Text 21
kathaṁ nu dārakā dīnā
dārakīr vāparāyaṇāḥ
vartiṣyante mayi gate
bhinna-nāva ivodadhau
katham — how; nu — indeed; dārakāḥ — sons; dīnāḥ — poor; dārakīḥ — daughters; vā — or; aparāyaṇāḥ — having no one else to depend on; vartiṣyante — will live; mayi — when I; gate — gone from this world; bhinna — broken; nāvaḥ — boat; iva — like; udadhau — in the ocean.
King Purañjana continued worrying: “After I pass from this world, how will my sons and daughters, who are now fully dependent on me, live and continue their lives? Their position will be similar to that of passengers aboard a ship wrecked in the midst of the ocean.”
At the time of death every living entity worries about what will happen to his wife and children. Similarly, a politician also worries about what will happen to his country or his political party. Unless one is fully Kṛṣṇa conscious, he has to accept a body in the next life according to his particular state of consciousness. Since Purañjana is thinking of his wife and children and is overly engrossed in thoughts of his wife, he will accept the body of a woman. Similarly, a politician or so-called nationalist who is inordinately attached to the land of his birth will certainly be reborn in the same land after ending his political career. One’s next life will also be affected by the acts one performs during this life. Sometimes politicians act most sinfully for their own sense gratification. It is not unusual for a politician to kill the opposing party. Even though a politician may be allowed to take birth in his so-called homeland, he still has to undergo suffering due to his sinful activities in his previous life.
This science of transmigration is completely unknown to modern scientists. So-called scientists do not like to bother with these things because if they would at all consider this subtle subject matter and the problems of life, they would see that their future is very dark. Thus they try to avoid considering the future and continue committing all kinds of sinful activities in the name of social, political and national necessity.