SB 1.1.10 (1962)
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
TEXT No. 10
Prayena alpa ayusah sabhya kalou asmin yuge janah
Mandah sumandamatayao mandabhagya hi upadrutah
ENGLISH SYNONYMS
Prayena—almost always, alpa—meagre, ayusah—duration of life, sabhya—member of the learned society, kalou—in this age of Kali (quarrel), asmin—herein, yuge—age, janah—the public, mandah—lazy, sumandamatayao—misuigded, mandabhagya—unlucky, hi—and above all, upadrutah—disturbed.
TRANSLATION
The public, men in this iron age of quarrel, are almost always meagre in the duration of life. Oh the member of learned society, they are not only so but also very lazy, misguided, unlucky and above all they are always disturbed.
PURPORT
The specific qualification of the devotees of the Personality of Godhead is that they are always anxious for the improvement of the members of the public. As such the sages of the Naimisharanya did analyse the state of affairs of the people in this age of Kali. They found it by experience and foresight that the men in this age are of shortened duration of life. Duration of life is shortened not so much for want of sufficient food as it is on account of irregular habits. Regular habits and simple innocent food can keep up the standard of health of any common man. Over eating, oversense-gratification, artificial standard of living and depending too much on others' mercy kill the very vitality of human energy and thus they become shortened in the duration of life.
The people of this age are also very lazy not only in the matter of self-realisation but also in the matter of material prosperity. The human life is specially meant for self realisation i.e. to say to know what we are what is this world and what is the Supreme Truth. This life is meant for ending the miseries of material existence of hard struggle for life and going back to Godhead which is our eternal Home. But on account of bad system of education they are completely aloof from such self-realisational path and even they come to know about it, unfortunately they become victims of misguided leaders.
They are not only victims of different political creeds and party but also they are victims of many types of sense gratificatory agencies such as the cinema shows, sporting, gambling, clubs, libraries, bad associations, smoking, drinking, cheating, pilfering, bickerings and so on so forth. Their mind is always disturbed and full of anxieties on account of different engagements. In this age many unscrupulous men manufacture imaginary religious faiths without any reference to the standard Vedic literatures of revealed scriptures and persons who are addicted to the above mentioned different types of sensegratificatory institutions are attracted by such institutions of religious faith. The result is that in the name of religious faith, so many, sinful acts are being enacted and the people in general are not in peace of mind nor healthy in constitution. The Brahmachary system of the student communities is no longer maintained neither the householders do observe the rules and regulations of Grihastha Ashrama. As such the so called Vanaprastha and the Sanyasins who come out of such Grihastha ashrams are also deviated from the rigid path. The whole atmosphere is now surcharged with faithlessness. They are no more interested in the necessities of spiritual values. Matter and material sense gratifications is now the standard of civilization. And to maintain such material civilization they have formed into groups of nations, peoples, communities and there is constant strain of cold and hot war between the different groups of mankind. It has become very difficult, therefore, to raise the standard of humanity in the present distorted condition of the human society. The sages are anxious to get, out of the tangle, all the fallen souls. They are seeking the remedy from Srila Suta Goswami.