Bhagavatapurana 3.30
English (machine translation) 3.30
- Language
- English
3.30.1
Kapila said:
Surely this person does not recognize the immense prowess of this [time], / even while being driven along like a line of clouds by a mighty wind.
3.30.2
Whatever object a man acquires with great pain for the sake of happiness, / the Lord disperses that very thing, on account of which the man laments.
3.30.3
Out of delusion the fool considers the house, fields, and wealth / of this unstable body and its dependents to be permanent.
3.30.4
Whatever womb the creature enters in this cycle of existence, / in that very womb he finds satisfaction and does not feel dispassion.
3.30.5
Even while residing in hell, a person does not wish to abandon his body, / finding satisfaction even in a hellish condition, deluded by the Lord's creative power.
3.30.6
With his heart deeply rooted in his self, wife, children, home, / cattle, wealth, and relatives, he thinks highly of himself.
3.30.7
His whole body burning with anxiety over maintaining them, / the fool of wicked intentions commits sins incessantly.
3.30.8
His mind and senses captivated by the charms of unchaste women / arranged in secret, and by the sweet prattle of his children,
3.30.9
vigilant in household life characterized by false duties and bound up with misery, / the householder, merely counteracting sorrow, considers himself happy.
3.30.10
With wealth procured by severe violence here and there, / he nurtures them; and eating only their remnants, he himself goes down to ruin by supporting them.
3.30.11
When his livelihood fails, though attempted again and again, / overcome by greed and devoid of courage, he covets the wealth of others.
3.30.12
Unable to support his family, unfortunate, his efforts in vain, / bereft of fortune, the wretched, foolish-minded man sighs while brooding.
3.30.13
When he is thus incapable of supporting himself, his wife and others / no longer respect him as before, just as stingy farmers disregard an old ox.
3.30.14
Even then feeling no disillusionment, maintained by those whom he himself maintained, / disfigured by old age, facing death within his home,
3.30.15
he sits eating what is offered with contempt, like a house dog, / sickly, his digestive fire extinguished, eating little, and scarcely active.
3.30.16
With his eyes rolled up by the upward-moving vital breath, his channels blocked with phlegm, / exhausted by coughing and labored breathing, he makes a rattling sound in his throat.
3.30.17
Lying down, surrounded by his weeping relatives, / though spoken to, he does not speak, fallen under the sway of the noose of time.
3.30.18
Thus, with his mind absorbed in maintaining his family, his senses unsubdued, / he dies in terrible agony, his consciousness lost, while his kin weep.
3.30.19
Seeing the two messengers of Yama arrived at that moment, terrible, their eyes full of wrath, / his heart terrified, he discharges stool and urine.
3.30.20
Enclosing him in a body meant for torment, binding him forcefully by the neck with ropes, / they lead him along a long road, just as royal guards lead a condemned criminal.
3.30.21
His heart pierced by their threats, trembling with fear, / bitten by dogs along the way, afflicted, remembering his own sins,
3.30.22
Overcome by hunger and thirst, scorched on the path of burning sand by the sun, forest fires, and winds, / and struck painfully on his back with a whip, he moves forward, though powerless, where there is neither shelter nor water.
3.30.23
Falling here and there, exhausted, swooning, and rising up again, / he is led swiftly to Yama's dwelling by that most wretched road.
3.30.24
Brought across the distance of ninety-nine thousand yojanas / in two or three muhūrtas, he meets with punishments:
3.30.25
the burning of his limbs after being wrapped with firebrands and the like, / eating his own flesh cut off either by himself or by others,
3.30.26
having his entrails torn out while still alive by dogs and vultures in Yama's abode, / and his torment caused by biting serpents, scorpions, and gadflies,
3.30.27
being hacked limb by limb, being torn apart by elephants and other beasts, / being cast down from mountain peaks, and being confined in water and pits.
3.30.28
The torments such as Tāmisra, Andhatāmisra, and Raurava / are suffered by a man or a woman, produced through mutual attachment.
3.30.29
Right here are hell and heaven, O Mother, so they say; / for the very torments of hell are witnessed here as well.
3.30.30
In this way, one who maintains a family or merely fills his own belly, / having abandoned both here and departed from this world, suffers such fruit.
3.30.31
Leaving behind this body, which was nourished by doing injury to living beings, / he enters the darkness all alone, with his misdeeds as his only provisions for the journey.
3.30.32
In hell, by divine decree, a man undergoes the suffering / of that maintenance of his family, like one distressed whose wealth has been stolen.
3.30.33
Intent on maintaining a family solely through unrighteousness, / the living being goes to Andhatāmisra, the lowest realm of darkness.
3.30.34
Having undergone in due order as many torments and the like / as exist below the mortal world, he may return here once purified.
Translations (1)
- The Srimad Bhagavatam — S. Subba Rau 1928, English
Linked texts (1)
- Bhāgavatapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit