Lord Krishna
Divine TeacherThe Supreme Lord, the charioteer and divine guide of Arjuna. Krishna delivers the eternal wisdom of the Gita, revealing the nature of the soul, duty, and the path to liberation.
Speaking: Chapter 9, Verse 21
Verse 21
The Yoga of Royal Knowledge and Royal Secret
When they have thus enjoyed vast heavenly sense pleasure and the results of their pious activities are exhausted, they return to this mortal planet again. Thus those who seek sense enjoyment by adhering to the principles of the three Vedas achieve only repeated birth and death.
Context & Meaning
The honest, sobering truth: when the merit runs out, the soul falls back to earth. Heavenly pleasure, however vast, is spent pleasure — it ends. The one who works for rewards, even divine rewards, is on a treadmill of going and returning (gatāgatam). Only the one who seeks the Seeker of all rewards escapes the cycle entirely.
Scholar Commentaries
1 commentary · Public domainRamanujacharya
VishishtadvaitaKāmakāmā — those who desire desires — captures the problem precisely. As long as desire itself is the engine, the cycle continues. Liberation requires not the fulfillment of desire but its transformation into devotion.