Text 43
naivodvije para duratyaya-vaitaraṇyās
tvad-vīrya-gāyana-mahāmṛta-magna-cittaḥ
śoce tato vimukha-cetasa indriyārtha-
māyā-sukhāya bharam udvahato vimūḍhān
na — not; eva — certainly; udvije — I am disturbed or afraid; para — O Supreme; duratyaya — insurmountable or very difficult to cross; vaitaraṇyāḥ — of the Vaitaraṇī, the river of the material world; tvat-vīrya — of Your Lordship’s glories and activities; gāyana — from chanting or distributing; mahā-amṛta — in the great ocean of nectarean spiritual bliss; magna-cittaḥ — whose consciousness is absorbed; śoce — I am simply lamenting; tataḥ — from that; vimukha-cetasaḥ — the fools and rascals who are bereft of Kṛṣṇa consciousness; indriya-artha — in sense gratification; māyā-sukhāya — for temporary, illusory happiness; bharam — the false burden or responsibility (of maintaining one’s family, society and nation and elaborate arrangements for that purpose); udvahataḥ — who are lifting (by making grand plans for this arrangement); vimūḍhān — although all of them are nothing but fools and rascals (I am thinking of them also).
O best of the great personalities, I am not at all afraid of material existence, for wherever I stay I am fully absorbed in thoughts of Your glories and activities. My concern is only for the fools and rascals who are making elaborate plans for material happiness and maintaining their families, societies and countries. I am simply concerned with love for them.
Throughout the entire world, everyone is making big, big plans to adjust the miseries of the material world, and this is true at present, in the past and in the future. Nonetheless, although they make elaborate political, social and cultural plans, they have all been described herein as vimūḍha — fools. The material world has been described in Bhagavad-gītā as duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam — temporary and miserable — but these fools are trying to turn the material world into sukhālayam, a place of happiness, not knowing how everything acts by the arrangement of material nature, which works in her own way.
prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni
guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ
ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā
kartāham iti manyate
“The bewildered spirit soul, under the influence of the three modes of material nature, thinks himself to be the doer of activities that are in actuality carried out by nature.” (Bg. 3.27)
There is a plan for material nature, personally known as Durgā, to punish the demons. Although the asuras, the godless demons, struggle for existence, they are directly attacked by the goddess Durgā, who is well equipped with ten hands with different types of weapons to punish them. She is carried by her lion carrier, or the modes of passion and ignorance. Everyone struggles very hard to fight through the modes of passion and ignorance and conquer material nature, but at the end everyone is vanquished by nature’s laws.
There is a river known as Vaitaraṇī between the material and spiritual worlds, and one must cross this river to reach the other side, or the spiritual world. This is an extremely difficult task. As the Lord says in Bhagavad-gītā (7.14), daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā: “This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome.” The same word duratyaya, meaning “very difficult,” is used here. Therefore one cannot surpass the stringent laws of material nature except by the mercy of the Supreme Lord. Nonetheless, although all materialists are baffled in their plans, they try again and again to become happy in this material world. Therefore they have been described as vimūḍha — first-class fools. As for Prahlāda Mahārāja, he was not at all unhappy, for although he was in the material world, he was full of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Those who are Kṛṣṇa conscious, trying to serve the Lord, are not unhappy, whereas one who has no assets in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and is struggling for existence is not only foolish but extremely unhappy also. Prahlāda Mahārāja was happy and unhappy simultaneously. He felt happiness and transcendental bliss because of his being Kṛṣṇa conscious, yet he felt great unhappiness for the fools and rascals who make elaborate plans to be happy in this material world.