Canto 6: Prescribed Duties for MankindChapter 1: The History of the Life of Ajāmila

Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 6.1.44

sambhavanti hi bhadrāṇi

viparītāni cānaghāḥ

kāriṇāḿ guṇa-sańgo 'sti

dehavān na hy akarma-kṛt

SYNONYMS

sambhavanti — there are; hi — indeed; bhadrāṇi — auspicious, pious activities; viparītāni — just the opposite (inauspicious, sinful activities); ca — also; anaghāḥO sinless inhabitants of Vaikuṇṭha; kāriṇām — of the fruitive workers; guṇa-sańgaḥ — contamination of the three modes of nature; asti — there is; deha-vān — anyone who has accepted this material body; na — not; hi — indeed; akarma-kṛt — without performing action.

TRANSLATION

O inhabitants of Vaikuṇṭha, you are sinless, but those within this material world are all karmīs, whether acting piously or impiously. Both kinds of action are possible for them because they are contaminated by the three modes of nature and must act accordingly. One who has accepted a material body cannot be inactive, and sinful action is inevitable for one acting under the modes of material nature. Therefore all the living entities within this material world are punishable.

PURPORT

The difference between human beings and nonhuman beings is that a human is supposed to act according to the direction of the Vedas. Unfortunately, men manufacture their own ways of acting, without reference to the Vedas. Therefore all of them commit sinful actions and are punishable.

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