Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.20.10

āsann utpatha-gāminyaḥ

kṣudra-nadyo 'nuśuṣyatīḥ

puḿso yathāsvatantrasya

deha-draviṇa -sampadaḥ

SYNONYMS

āsan — they became; utpatha-gāminyaḥ — strayed from their courses; kṣudra — insignificant; nadyaḥ — the rivers; anuśuṣyatīḥ — drying up; puḿsaḥ — of a person; yathā — as; asvatantrasya — who is not independent (that is, who is under the control of his senses); deha — the body; draviṇa — physical property; sampadaḥ — and riches.

TRANSLATION

With the advent of the rainy season, the insignificant streams, which had become dry, began to swell and then strayed from their proper courses, like the body, property and money of a man controlled by the urges of his senses.

PURPORT

Śrīla Prabhupāda comments, "During the rainy season, many small ponds, lakes and rivulets become filled with water; otherwise the rest of the year they remain dry. Similarly, materialistic persons are dry, but sometimes, when they are in a so-called opulent position, with a home or children or a little bank balance, they appear to be flourishing, but immediately afterwards they become dry again, like the small rivulets and ponds. The poet Vidyāpati said that in the society of friends, family, children, wife and so on, there is certainly some pleasure, but that pleasure is compared to a drop of water in the desert. Everyone is hankering after happiness, just as in the desert everyone is hankering after water. If in the desert there is a drop of water, the water is there, of course, but the benefit from that drop of water is very insignificant. In our materialistic way of life, we are hankering after an ocean of happiness, but in the form of society, friends and mundane love we are getting no more than a drop of water. Our satisfaction is never achieved, as the small rivulets, lakes and ponds are never filled with water in the dry season."

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