Srimad Bhagvata Mahapurana Book 5 Chapter 14:20-29

Book 5: Chapter 14

Srimad Bhagvata Mahapurana: Book 5: Chapter 14: Verses 20-29 Jadabharata elucidated the meaning of the allegory Again, caught in the grip of a boa constrictor in the shape of (deep) sleep and steeped in ignorance, they remain lying down, cast off like a dead body in a lonely forest and unconscious of everything else. Sometimes, on their teeth in the form of pride being crushed by biting animals in the shape of wicked men, they are unable to get (even) a wink of sleep and, their consciousness getting fainter and fainter because of a distressed heart, they fall like a blind man into a covered well. Now when, seeking after small drops of honey in the form of sensuous enjoyment and laying their hands on another's wife and property, they are killed by the king or by the husband or owner, they descend into the abysmal (depths of) hell. Therefore, the wise speak of action in both forms (virtuous as well as sinful) on (the part of those treading) this path (of worldly activity) as a field bearing to the .diva (the crop of) mundane existence in quick succession without fail. (Even) if they escape from bondage (etc., inflicted by the king or the husband and owner by bribing them), a Devadatta snatches away from them the woman and property seized by them and from the said Devadatta a Visnumitra wrests them. In this way the objects of enjoyment never stay (with a single individual). And sometimes unable to ward off (provide against) cold wind and many other (adverse) situations brought about by divine will or (by the will of) other created beings or related to one's own body or mind, they remain cast down with anxiety difficult to get rid of. Now, carrying on business transactions on a very small scale with those of their own company or snatching from others even (a trifling sum of) twenty cowries or any amount (even less than that), they incur (their) hatred due to their (own) grabbing nature.There are on this path (of worldly activity) these (obstacles, viz., great hardships, monetary losses and so on-vide verse 13 of Discourse XIII above) and other obstacles too-such as joy and sorrow, likes and dislikes, fear and pride, error and insanity, grief and infatuation, greed and spite, jealousy and ignominy, hunger and thirst, worries and ailments, birth, old age and death. Sometimes folded by woman-who is (no other than) the Lord's (own) deluding potency (personified)-in her arms, (tender and slender) like a pair of creepers, they are deprived of their discriminating wisdom; and, anxious at heart to build a pleasure-house for her and lured by the (sweet) words, (affectionate) glances and (delighting) gestures of their sons, daughters and daughters-in-Iaw, brought together under her protection, these men of uncontrolled mind hurl themselves in the bottomless and dark (regions of) hell. Now their heart is filled with terror at the thought of the discus of the almighty Lord Visnu, manifested in the form of the ever-wakeful time (with its manifold divisions) from the minutest point (corresponding to an atom) to the period covering two Parardhas (the life-span of Brahma, equivalent to 31,10, 40, 00, 00, 00, 000 human years), which sweeps away all created beings-while they keep looking on-from Brahma (down) to the (merest) clump of grass, by means of its quick movement representing the passage of time (from childhood to youth and from youth to old age and so on). Nevertheless they ignore that very almighty Lord, who is no other than the Deity presiding over sacrifices and wields the wheel of time as His own (characteristic) weapon, and betake themselves to the deities worshipped by heretics and discarded by Vedic tradition-deities who are no better than buzzards, vultures, herons and quails (which are unable to protect one against the lion of death)-on the authority of the sacred works of heretics.