अन्यथा कर्म कुर्वाणो मानारूढो निबध्यते । गुणप्रवाहपतितो नष्टप्रज्ञो व्रजत्यध: ॥ ८ ॥
anyatha karma kurvano manarudho nibadhyate guna-pravaha-patito nasta-prajno vrajaty adhah
- anyatha
- otherwise
- karma
- fruitive activities
- kurvanah
- while acting
- mana-arudhah
- being influenced by false prestige
- nibadhyate
- one becomes entangled
- guna-pravaha
- by the influence of the material qualities
- patitah
- fallen
- nasta-prajnah
- bereft of all intelligence
- vrajati
- thus he goes
- adhah
- down.
Otherwise, a person who acts whimsically falls down due to false prestige. Thus he becomes involved in the laws of nature, which are composed of the three qualities (goodness, passion and ignorance). In this way a living entity becomes devoid of his real intelligence and becomes perpetually lost in the cycle of birth and death. Thus he goes up and down from a microbe in stool to a high position in the Brahmaloka plane.