Srimad Bhagavatham : 6.1.51.

Skandham-6.



Chapter-1.



Slokam-51.



tad   etat   sodasa-kalam   lingam-sakti-trayam    mahat



dhatte-nusamsrtim    pumsi   harsa-soka-bhayartidam.





tat   =   therefore;

etat   =   this;

sodasa-kalam   =   made of sixteen parts (namely the ten senses, the mind and the five sense objects);

lingam   =   the subtle body;

sakti-trayam   =   the effect of the three modes of material nature;

mahat   =   insurmountable;

dhatte   =   gives;

anusamsrtim   =   almost perpetual rotation and transmigration in different types of bodies;

pumsi   =   unto the living entity;

harsa   =   jubilation;

śoka—lamentation;

bhaya   =   fear;

arti   =   misery;

dam   =   which gives.





The subtle body is endowed with sixteen parts—the five knowledge-acquiring senses, the five working senses, the five objects of sense gratification, and the mind. This subtle body is an effect of the three modes of material nature. It is composed of insurmountably strong desires, and therefore it causes the living entity to transmigrate from one body to another in human life, animal life and life as a demigod. When the living entity gets the body of a demigod, he is certainly very jubilant, when he gets a human body he is always in lamentation, and when he gets the body of an animal, he is always afraid. In all conditions, however, he is actually miserable. His miserable condition is called saṁsṛti, or transmigration in material life.



The sum and substance of material conditional life is explained in this verse. The living entity, the seventeenth element, is struggling alone, life after life. This struggle is called samsrti, or material conditional life. In Bhagavad-gita it is said that the force of material nature is insurmountably strong (daivi hy esa guna-mayi mama maya duratyaya). Material nature harasses the living entity in different bodies, but if the living entity surrenders to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he becomes free from this entanglement, as confirmed in Bhagavad-gita (mam eva ye prapadyante mayam etam taranti te [Bg. 7.14]). Thus his life becomes successful.

To be continued  ....