Text 27
santi hy asādhavo loke
durmaitrāś chadma-veṣiṇaḥ
teṣām udety aghaṁ kāle
rogaḥ pātakinām iva
santi — are; hi — indeed; asādhavaḥ — dishonest persons; loke — within this world; durmaitrāḥ — cheating friends; chadma-veṣiṇaḥ — wearing false garbs; teṣām — of all of them; udeti — arises; agham — the reaction of sinful life; kāle — in due course of time; rogaḥ — disease; pātakinām — of sinful men; iva — like.
In due course of time, various types of diseases are manifest in those who are sinful. Similarly, in this world there are many deceptive friends in false garbs, but eventually, because of their false behavior, their actual enmity becomes manifest.
Being anxious about the education of his boy Prahlāda, Hiraṇyakaśipu was very much dissatisfied. When Prahlāda began teaching about devotional service, Hiraṇyakaśipu immediately regarded the teachers as his enemies in the garb of friends. In this verse the words rogaḥ pātakinām iva refer to disease, which is the most sinful and miserable of the conditions of material life (janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi). Disease is the symptom of the body of a sinful person. The smṛti-śāstras say:
brahma-hā kṣaya-rogī syāt
surāpaḥ śyāvadantakaḥ
svarṇa-hārī tu kunakhī
duścarmā guru-talpagaḥ
Murderers of brāhmaṇas are later afflicted by tuberculosis, drunkards become toothless, those who have stolen gold are afflicted by diseased nails, and sinful men who have sexual connections with the wife of a superior are afflicted by leprosy and similar skin diseases.