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

Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Srimad Bhagavatam 4.14.6

na yashtavyam na datavyam

na hotavyam dvijah kvacit

iti nyavarayad dharmam

bheri-ghoshena sarvasah

SYNONYMS

na -- not; yashtavyam -- any sacrifices can be performed; na -- not; datavyam -- any charity can be given; na -- not; hotavyam -- any clarified butter can be offered; dvijah -- O twice-born; kvacit -- at any time; iti -- thus; nyavarayat -- he stopped; dharmam -- the procedures of religious principles; bheri -- of kettledrums; ghoshena -- with the sound; sarvasah -- everywhere.

TRANSLATION

All the twice-born [brahmanas] 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 Krishna 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 Prabhupada, Founder Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness