याति तत्साम्यतां भद्रे ह्यलिङ्गो लिङ्गवानिव ॥२४॥
evaá¹ guṇair bhrÄmyamÄṇe
manasy avikalaḥ pumÄn
yÄti tat-sÄmyatÄá¹ bhadre
hy aliá¹…go liá¹…gavÄn iva
evam - in this way; guṇaiḥ - by the modes of material nature; bhrÄmyamÄṇe - when shaken; manasi - the mind; avikalaḥ - changeless; pumÄn - the living entity; yÄti - approaches; tat-sÄmyatÄm - the same condition of agitation as the mind; bhadre - O my gentle mother; hi - indeed; aliá¹…gaḥ - without a subtle or gross body; liá¹…ga-vÄn - possessing a material body; iva - as if.
In the same way, O my gentle mother, when the mind is agitated by the movements of the modes of material nature, the living entity, although freed from all the different phases of the subtle and gross bodies, thinks that he has changed from one condition to another.
As stated in ÅšrÄ«mad-BhÄgavatam (10.84.13):
yasyÄtma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhÄtuke
sva-dhīḥ kalatrÄdiá¹£u bhauma-ijya-dhīḥ
yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile na karhicij
janeṣv abhijñeṣu sa eva go-kharaḥ
“A human being who identifies the body made of three elements as the self, who considers the by-products of the body to be his kinsmen, who considers the land of his birth worshipable, and who goes to a place of pilgrimage simply to bathe rather than to meet men of transcendental knowledge there, is to be considered like a cow or an ass.†Although HiraṇyakaÅ›ipu was a great demon, he was not as foolish as the population of the modern world. HiraṇyakaÅ›ipu had clear knowledge of the spirit soul and the subtle and gross bodies, but now we are so degraded that everyone, including the exalted scientists, philosophers and other leaders, is under the bodily conception of life, which is condemned in the Å›Ästras. Sa eva go-kharaḥ: such persons are nothing but cows and asses.
HiraṇyakaÅ›ipu advised his family members that although the gross body of his brother HiraṇyÄká¹£a was dead and they were aggrieved because of this, they should not lament for the great soul of HiraṇyÄká¹£a, who had already attained his next destination. Ä€tmÄ, the spirit soul, is always unchanged (avikalaḥ pumÄn). We are spirit souls, but when carried away by mental activities (manodharma), we suffer from so-called material conditions of life. This generally happens to nondevotees. HarÄv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇÄḥ: nondevotees may possess exalted material qualities, but because they are foolish they have no good qualifications. The designations of the conditioned soul in the material world are decorations of the dead body. The conditioned soul has no information of the spirit and its exalted existence beyond the effects of the material condition.
