Fourteen Worlds
FOURTEEN WORLDSVedic Cosmology

SB 12.5.3

Devanāgarī

न भविष्यसि भूत्वा त्वं पुत्रपौत्रादिरूपवान् । बीजाङ्कुरवद् देहादेर्व्यतिरिक्तो यथानल: ॥ ३ ॥

Text

na bhaviṣyasi bhūtvā tvaṁ putra-pautrādi-rūpavān bījāṅkura-vad dehāder vyatirikto yathānalaḥ

Synonyms

nabhaviṣyasi—you will not come into being;bhūtvā—becoming;tvam—you;putra—of children;pautra—grandchildren;ādi—and so on;rūpa-vān—assuming the forms;bīja—the seed;aṅkura—and the sprout;vat—like;deha-ādeḥ—from the material body and its paraphernalia;vyatiriktaḥ—distinct;yathā—as;analaḥ—the fire (from the wood).

Translation

You will not take birth again in the form of your sons and grandsons, like a sprout taking birth from a seed and then generating a new seed. Rather, you are entirely distinct from the material body and its paraphernalia, in the same way that fire is distinct from its fuel.

Purport

Sometimes one dreams of being reborn as the son of one’s son, in the hope of perpetually remaining in the same material family. As stated in the śruti-mantra, pitā putreṇa pitṛmān yoni-yonau: “A father has a father in his son, because he may take birth as his own grandson.” The purpose of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is spiritual liberation and not the foolish prolonging of the illusion of bodily identification. That is clearly stated in this verse.
← SB 12.5.2Chapter 5SB 12.5.4