Canto 4: Creation of the Fourth OrderChapter 14: The Story of King Vena

Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 4.14.6

na yaṣṭavyaḿ na dātavyaḿ

na hotavyaḿ dvijāḥ kvacit

iti nyavārayad dharmaḿ

bherī-ghoṣeṇa sarvaśaḥ

SYNONYMS

na — not; yaṣṭavyam — any sacrifices can be performed; na — not; dātavyam — any charity can be given; na — not; hotavyam — any clarified butter can be offered; dvijāḥO twice-born; kvacit — at any time; iti — thus; nyavārayathe stopped; dharmam — the procedures of religious principles; bherī — of kettledrums; ghoṣeṇa — with the sound; sarvaśaḥ — everywhere.

TRANSLATION

All the twice-born [brāhmaṇas] were forbidden henceforward to perform any sacrifice, and they were also forbidden to give charity or offer clarified butter. Thus King Vena sounded kettledrums throughout the countryside. In other words, he stopped all kinds of religious rituals.

PURPORT

What was committed by King Vena many years ago is at present being carried out by atheistic governments all over the world. The world situation is so tense that at any moment governments may issue declarations to stop religious rituals. Eventually the world situation will become so degraded that it will be impossible for pious men to live on the planet. Therefore sane people should execute Kṛṣṇa consciousness very seriously, so that they can go back home, back to Godhead, without having to further suffer the miserable conditions predominant in this universe.

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