarāja are meant for persons who are not Kṛṣṇa conscious.

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