SRIMAD BHAGAVATAM: CANTO 3

Kapila said: 'Despite of its great strength do people not know about the time factor and are they carried away by it, just like a mass of clouds is by the powerful wind.

The Personality of Godhead said: As a mass of clouds does not know the powerful influence of the wind, a person engaged in material consciousness does not know the powerful strength of the time factor, by which he is being carried. (Vedabase)

Text 2

Whatever the goods are that one for one's happiness with difficulty acquired; it is precisely that what is destroyed by the Supreme Lord and thereof does the person lament.

Whatever is produced by the materialist with great pain and labor for so-called happiness, the Supreme Personality, as the time factor, destroys, and for this reason the conditioned soul laments. (Vedabase)

Text 3

Out of ignorance does he foolishly think that the temporary of having a home, a land and wealth in relation to the body, would be something permanent.

The misguided materialist does not know that his very body is impermanent and that the attractions of home, land and wealth, which are in relationship to that body, are also temporary. Out of ignorance only, he thinks that everything is permanent. (Vedabase)

Text 4

Certainly does the living entity find satisfaction in that worldly existence, not being averse to whatever of the kind he may belong to.

The living entity, in whatever species of life he appears, finds a particular type of satisfaction in that species, and he is never averse to being situated in such a condition. (Vedabase)

Text 5

Even living in hell does a person, who in truth is in delusion about the Godhead, verily not wish to take leave of his hellish pleasures.

The conditioned living entity is satisfied in his own particular species of life; while deluded by the covering influence of the illusory energy, he feels little inclined to cast off his body, even when in hell, for he takes delight in hellish enjoyment. (Vedabase)

Text 6

With this body, his wife, children, home, animals, wealth and friendships deeply rooted in his heart, he thinks himself to be of high achievement.

Such satisfaction with one's standard of living is due to deep-rooted attraction for body, wife, home, children, animals, wealth and friends. In such association, the conditioned soul thinks himself quite perfect. (Vedabase)

Text 7

Burning with anxiety about maintaining all the dear of his family, he is constantly in sin and with a bad mind acting like a fool.

Although he is always burning with anxiety, such a fool always performs all kinds of mischievous activities, with a hope which is never to be fulfilled, in order to maintain his so-called family and society. (Vedabase)

Text 8

He is deluded by the charm of the false of having his heart to the senses with the display in private of the woman and the sweet words of the children.

He gives heart and senses to a woman, who falsely charms him with maya. He enjoys solitary embraces and talking with her, and he is enchanted by the sweet words of the small children. (Vedabase)

Text 9

Involved in the household duties of family life, that give rise to all kinds of misery, he is busy countering these miseries attentively and thinks that that will make him happy as a householder.

The attached householder remains in his family life, which is full of diplomacy and politics. Always spreading miseries and controlled by acts of sense gratification, he acts just to counteract the reactions of all his miseries, and if he can successfully counteract such miseries, he thinks that he is happy. (Vedabase)

Text 10

By means of the wealth here and there with violence secured, he maintains them and thereof, eating the food they leave for him, goes he down himself.

He secures money by committing violence here and there, and although he employs it in the service of his family, he himself eats only a little portion of the food thus purchased, and he goes to hell for those for whom he earned the money in such an irregular way. (Vedabase)

Text 11

When he, time and again being of that effort, has difficulties exercising his profession, finds he who longed for the welfare of others, overwhelmed by avarice, himself ruined.

When he suffers reverses in his occupation, he tries again and again to improve himself, but when he is baffled in all attempts and is ruined, he accepts money from others because of excessive greed. (Vedabase)

Text 12

Incapable of maintaining his family grieves, bereft of the wealth, the unfortunate wretch with his efforts in vain and sighs he with a bewildered mind.

Thus the unfortunate man, unsuccessful in maintaining his family members, is bereft of all beauty. He always thinks of his failure, grieving very deeply. (Vedabase)

Text 13

Thus failing to feed his wife and so on, he finds himself not respected as before, even as an old ox finds it with its farmer.

Seeing him unable to support them, his wife and others do not treat him with the same respect as before, even as miserly farmers do not accord the same treatment to their old and worn-out oxen. (Vedabase)

Text 14

While there doesn't rise any aversion despite of being maintained himself by those he once maintained, he, getting deformed of old age, stays home to meet death.

The foolish family man does not become averse to family life although he is maintained by those whom he once maintained. Deformed by the influence of old age, he prepares himself to meet ultimate death. (Vedabase)

Text 15

There he remains eating like a pet dog of what indifferently is placed before him, gets diseased with indigestion, eats little and does little.

Thus he remains at home just like a pet dog and eats whatever is so negligently given to him. Afflicted with many illnesses, such as dyspepsia and loss of appetite, he eats only very small morsels of food, and he becomes an invalid, who cannot work any more. (Vedabase)

Text 16

From the inner pressure his eyes bulge out and from his windpipe congested with mucus he coughs and has difficulty breathing, only saying 'ugha ugha'.

In that diseased condition, one's eyes bulge due to the pressure of air from within, and his glands become congested with mucus. He has difficulty breathing, and upon exhaling and inhaling he produces a sound like ghura-ghura, a rattling within the throat. (Vedabase)

Text 17

Lying down surrounded by his lamenting friends and relatives he is gone, hanging in the noose of time, not able to speak although it would be the time for it.

In this way he comes under the clutches of death and lies down, surrounded by lamenting friends and relatives, and although he wants to speak with them, he no longer can because he is under the control of time. (Vedabase)

Text 18:

Thus, of being engrossed in maintaining his family, he has no control over his mind and senses and dies in great pain, while his relatives are crying over him losing his grip.

Thus the man, who engaged with uncontrolled senses in maintaining a family, dies in great grief, seeing his relatives crying. He dies most pathetically, in great pain and without consciousness. (Vedabase)

Text 19:

Witnessing the arrival of the servants of Death with their terrible eyes full of wrath he, out of the fear in his heart, passes stool and urine.

At death, he sees the messengers of the lord of death come before him, their eyes full of wrath, and in great fear he passes stool and urine. (Vedabase)

Text 20:

As the king's soldiers they immobilize his body as bound in ropes for his punishment and drag him like a criminal forceful by the neck for a long distance.

As a criminal is arrested for punishment by the constables of the state, a person engaged in criminal sense gratification is similarly arrested by the Yamadûtas, who bind him by the neck with strong rope and cover his subtle body so that he may undergo severe punishment. (Vedabase)

Text 21:

In his heart broken by their threatening presence he, overtaken, trembles on the road, bitten by the dogs of in distress remembering his sins.

While carried by the constables of Yamarâja, he is overwhelmed and trembles in their hands. While passing on the road he is bitten by dogs, and he can remember the sinful activities of his life. He is thus terribly distressed. (Vedabase)

Text 22:

Afflicted by hunger, thirst and the radiation of scorching forestfires and winds on hot and sandy roads, he feels painfully beaten on his back with a whip, although he is unable to move and finds no refuge nor water.

Under the scorching sun, the criminal has to pass through roads of hot sand with forest fires on both sides. He is whipped on the back by the constables because of his inability to walk, and he is afflicted by hunger and thirst, but unfortunately there is no drinking water, no shelter and no place for rest on the road. (Vedabase)

Text 23:

By and by, getting tired, he loses his consciousness, and again reawakens on the road of his sins and is soon taken to the presence of the eternal ruler over death.

While passing on that road to the abode of Yamaraja, he falls down in fatigue, and sometimes he becomes unconscious, but he is forced to rise again. In this way he is very quickly brought to the presence of Yamarâja. (Vedabase)

Text 24:

Within three to two hours he sees his whole life pass by [he passes 'a ninety-nine thousand yojanas'], finding the requital he deserves.

Thus he has to pass ninety-nine thousand yojanas within two or three moments, and then he is at once engaged in the torturous punishment which he is destined to suffer. (Vedabase)

Text 25:

Then covered by firewood he is cremated or sometimes he sees himself being eaten like he was doing that himself or else sees the other creatures doing so.

He is placed in the midst of burning pieces of wood, and his limbs are set on fire. In some cases he is made to eat his own flesh or have it eaten by others. (Vedabase)

Text 26:

Vividly he then witnesses how dogs pull out his entrails at his last resting place where serpents, scorpions, gnats and so on pester him to his abhorrence.

His entrails are pulled out by the hounds and vultures of hell, even though he is still alive to see it, and he is subjected to torment by serpents, scorpions, gnats and other creatures that bite him. (Vedabase)

Text 27:

One by one he sees his limbs coming off seized by big and small animals who tear him apart, throw him from heights or drag him under water or into caves.

Next his limbs are lopped off and torn asunder by elephants. He is hurled down from hilltops, and he is also held captive either in water or in a cave. (Vedabase)

Text 28:

The men or women that were moved by loose association [illicit sex] undergo the requital in hellish states of anger, self-destruction and bewilderment [tâmisra, andha tâmisra and raurava and such, see 5.26].

Men and women whose lives were built upon indulgence in illicit sex life are put into many kinds of miserable conditions in the hells known as Tâmisra, Andha-tâmisra and Raurava. (Vedabase)

Text 29

O mother, because one can see here for sure also the hellish punishments, speaks one of heaven and hell in this world.

Lord Kapila continued: My dear mother, it is sometimes said that we experience hell or heaven on this planet, for hellish punishments are sometimes visible on this planet also. (Vedabase)

Text 30

He who in the course of maintaining his family lived only for his stomach, will, leaving from here, after death find himself as well as his family undergo the consequences of that.

After leaving this body, the man who maintained himself and his family members by sinful activities suffers a hellish life, and his relatives suffer also. (Vedabase)

Text 31

Alone he will enter the darkness after quitting this vehicle of time, paying the price for the harm he did to others in maintaining himself.

He goes alone to the darkest regions of hell after quitting the present body, and the money he acquired by envying other living entities is the passage money with which he leaves this world. (Vedabase)

Text 32

By divine ordinance has the man sustaining a family, like one who has lost his wealth, to undergo the hellish condition that he obtained as a reaction to his foul play.

Thus, by the arrangement of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the maintainer of kinsmen is put into a hellish condition to suffer for his sinful activities, like a man who has lost his wealth. (Vedabase)

Text 33

A person who, eager to maintain his family, does that by simply being of godless action, thus ultimately goes to the darkest regions of self-destruction.

Therefore a person who is very eager to maintain his family and kinsmen simply by black methods certainly goes to the darkest region of hell, which is known as Andha-tâmisra. (Vedabase)

Text 34

After from the lowest position in due order having gone through all the requital and such, he, purified, may again return to the human world on this planet.'

Having gone through all the miserable, hellish conditions and having passed in a regular order through the lowest forms of animal life prior to human birth, and having thus been purged of his sins, one is reborn again as a human being on this earth. (Vedabase)