Cc Ādi 9.41

Text

bhārata-bhūmite haila manuṣya janma yāra
janma sārthaka kari' kara para-upakāra

Synonyms

bhārata-of India; bhūmite-in the land; haila-has become; manuṣya-human being; janma-birth; yāra-anyone; janma-such a birth; sārthaka-fulfillment; kari'-doing so; kara-do; para-others; upakāra-benefit.

Translation

"One who has taken his birth as a human being in the land of India [Bhārata-varṣa] should make his life successful and work for the benefit of all other people.

Purport

Human life is especially meant for God realization, as stated in the Vedānta-sūtra: athāto brahma-jijñāsā. Anyone who takes birth in the land of India (Bhārata-varṣa) has the special privilege of being able to take advantage of the instruction and guidance of the Vedic civilization. He automatically receives the basic principles of spiritual life, for 99.9% of the Indian people, even simple village farmers and others who are neither educated nor sophisticated, believe in the transmigration of the soul, believe in past and future lives, believe in God and naturally want to worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead or His representative. These ideas are the natural inheritance of a person born in India. India has many holy places of pilgrimage, such as Gayā, Benares, Mathurā, Prayāga, Vṛndāvana, Haridvāra, Rāmeśvaram and Jagannātha Purī, and still people go there by the hundreds and thousands. Although the present leaders of India are influencing the people not to believe in God, not to believe in a next life and not to believe in a distinction between pious and impious life, and they are teaching them how to drink wine, eat meat and become supposedly civilized, people are nevertheless afraid of the four activities of sinful life-namely, illicit sex, meat-eating, intoxication and gambling-and whenever there is a religious festival, they gather together by the thousands. We have actual experience of this. Whenever the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement holds a saṅkīrtana festival in a big city like Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Ahmedabad or Hyderabad, thousands of people come to hear. Sometimes we speak in English, but even though most people do not understand English, they nevertheless come to hear us. Even when imitation incarnations of Godhead speak, people gather in the thousands, for everyone who is born in the land of India has a natural spiritual inclination and is taught the basic principles of spiritual life; they merely need to be a little more educated in the Vedic principles. Therefore Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, janma sārthaka kari' kara para-upakāra: if an Indian is educated in the Vedic principles, he is able to perform the most beneficial welfare activity for the entire world.