Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Srimad Bhagavatam 1.13.22

andhah puraiva vadhiro

manda-prajnas ca sampratam

visirna-danto mandagnih

saragah kapham udvahan

SYNONYMS

andhah -- blind; pura -- from the beginning; eva -- certainly; vadhirah -- hard of hearing; manda-prajnah -- memory shortened; ca -- and; sampratam -- recently; visirna -- loosened; dantah -- teeth; manda-agnih -- liver action decreased; sa-ragah -- with sound; kapham -- coughing much mucus; udvahan -- coming out.

TRANSLATION

You have been blind from your very birth, and recently you have become hard of hearing. Your memory is shortened, and your intelligence is disturbed. Your teeth are loose, your liver is defective, and you are coughing up mucus.

PURPORT

The symptoms of old age, which had already developed in Dhritarashtra, were all one after another pointed out to him as warning that death was nearing very quickly, and still he was foolishly carefree about his future. The signs pointed out by Vidura in the body of Dhritarashtra were signs of apakshaya, or dwindling of the material body before the last stroke of death. The body is born, it develops, stays, creates other bodies, dwindles and then vanishes. But foolish men want to make a permanent settlement of the perishable body and think that their estate, children, society, country, etc., will give them protection. With such foolish ideas, they become overtaken by such temporary engagements and forget altogether that they must give up this temporary body and take a new one, again to arrange for another term of society, friendship and love, again to perish ultimately. They forget their permanent identity and become foolishly active for impermanent occupations, forgetting altogether their prime duty. Saints and sages like Vidura approach such foolish men to awaken them to the real situation, but they take such sadhus and saints as parasites of society, and almost all of them refuse to hear the words of such sadhus and saints, although they welcome show-bottle sadhus and so-called saints who can satisfy their senses. Vidura was not a sadhu to satisfy the ill-gotten sentiment of Dhritarashtra. He was correctly pointing out the real situation of life, and how one can save oneself from such catastrophies.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness