Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan

so what happens for such people who go to the heavenly planets that is described in next verse.

Bg 9.21

te taṁ bhuktvā svarga-lokaṁ viśālaṁ
kṣīṇe puṇye martya-lokaṁ viśanti
evaṁ trayī-dharmam anuprapannā
gatāgataṁ kāma-kāmā labhante

Word for word: 

te — they; tam — that; bhuktvā — having enjoyed; svarga–lokam — heaven; viśālam — vast; kṣīṇe — being exhausted; puṇye — the results of their pious activities; martya–lokam — to the mortal earth; viśanti — fall down;evam — thus; trayī — of the three Vedas; dharmam — doctrines; anuprapannāḥ — following; gata–āgatam — death and birth; kāma–kāmāḥ — desiring sense enjoyments; labhante — attain.

Translation: 

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.

 

te taṁ bhuktvā, they will enjoy

svarga-lokaṁ viśālaṁ, large happiness they will enjoy 

but then

kṣīṇe puṇye, the punya is getting exhausted and once the Punya is getting exhausted 

martya-lokaṁ viśanti, they will come back to this earthly planetary system

and in this way what happens what is overall nature of this journey?

evaṁ trayī-dharmam, in this way they will follow trayī-dharma in previous verse it is mentioned trai-vidyā māṁ soma-pāḥ pūta-pāpā, so trai-vidyā is that which is talked in three vedas so trayī-dharmam also refer to follow of three veda, trayī-dharmam also refers to those who are doing Dharma, Artha and Kama, so they just got caught in Dharma, Artha and Kama and they don’t aspire for Moksha at all, so three levels in three Purushartha, evaṁ trayī-dharmam anuprapannā, so those who follow this gatāgataṁ kāma-kāmā labhante, so gatāgataṁ, that means birth and death so they just go on, on this, kāma-kāmā labhante, so kāma-kāmā is an interesting verse which has come earlier in BG so kāma-kāmā is desirer of desire, desirer of enjoyment , desirer of lust, those who desire sense enjoyment labhante, so they will get what they will get gatāgataṁ, they will get cycle of birth and death, so Krishna has told earlier in 2.70 na kama-kami, so who will get peace for one whose desire come in like river coming to ocean but will not be disturbed by them, that person will attain peace and not the person who is kama-kami, one who is desirer of desires, so gatāgataṁ kāma-kāmā labhante, so here Krishna is telling very carefully and very clearly, that ultimately whole system of demigod worship centred around Karma Kanda is futile, it may lead to some temporary benefit in terms of enjoyment but actually for an intelligent person anything that gives a result which is less than eternal is less intelligent because we all want everlasting happiness, when best is possible why should we go for less. Also Krishna will be telling worshiping Him is much easier patram puspam phalam toyam than this ritualistic way of worship so why not go for that and it is also eternal.  If someone is in one part of ocean and it is very stormy and he looks at other part of ocean and see that is calm so he put lot of effort and goes there but in any part of ocean storm will come sooner or later so why putting so much effort in going there, so similarly improving our material position is of no use and turbulence will come everywhere. 

Sometime a person is in very comfortable material situation but that is like some people are in ocean water and facing problem and someone is on iceberg and right now is safe but as sun is rising iceberg is melting and melting and suddenly the person will fall in the ocean. So rather than comfortable material situation one should seek the destination of comfortable spiritual destination, and that is what Krishna will talk about in next verse.

End of transcription.