Only devotional service can transform karma; temporary sense pleasures come automatically to all bodies regardless of effort.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Pradyumna: Translation: "Prahlāda Mahārāja continued: My dear friends born of demoniac families, the happiness perceived with reference to the sense objects by contact with the body can be obtained in any form of life, according to one's past fruitive activities. Such happiness is automatically obtained without endeavor, just as we obtain distress." Prabhupāda: sukham aindriyakaṁ daityā deha-yogena dehinām sarvatra labhyate daivād yathā duḥkham ayatnataḥ [SB 7.6.3] We are, every one of us, we are fully under the control of material nature. We have put ourselves, in different bodies, we are fully under the control of material nature. There is no question of independence.
In the śāstra it is described, just like a horse or a bull is bound up in the nose, and the driver, as he push..., pull on the rope, it has to go according to that. There is no independence. So our so-called declaration of independence, "There is no God. There is no control.
Whatever we like we can do," this means ignorance. And in ignorance we commit so many mistakes, and that is sinful activity. Sinful activity means do irresponsibly anything we like, and we become entrapped in sinful activities. But as we have got experience in our ordinary life that ignorance is no excuse... Suppose a child touches fire.
The fire will not excuse because it is a child. No. Either you are a child or grown-up man, when you touch the fire it will act. There is no excuse.
Similarly, knowingly or unknowingly, if we do something wrong, we have to be punished. This is the law of nature. There was an instance, one muni, he was brought to Yamarāja's court and he was..., judgment was given that this man should be punished by śūla. Śūla means one iron rod pushed through the rectum, and it will pierce through the head. But the man was condemned to death, and this is the punishment.
So the..., he was a sage, muni. So he asked the Yamarāja that "Throughout my whole life, I never did any wrong. Why you are punishing me in this way?" So Yamarāja replied that "You have forgotten. In your childhood you pierced one ant with a needle.
You have forgotten. Therefore you are being punished." So of course, he became..., Yamarāja became Vidura, because the sage also punished him, that "For my childhood criminality you are punishing me in this way. So I also punish you, that you have no sense. You have to take birth in a śūdra family," in this way.