SB 6.11.23
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
TEXT 23
- trai-vargikāyāsa-vighātam asmat-
- patir vidhatte puruṣasya śakra
- tato 'numeyo bhagavat-prasādo
- yo durlabho 'kiñcana-gocaro 'nyaiḥ
SYNONYMS
trai-vargika — for the three objectives, namely religiosity, economic development, and satisfaction of the senses; āyāsa — of endeavor; vighātam — the ruin; asmat — our; patiḥ — Lord; vidhatte — performs; puruṣasya — of a devotee; śakra — O Indra; tataḥ — whereby; anumeyaḥ — to be inferred; bhagavat-prasādaḥ — the special mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; yaḥ — which; durlabhaḥ — very difficult to obtain; akiñcana-gocaraḥ — within the reach of the unalloyed devotees; anyaiḥ — by others, who aspire for material happiness.
TRANSLATION
Our Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, forbids His devotees to endeavor uselessly for religion, economic development and sense gratification. O Indra, one can thus infer how kind the Lord is. Such mercy is obtainable only by unalloyed devotees, not by persons who aspire for material gains.
PURPORT
There are four objectives in human life—namely, religiosity (dharma), economic development (artha), sense gratification (kāma), and liberation (mokṣa) from the bondage of material existence. People generally aspire for religiosity, economic development and sense gratification, but a devotee has no other desire than to serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead both in this life and in the next. The special mercy for the unalloyed devotee is that the Lord saves him from hard labor to achieve the results of religion, economic development and sense gratification. Of course, if one wants such benefits, the Lord certainly awards them. Indra, for example, although a devotee, was not much interested in release from material bondage; instead, he desired sense gratification and a high standard of material happiness in the heavenly planets. Vṛtrāsura, however, being an unalloyed devotee, aspired only to serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore the Lord arranged for him to go back to Godhead after his bodily bondage was destroyed by Indra. Vṛtrāsura requested Indra to release his thunderbolt against him as soon as possible so that both he and Indra would benefit according to their proportionate advancement in devotional service.