Study a Verse

• In the human form of life one should take the opportunity to put an end to birth, death, old age and disease by performing tapasya.
• Otherwise one must rot in this material world and accept a material body subject to birth, death, old age and disease.
• One who does not attain shelter at the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa must certainly wander up and down within the cycle of birth and death.

Śrīla Prabhupāda's own sentences, chosen from the purport as its central points. Read the full purport on Vedabase to see them in place.

Each link is a verse the purport itself quotes, or a purport elsewhere that quotes this verse, shown with the purport's own words.

Longing and conflict → Detachment and justice. Dynastic episodes explore personal desire and force.

Chapters 13–17 of Canto 9: Nimi, Purūravā and Paraśurāma. An editorial reading of the story's mood, not the text itself. See the emotional arc

Chapter 13: The Dynasty of Mahārāja Nimi

From the chapter summary, the lines nearest this verse:

When the sacrifice was over, the priests prayed for Nimi’s life to all the demigods who had come to the arena of yajña, but Mahārāja Nimi refused to take birth again in a material body because he considered the material body obnoxious. The great sages then churned Nimi’s body, and as a result of this churning, Janaka was born.