Verse 1.12.190

Bengali text, Devanagari and Unicode transliteration of verse 1.12.190:

কাল পুনঃ সবার সমান হৈ’ যায সবে নিজ-কর্ম ভুঞ্জে ঈশ্বর-ইচ্ছায” ॥ ১৯০ ॥

काल पुनः सबार समान है’ याय सबे निज-कर्म भुञ्जे ईश्वर-इच्छाय” ॥ १९० ॥

kāla punaḥ sabāra samāna hai’ yāya sabe nija-karma bhuñje īśvara-icchāya” || 190 ||

kala punah sabara samana hai’ yaya sabe nija-karma bhunje isvara-icchaya” (190)

English translation:

(190) “Yet time passes equally for everyone, as they all enjoy the fruits of their previous activities by the will of the Lord.”

Commentary: Gauḍīya-bhāṣya by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura:

In reply to the Lord’s question, Śrīdhara Vipra said, “Although according to mundane calculation the worshipers of the demigods who do not worship Viṣṇu appear superior, the Vaiṣṇavas and non-Vaiṣṇavas both pass their lives in the same way. Actually non-Vaiṣṇavas are busy making arrangements for their comfortable material happiness through material advancement while remaining indifferent to the service of Lord Hari, and the Vaiṣṇavas are always busy serving the Lord while remaining indifferent to material advancement and thus have no opportunity to act as sense enjoyers. As a king lives in his palace, which is full of unlimited jewels, pearls, wealth, and opulences, receiving unlimited care, affection, and respect from his many order-carriers, servants, and associates and thus passes his time accumulating many valuable foodstuffs and clothes that he desires, in a similar way birds who are nourished without

endeavor by mother nature also build their nests with straw and grasses at the tops of high trees and pass their time accumulating their respective foods from here and there by their own hard labor, without the help of anyone else. Everyone passes their life in the same way, and everyone lives within this world, enjoying the happiness and distress of their own karma. As a result of my karma I am also passing my time in the service of the Lord according to my own intelligence and taste without desiring external material advancement. Therefore according to material calculation I have no necessities at all. Those with equal vision do not discriminate between objects of sense enjoyment; rather, discriminating between inferior and superior objects of sense enjoyment simply indicates one’s likes and dislikes. In ancient times, due to the scarcity of varieties of enjoyment like good food and clothing, people were extremely poor and narrow-minded. In the course of time people gradually became more busy in activities of material sense enjoyment and continued such endeavors with the support of mundane physics and science. If we minutely study, however, we will see that there is not much difference between the people’s happiness and distress in the two time periods. Although there is certainly an increase and decrease in the necessities of life, since conditioned souls welcome enjoyment of the fruits of their activities according to their respective desires, all living entities pass their time in the same way. But those who are devotees of the Lord achieve happiness from His service and thus pass their time in unalloyed happiness, considering even so-called external misery as happiness. And those who are engaged in material enjoyment, which is not related with the Lord, pass their time in temporary adulterated happiness and distress.”