SB 05.05.04 nunam pramattah kurute vikarma... cited (Lec)

Expressions researched:
"I think it not befitting an intelligent man to involve himself again in the activities of sense gratification" |"asann api klesada asa dehah" |"na sadhu manye yata atmano 'yam" |"nunam pramattah kurute vikarma" |"yad indriya-pritaya aprnoti"

Notes from the compiler: VedaBase query: "5.5.4" or "asann api klesada asa dehah" or "I think it not befitting an intelligent man to involve himself again in the activities of sense gratification" or "na sadhu manye yata atmano yam" or "nunam pramattah kurute vikarma" or "yad indriya-pritaya aprnoti"

BG Chapters 1 - 6

BG 5.2, Purport:

Fruitive activities (seeking sense gratification) are cause for material bondage. As long as one is engaged in activities aimed at improving the standard of bodily comfort, one is sure to transmigrate to different types of bodies, thereby continuing material bondage perpetually. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (5.5.4-6) confirms this as follows:

nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma

yad indriya-prītaya āpṛṇoti

na sādhu manye yata ātmano 'yam

asann api kleśa-da āsa dehaḥ

parābhavas tāvad abodha-jāto

yāvan na jijñāsata ātma-tattvam

yāvat kriyās tāvad idaṁ mano vai

karmātmakaṁ yena śarīra-bandhaḥ

evaṁ manaḥ karma-vaśaṁ prayuṅkte

avidyayātmany upadhīyamāne

prītir na yāvan mayi vāsudeve

na mucyate deha-yogena tāvat

"People are mad after sense gratification, and they do not know that this present body, which is full of miseries, is a result of one's fruitive activities in the past. Although this body is temporary, it is always giving one trouble in many ways. Therefore, to act for sense gratification is not good. One is considered to be a failure in life as long as he makes no inquiry about his real identity. As long as he does not know his real identity, he has to work for fruitive results for sense gratification, and as long as one is engrossed in the consciousness of sense gratification one has to transmigrate from one body to another. Although the mind may be engrossed in fruitive activities and influenced by ignorance, one must develop a love for devotional service to Vāsudeva. Only then can one have the opportunity to get out of the bondage of material existence."

SB Canto 4

SB 4.27.29, Purport:

The word karma-vinirmitam means "manufactured by fruitive activities." This entire material world, especially in these days, is the result of fruitive activities. Everyone is fully engaged in decorating the world with highways, motorcars, electricity, skyscrapers, industries, businesses, etc. All this appears very nice for those who are simply engaged in sense gratification and who are ignorant of spiritual identity. As described in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (5.5.4):

nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma

yad indriya-prītaya āpṛṇoti

na sādhu manye yata ātmano 'yam

asann api kleśada āsa dehaḥ

Those without knowledge of the spirit soul are mad after materialistic activities, and they perform all kinds of sinful activities simply for sense gratification. According to Ṛṣabhadeva, such activities are inauspicious because they force one to accept an abominable body in the next life. Everyone can experience that although we try to keep the body in a comfortable position, it is always giving pain and is subjected to the threefold miseries. Otherwise, why are there so many hospitals, welfare boards and insurance establishments? Actually, in this world there is no happiness. People are simply engaged trying to counteract unhappiness. Foolish people accept unhappiness as happiness; therefore the King of the Yavanas decided to attack such foolish people imperceptibly by old age, disease, and ultimately death. Of course, after death there must be birth; therefore Yavana-rāja thought it wise to kill all the karmīs through the agency of Kālakanyā and thus try to make them aware that materialistic advancement is not actually advancement. Every living entity is a spiritual being, and consequently without spiritual advancement the human form of life is ruined.

SB Canto 5

SB 5.5.4, Translation and Purport:

When a person considers sense gratification the aim of life, he certainly becomes mad after materialistic living and engages in all kinds of sinful activity. He does not know that due to his past misdeeds he has already received a body which, although temporary, is the cause of his misery. Actually the living entity should not have taken on a material body, but he has been awarded the material body for sense gratification. Therefore I think it not befitting an intelligent man to involve himself again in the activities of sense gratification by which he perpetually gets material bodies one after another.

Begging, borrowing and stealing to live for sense gratification is condemned in this verse because such consciousness leads one to a dark, hellish condition. The four sinful activities are illicit sex, meat-eating, intoxication and gambling. These are the means by which one gets another material body that is full of miseries. In the Vedas it is said: asaṅgo hy ayaṁ puruṣaḥ. The living entity is not really connected with this material world, but due to his tendency to enjoy the material senses, he is put into the material condition. One should perfect his life by associating with devotees. He should not become further implicated in the material body.