Having enjoyed that vast, that wide world of heaven, when their merit is spent they enter, come into, the world of mortals. Thus, in the manner described, those who follow only the dharma of the three Vedas, mere Vedic action, are desirers of desires who get going and coming, going forth and coming back; they get only going and coming, and gain no independence anywhere. But those who are free of desire, who see rightly.

Having enjoyed that vast world of heaven, when the merit that is the cause of that experience is exhausted, they enter again the world of mortals. So those who, lacking the knowledge established at the end of the threefold knowledge, craving desire-prompted heaven and the rest, have resorted only to the duty of the three Vedas, gain coming and going: having experienced the slight and unsteady heaven and the rest, they return again and again. This is the meaning. But the great souls, having made the contemplation of Me which is of supremely dear form, and having attained Me of unsurpassed and limitless bliss, do not return again. The Lord shows their difference.

This is a brief sub-gloss. For a fuller reading of this verse, see Madhusūdana, Śaṅkara, or Rāmānuja above.

Madhva's commentary treats verses 9.20 through 9.21 as a single passage; it is given in full at verse 9.20.