Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 5.14.8

atha kadācin nivāsa-pānīya-draviṇādy-anekātmopajīvanābhiniveśa etasyāḿ saḿsārāṭavyām itas tataḥ paridhāvati

SYNONYMS

atha — in this way; kadācit — sometimes; nivāsa — residence; pānīya — water; draviṇa — wealth; ādi — and so on; aneka — in various items; ātma-upajīvana — which are considered necessary to maintain body and soul together; abhiniveśaḥ — a person fully absorbed; etasyām — in this; saḿsāra-aṭavyām — the material world, which is like a great forest; itaḥ tataḥ — here and there; paridhāvati — runs around.

TRANSLATION

Sometimes the conditioned soul is absorbed in finding residential quarters or apartments and getting a supply of water and riches to maintain his body. Absorbed in acquiring a variety of necessities, he forgets everything and perpetually runs around the forest of material existence.

PURPORT

As originally mentioned, a poor man belonging to the mercantile community goes to the forest to get some cheap goods to bring back to the city to sell at a profit. He is so absorbed in the thought of maintaining body and soul together that he forgets his original relationship with Kṛṣṇa and seeks only the bodily comforts. Thus material activities are the conditioned soul's only engagement. Not knowing the aim of life, the materialist perpetually wanders in material existence, struggling to get the necessities of life. Not understanding the aim of life, even though he acquires sufficient necessities, he manufactures artificial necessities and thus becomes more and more entangled. He creates a mental situation whereby he needs greater and greater comforts. The materialist does not know the secret of nature's ways. As confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (3.27):

prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni

guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ

ahańkāra-vimūḍhātmā

kartāham iti manyate

"The bewildered spirit soul, under the influence of the three modes of material nature, thinks himself to be the doer of activities which are in actuality carried out by nature." Due to lusty desire, the living entity creates a certain mental situation whereby he wants to enjoy this material world. He thus becomes entangled, enters different bodies and suffers in them.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness