Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

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

Now Krishna goes on further continuing the existing thought

Bg 16.20

āsurīṁ yonim āpannā
mūḍhā janmani janmani
mām aprāpyaiva kaunteya
tato yānty adhamāṁ gatim

Synonyms: 

āsurīm — demoniac; yonim — species; āpannāḥ — gaining; mūḍhāḥ — the foolish; janmani janmani — in birth after birth; mām — Me; aprāpya — without achieving; eva — certainly; kaunteya — O son of Kuntī; tataḥ — thereafter; yānti — go; adhamām — condemned; gatim — destination.

Translation: 

Attaining repeated birth amongst the species of demoniac life, O son of Kuntī, such persons can never approach Me. Gradually they sink down to the most abominable type of existence.

āsurīṁ yonim āpannā, so after attaining such Asuri Yoni, 

mūḍhā janmani janmani, the foolish person for many-many life time 

mām aprāpyaiva kaunteya, without attaining Me

tato yānty adhamāṁ gatim, such a person will go further adhama lower destinations 

Here Krishna is saying those people will go further and further away from Me, that is if they keep misusing there free will, now they don’t have to misuse their freewill, but if they misuse they have to suffer.

Soon Krishna will talk about hell also. We have to understand that the Vedic concept of hell is different from the hell described in Abrahamic religions, in Abrahamic religion hell is considered to be a place of eternal torment, once a person goes to hell that person has to suffer in hell forever, that is never the Vedic understanding, the whole universe is considered to be like a university with many class rooms, and hell is also one class room, it is definitely a difficult class room, but the important thing is it is not a compulsory class room, and we are souls who can best experience happiness by loving and serving Krishna and Krishna personally comes and look up, the whole message of BG reveals the concerned, compassionate, committed God who stays in our heart and works tirelessly for our elevation and liberation, so the teacher in the school is concern for students to be elevated for students gets promoted and succeed but if some students are determined not to study then what happens is hell is not meant to cause us suffering, hell is meant to save us from sufferings, one may wonder how it is possible hell is meant for suffering how it can save us from suffering, the point is as long as we are disconnected from Krishna we are suffering, the basic denominator of suffering is always there in material world, because of disconnection from Krishna and because of Trivid Tapa, and because of the Janma, Mritu, Jara, Vyadhi, basic suffering is always there in this material world, so the education that Krishna gives through Guru, Sadhu and Shahstra through the various system of religion is ultimately meant to help the souls come back to Krishna so when the soul try to come back to Krishna that time Krishna helps them, and they come back and become free from all miseries, now if they don’t come back they defy Krishna then for many-many life times they will have to stay on suffering in this material world. So just like a student who is undisciplined rudely disruptive in a class room may be punished, he is send somewhere else where there is stricter discipline and punishment where the purpose of that is not to just punish the student, the purpose is so that the student comes back to the class room behaves in a more disciplined way and studies and gets promoted, so if our actions did not have consequences then the result would be that we have to suffer more and more as we will just continue on the cycle of birth and death but as the action has consequences then those consequences remind us Oh for this I have got so much suffering, I don’t want this suffering, therefore the soul reforms, and the soul becomes sober, and the soul starts practicing devotional service and returns back to Krishna. So the purpose of hell is to save us from the miseries of material existence, in general and for that purpose there is the congenial way that the soul learns properly from the Guru Sadhau and Shashtra and if soul refuges to do that then the alternative way is soul has to suffer in the cycle of birth and death, so either way the important point is soul can get liberated, and even through hell it is class room, it is a tough class room, as it is said life is like a school of hard knocks so all of us gets hard knocks in life and we learn from those hard knocks at least we should learn from them, so similarly hell is school of super hard knocks, but we are all meant to learn, so āsurīṁ yonim āpannā, so still if one goes to hell, goes to demoniac situations the super soul doesn’t leave, super soul is there in the heart of everyone, and Supersoul is working to redeem even those people, so Srila Prabhupada explains from Chakravarti Pad commentary that sometimes daemons are killed by Supreme Lord when He descends and by that also they get elevated. So basically no body is hope less entirely everybody is having hope, the devotees their mission is to make unfortunate fortunate, to make Durbhagyavan Bhagyavan,  as it is said Brahmada Bhramite Kona Bhagyavan Jiva, Guru Krishna Prasade Paye Bhakti Lata Bija, so how does one get Bhakti lata Bija by Guru Krishna Prasade, so the devotees and spiritual master works to make unfortunate soul fortunate, Mam Prapyea Kaunteya so they normally cannot attain Krishna but by Krishna’s intervention when he confronts a demon or by devotees intervention they can, their downward journey there trap in the lower species and in the lower lokas,  that will get ?checked? and they will be able to attain Krishna so when Srila Prabhupada was asked this, is hell eternal and Srila Prabhupada said nothing other than ecstatic devotional service to Krishna is eternal. Everything is temporary. So all the miseries of this world they are all temporary. Ultimately only devotional service to Krishna is eternal. So that is the eternal reality to which Krishna is taking us. He wants to take us.

End of transcription.