“Just as aquatic entities living in shallow water are unaware that the water in their pool is being reduced day by day, similarly grossly foolish people keep themselves busy maintaining their families, and do not understand that their remaining life is being reduced day by day.”
naivavidan ksiyamanam
jalam gadha-jale-carah
yatha ”yur anvaham ksayyam
nara mudhah kutumbinah
PURPORT BY SRI KRSNA BALARAM SWAMIJI
The duration of human life is limited. Whatever duration of life one is granted by the Supreme cannot be increased by any means, and whatever time has passed cannot be regained. As the Canakya Niti states, ayusah ksna eko’pi na labhyate svarna kotibhih, “Even one moment from the duration of life that has already passed cannot be reobtained, not even by spending millions of gold coins or cash.” From sunrise to sunset, life is reduced day after day, but those who are absorbed in their family affairs do not even consider how they are gradually reaching toward death, reducing the remainder of their life. How much deeper in illusion can one be than this? The word mudhah, “grossly foolish,” indicates that such people do not understand that nothing they are doing will help them at the time of death. Therefore they are wasting their time in the name of family, society, and friends. Such people are so foolish that even as they see that everyone is dying, still they think they will not die. What greater wonder than this can there be in this world? The fact of the matter is that although everyone witnesses people dying by one cause or another, still they continue to make arrangements as if they will live forever. In the Mahabharata, when Yudhisthira Maharaja was asked by Dharmadeva what was the most amazing thing in this creation, Yudhisthira Maharaja replied the following way:
ahany ahany bhutani
gacchanti yama mandiram
sesam jivantum icchanti
kim ascarya matah param
“Although day after day people die and reach the planet of Yamaraja (the superintendent of death, who decides who should go to hell or who should go to heaven), still the living people ignore death and continue to think that they will live forever and will never die. What could be more amazing than this?”
Such foolish people spend their valuable life in material pleasures and arranging the required things for such pleasure. To confirm this mentality the Moha-mudgara Stotra says:
balas tavat krida saktah
tavat taruni saktah
vrddhas tavat cinta-saktah pare
brahmani ko ‘pi na saktah
“While in childhood one is busy in play, while in youth one is busy in lovemaking, and when one comes to old age, he becomes covered over by the anxieties of life. In this way hardly anyone endeavors to reach to the Supreme Lord.”
The example of aquatic entities in shallow water is appropriate for such a class of people, because like the fish and other water creatures who will die when their water evaporates, the human will also pass away when his decided lifespan ends. Therefore it is said, “Only the luckiest souls will take to spiritual life under an authentic Spiritual Master and receive liberation.” The Srimad Bhagavatam states, janma koti sukrtibhir na labhyate, “Such an opportunity to have a quality spiritual life cannot even be obtained after one million births of pious deeds.” Therefore one must be blessed to become conscious of Krsna. Such blessings sometimes suddenly occur in the form of an opportunity to meet a qualified Spiritual Master and to take to the true spiritual life; one should not let such a chance go unrecognized. One should take such an opportunity to heart and adopt the pure life. Better late than never.
[Srimad Bhagavatam, 10.20.37, KBS0063]
