Text 70
rūpa-peśala-mādhurya-
saugandhya-priya-darśanaḥ
strīṇāṁ priyatamo nityaṁ
mattaḥ sva-pura-lampaṭaḥ
rūpa — beauty; peśala — formation of the body; mādhurya — attractiveness; saugandhya — very fragrant, being decorated with various flower garlands and sandalwood pulp; priya-darśanaḥ — very beautiful to see; strīṇām — of the women; priya-tamaḥ — naturally attracted; nityam — daily; mattaḥ — proud like a madman; sva-pura — in his own city; lampaṭaḥ — very much attached to women because of lusty desires.
I had a beautiful face and a pleasing, attractive bodily structure. Decorated with flower garlands and sandalwood pulp, I was most pleasing to the women of my city. Thus I was bewildered, always feeling lusty desires.
From the description of the beauty of Nārada Muni when he was one of the denizens of Gandharvaloka, it appears that everyone on that planet is extremely beautiful and pleasing and always decorated with flowers and sandalwood. Upabarhaṇa was Nārada Muni’s name previously. Upabarhaṇa was specifically expert in decorating himself to attract the attention of women, and thus he became a playboy, as described in the next verse. To be a playboy in this life is unfortunate because too much attraction to women will lead one to fall into the association of śūdras, who can easily take advantage of mingling with women without restriction. In this present Age of Kali, when people are mandāḥ sumanda-matayaḥ — very bad because of a śūdra mentality — such free mingling is prominent. Among the higher classes — brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya and vaiśya — there is no chance for men to mingle with women freely, but in the śūdra community such mingling is open. Because there is no cultural education in this Age of Kali, everyone is spiritually untrained, and everyone is therefore to be considered śūdra (aśuddhāḥ śūdra-kalpā hi brāhmaṇāḥ kali-sambhavāḥ). When all the people become śūdras, certainly they are very bad (mandāḥ sumanda-matayaḥ). Thus they manufacture their own way of life, with the result that they gradually become unfortunate (manda-bhāgyāḥ), and furthermore they are always disturbed by various circumstances.