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TEXT 53
na hi kascit ksanam api
jatu tisthaty akarma-krt
karyate hy avasah karma
gunaih svabhavikair balat
SYNONYMS
nanot; hiindeed; kascitanyone; ksanam apieven for a moment; jatuat any time; tisthatiremains; akarma-krtwithout doing anything; karyatehe is caused to perform; hiindeed; avasahautomatically; karmafruitive activities; gunaihby the three modes of nature; svabhavikaihwhich are produced by his own tendencies in previous lives; balatby force.
TRANSLATION
Not a single living entity can remain unengaged even for a moment. One must act by his natural tendency according to the three modes of material nature because this natural tendency forcibly makes him work in a particular way.
PURPORT
The svabhavika, or ones natural tendency, is the most important factor in action. Ones natural tendency is to serve because a living entity is an eternal servant of God. The living entity wants to serve, but because of his forgetfulness of his relationship with the Supreme Lord, he serves under the modes of material nature and manufactures various modes of service, such as socialism, humanitarianism and altruism. However, one should be enlightened in the tenets of Bhagavad-gita and accept the instruction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead that one give up all natural tendencies for material service under different names and take to the service of the Lord. Ones original natural tendency is to act in Krsna consciousness because ones real nature is spiritual. The duty of a human being is to understand that since he is essentially spirit, he must abide by the spiritual tendency and not be carried away by material tendencies. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura has therefore sung:
My dear brothers, you are being carried away by the waves of material energy and are suffering in many miserable conditions. Sometimes you are drowning in the waves of material nature, and sometimes you are tossed like a swimmer struggling in the ocean. As confirmed by Bhaktivinoda Thakura, this tendency to be battered by the waves of maya can be changed to ones original, natural tendency, which is spiritual, when the living entity comes to understand that he is eternally krsna-dasa, a servant of God, Krsna.
If instead of serving maya under different names, one turns his service attitude toward the Supreme Lord, he is then safe, and there is no more difficulty. If one returns to his original, natural tendency in the human form of life by understanding the perfect knowledge given by Krsna Himself in the Vedic literature, ones life is successful.
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