Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 5 Chapter 14 Verse 27

Canto 5: The Creative Impetus | Chapter 14: The Material World as the Great Forest of Enjoyment

Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 5.14.27

adhvany amuṣminn ima upasargās tathā sukha-duḥkha-rāga-dveṣa-bhayābhimāna-pramādonmāda-śoka-moha-lobha-mātsaryerṣyāva-māna-kṣut-pipāsādhi-vyādhi-janma-jarā-maraṇādayaḥ

SYNONYMS

adhvani — on the path of material life; amuṣmin — on that; ime — all these; upasargāḥ — eternal difficulties; tathā — so much also; sukha — so-called happiness; duḥkha — unhappiness; rāga — attachment; dveṣa — hate; bhaya — fear; abhimāna — false prestige; pramāda — illusion; unmāda — madness; śoka — lamentation; moha — bewilderment; lobha — greed; mātsarya — envy; īrṣya — enmity; avamāna — insult; kṣut — hunger; pipāsā — thirst; ādhi — tribulations; vyādhi — disease; janma — birth; jarā — old age; maraṇa — death; ādayaḥ — and so on.

TRANSLATION

In this materialistic life, there are many difficulties, as I have just mentioned, and all of these are insurmountable. In addition, there are difficulties arising from so-called happiness, distress, attachment, hate, fear, false prestige, illusion, madness, lamentation, bewilderment, greed, envy, enmity, insult, hunger, thirst, tribulation, disease, birth, old age and death. All these combine together to give the materialistic conditioned soul nothing but misery.

PURPORT

The conditioned soul has to accept all these conditions simply to enjoy sense gratification in this world. Although people declare themselves great scientists, economists, philosophers, politicians and sociologists. they are actually nothing but rascals. Therefore they have been described as mūḍhas and narādhamas in Bhagavad-gītā (7.15):

na māḿ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ

prapadyante narādhamāḥ

māyayāpahṛta-jñānā

āsuraḿ bhāvam āśritāḥ

"Those miscreants who are grossly foolish, lowest among mankind. whose knowledge is stolen by illusion, and who partake of the atheistic nature of demons, do not surrender unto Me."

Due to their foolishness, all these materialists are described in Bhagavad-gītā as narādhamas. They have attained the human form in order to get released from material bondage, but instead of doing so. they become further embarrassed amid the miserable material conditions. Therefore they are narādhamas, the lowest of men. One may ask whether scientists, philosophers, economists and mathematicians are also narādhamas, the lowest of men, and the Supreme Personality of Godhead replies that they are because they have no actual knowledge. They are simply proud of their false prestige and position. Actually they do not know how to get relief from the material condition and renovate their spiritual life of transcendental bliss and knowledge. Consequently they waste time and energy in the search for so-called happiness. These are the qualifications of the demons. In Bhagavad-gītā it says that when one has all these demonic qualities, he becomes a mūḍha. Due to this. he envies the Supreme Personality of Godhead; therefore birth after birth he is born into a demonic family, and he transmigrates from one demonic body to another. Thus he forgets his relationship with Kṛṣṇa and remains a narādhama in an abominable condition life after life.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness