caitanya-rahita deha — Å›uá¹£kakÄṣṭha-sama
jÄ«vitei má¹›ta sei, maile daṇá¸e yama

 caitanya-rahita - without consciousness; deha - body; Å›uá¹£ka-kÄṣṭha-sama - exactly like dry wood; jÄ«vitei - while living; má¹›ta - dead; sei - that; maile - after death; daṇá¸e - punishes; yama - YamarÄja.


Text

A person without Kṛṣṇa consciousness is no better than dry wood or a dead body. He is understood to be dead while living, and after death he is punishable by YamarÄja.

Purport

In the ÅšrÄ«mad-BhÄgavatam, Sixth Canto, third chapter, twenty-ninth verse, YamarÄja, the superintendent of death, tells his assistants what class of men they should bring before him. There he states, “A person whose tongue never describes the qualities and holy name of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, whose heart never throbs as he remembers Kṛṣṇa and His lotus feet, and whose head never bows in obeisances to the Supreme Lord must be brought before me for punishment.†In other words, nondevotees are brought before YamarÄja for punishment, and thus material nature awards them various types of bodies. After death, which is dehÄntara, a change of body, nondevotees are brought before YamarÄja for justice. By the judgment of YamarÄja, material nature gives them bodies suitable for the reactions of their past activities. This is the process of dehÄntara, or transmigration of the self from one body to another. Kṛṣṇa conscious devotees, however, are not subject to be judged by YamarÄja. For devotees there is an open road, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gÄ«tÄ. After giving up the body (tyaktvÄ deham), a devotee never again has to accept another material body, for in a spiritual body he goes back home, back to Godhead. The punishments of YamarÄja are meant for persons who are not Kṛṣṇa conscious.