TEXT 28
ity etad atmanah svartham
santam vismrtya vai puman
vicitram asati dvaite
ghoram apnoti samsrtim
SYNONYMS
itiin this way; etata person materially conditioned; atmanahof his self; sva-arthamown interest; santamexisting within oneself; vismrtyaforgetting; vaiindeed; pumanthe living entity; vicitramattractive false varieties; asatiin the material world; dvaiteother than the self; ghoramvery fearful (due to continuous acceptance of birth and death); apnotione becomes entangled; samsrtimin material existence.
TRANSLATION
In this way the conditioned soul living within the body forgets his self-interest because he identifies himself with the body. Because the body is material, his natural tendency is to be attracted by the varieties of the material world. Thus the living entity suffers the miseries of material existence.
PURPORT
Everyone is trying to be happy because, as explained in the previous verse, sukham asyatmano rupam sarvehoparatis tanuh: when the living entity is in his original spiritual form, he is happy by nature. There is no question of miseries for the spiritual being. As Krsna is always happy, the living entities, who are His parts and parcels, are also happy by nature, but because of being put within this material world and forgetting their eternal relationship with Krsna, they have forgotten their real nature. Because every one of us is a part of Krsna, we have a very affectionate relationship with Him, but because we have forgotten our identities and are considering the body to be the self, we are afflicted by all the troubles of birth, death, old age and disease. This misconception in materialistic life continues unless and until one comes to understand his relationship with Krsna. The happiness sought by the conditioned soul is certainly only illusion, as explained in the next verse.

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