Canto 4: Creation of the Fourth OrderChapter 21: Instructions by Mahārāja Pṛthu

Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 4.21.51

adya nas tamasaḥ pāras

tvayopāsāditaḥ prabho

bhrāmyatāḿ naṣṭa-dṛṣṭīnāḿ

karmabhir daiva-saḿjñitaiḥ

SYNONYMS

adya — today; naḥ — of us; tamasaḥ — of the darkness of material existence; pāraḥ — the other side; tvayā — by you; upāsāditaḥ — increased; prabhoO lord; bhrāmyatām — who are wandering; naṣṭa-dṛṣṭīnām — who have lost their goal of life; karmabhiḥ — on account of past deeds; daiva-saḿjñitaiḥ — arranged by superior authority.

TRANSLATION

The citizens continued: Today you have opened our eyes and revealed how to cross to the other side of the ocean of darkness. By our past deeds and by the arrangement of superior authority, we are entangled in a network of fruitive activities and have lost sight of the destination of life; thus we have been wandering within the universe.

PURPORT

In this verse, the words karmabhir daiva-saḿjñitaiḥ are very significant. Due to the quality of our actions, we come to the association of the modes of material nature, and by superior arrangement we are given a chance to enjoy the fruitive results of such activities in different types of bodies. In this way, having lost sight of their destinations in life, all living entities are wandering in different species throughout the universe, sometimes getting birth in a lower species and sometimes existence in higher planetary systems; thus we are all wandering since time immemorial. It is by the grace of the spiritual master and the Supreme Personality of Godhead that we get the clue of devotional life, and thus progressive success in our life begins. Here this is admitted by the citizens of King Pṛthu; in full consciousness they admit the benefit they have derived from the activities of Mahārāja Pṛthu.

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