Shloka 21
Kapila’s Analysis of Materialistic Life, Death, and the Path to Hell
Kāla, Karma, and Yamadūtas
तयोर्निर्भिन्नहृदयस्तर्जनैर्जातवेपथु: । पथि श्वभिर्भक्ष्यमाण आर्तोऽघं स्वमनुस्मरन् ॥ २१ ॥
tayor nirbhinna-hṛdayas tarjanair jāta-vepathuḥ pathi śvabhir bhakṣyamāṇa ārto ’ghaṁ svam anusmaran
While carried by the constables of Yamarāja, he is overwhelmed and trembles in their hands. While passing on the road he is bitten by dogs, and he can remember the sinful activities of his life. He is thus terribly distressed.
It appears from this verse that while passing from this planet to the planet of Yamarāja, the culprit arrested by Yamarāja’s constables meets many dogs, which bark and bite just to remind him of his criminal activities of sense gratification. It is said in Bhagavad-gītā that one becomes almost blind and is bereft of all sense when he is infuriated by the desire for sense gratification. He forgets everything. Kāmais tais tair hṛta-jñānāḥ: one is bereft of all intelligence when he is too attracted by sense gratification, and he forgets that he has to suffer the consequences also. Here the chance for recounting his activities of sense gratification is given by the dogs engaged by Yamarāja. While we live in the gross body, such activities of sense gratification are encouraged even by modern government regulations. In every state all over the world, such activities are encouraged by the government in the form of birth control. Women are supplied pills, and they are allowed to go to a clinical laboratory to get assistance for abortions. This is going on as a result of sense gratification. Actually sex life is meant for begetting a good child, but because people have no control over the senses and there is no institution to train them to control the senses, the poor fellows fall victim to the criminal offenses of sense gratification, and they are punished after death as described in these pages of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
FAQs
This verse describes the terrified soul being rebuked by the Yamadūtas and tormented on the path—symbolizing the painful consequences of one’s own sinful actions.
Śukadeva Gosvāmī describes a sinful person taken by the Yamadūtas to illustrate Kapila’s teaching that karma brings inevitable reactions, including suffering after death.
It urges self-examination and reform—avoid harmful actions, cultivate virtue and devotion, and live responsibly knowing that choices create future consequences.