Text 23
puṣṇāti yān adharmeṇa
sva-buddhyā tam apaṇḍitam
te ’kṛtārthaṁ prahiṇvanti
prāṇā rāyaḥ sutādayaḥ
puṣṇāti — nourishes; yān — which things; adharmeṇa — by sinful activity; sva-buddhyā — thinking them to be his own; tam — him; apaṇḍitam — uneducated; te — they; akṛta-artham — his purposes frustrated; prahiṇvanti — abandon; prāṇāḥ — life air; rāyaḥ — wealth; suta-ādayaḥ — children and others.
A fool indulges in sin to maintain his life, wealth and children and other relatives, for he thinks, “These things are mine.” In the end, however, these very things all abandon him, leaving him frustrated.
In these verses, Akrūra is giving rather frank advice to Dhṛtarāṣṭra. Those who know the story of the Mahābhārata will realize how relevant and prophetic these instructions are, and how much Dhṛtarāṣṭra suffered for not accepting them. Although one tenaciously clings to his property, in the end all is lost, and the blundering soul is swept away by the wheel of birth and death.