12.70
caitanya-rahita deha--suskakastha-sama
jivitei mrta sei, maile dande yama
SYNONYMS
caitanya-rahita—without consciousness; deha—body; suska-kastha-sama—exactly like dry wood; jivitei—while living; mrta—dead; sei—that; maile—after death; dande—punishes; yama—Yamaraja.
A person without Krsna 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 Yamaraja.
PURPORT
In the Srimad-Bhagavatam, Sixth Canto, Third Chapter, twenty-ninth verse, Yamaraja, 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 Krsna 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 Yamaraja for punishment, and thus material nature awards them various types of bodies.
After death, which is dehantara, a change of body, nondevotees are brought before Yamaraja for justice.
By the judgment of Yamaraja, material nature gives them bodies suitable for the reactions of their past activities.
This is the process of dehantara, or transmigration of the self from one body to another.
Krsna conscious devotees, however, are not subject to be judged by Yamaraja.
For devotees there is an open road, as confirmed in Bhagavad-gita.
After giving up the body (tyaktva 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 Yamaraja are meant for persons who are not Krsna conscious.