9.137

anya dehe na paiye rasa-vilasa

ataeva ’nayam’ sloka kahe veda-vyasa

SYNONYMS

anya dehe—in a body other than those of the gopis; na—not; paiye—one gets; rasa-vilasa—the pastimes of the rasa dance; ataeva—therefore; nayam—beginning with the word nayam; sloka—the Sanskrit verse; kahe—says; veda-vyasa—Dvaipayana Vedavyasa “Vyasadeva, the supreme authority on Vedic literature, composed the verse beginning ’nayam sukhapo bhagavan’ because no one can enter into the rasa-lila dance in any body other than that of a gopi.”

PURPORT

This verse confirms a verse of the Bhagavad-gita (9.25):

yanti deva-vrata devan

pitrn yanti pitr-vratah

bhutani yanti bhutejya

yanti mad-yajino ’pi mam “(Lord Krsna said:) ’Those who worship the demigods will take birth among the demigods; those who worship the ancestors go the ancestors; those who worship ghosts and spirits will take birth among such beings; and those who worship Me will live with Me.’ ” In the material world, every conditioned soul changes his material body again and again, but when the spirit soul is purified of all material coverings, there is no longer a chance of his accepting a material body.

Such a soul then remains in his original, spiritual identity, a state that is possible to achieve only by understanding Krsna in truth through the practice of Krsna consciousness.

As Krsna says in the Bhagavad-gita (4.9), janma karma ca me divyam

evam yo vetti tattvatah

tyaktva deham punar janma