Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 3.32.19

nūnaḿ daivena vihatā

ye cācyuta-kathā-sudhām

hitvā śṛṇvanty asad-gāthāḥ

purīṣam iva viḍ-bhujaḥ

SYNONYMS

nūnam — certainly; daivena — by the order of the Lord; vihatāḥ — condemned; ye — those who; ca — also; acyuta — of the infallible Lord; kathā — stories; sudhām — nectar; hitvā — having given up; śṛṇvanti — they hear; asat-gāthāḥ — stories about materialistic persons; purīṣam — stool; iva — like; viṭ-bhujaḥ — stool-eaters (hogs).

TRANSLATION

Such persons are condemned by the supreme order of the Lord. Because they are averse to the nectar of the activities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, they are compared to stool-eating hogs. They give up hearing the transcendental activities of the Lord and indulge in hearing of the abominable activities of materialistic persons.

PURPORT

Everyone is addicted to hearing of the activities of another person, whether a politician or a rich man or an imaginary character whose activities are created in a novel. There are so many nonsensical literatures, stories and books of speculative philosophy. Materialistic persons are very interested in reading such literature, but when they are presented with genuine books of knowledge like Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Bhagavad-gītā, Viṣṇu Purāṇa or other scriptures of the world, such as the Bible and Koran, they are not interested. These persons are condemned by the supreme order as much as a hog is condemned. The hog is interested in eating stool. If the hog is offered some nice preparation made of condensed milk or ghee, he won't like it; he would prefer obnoxious, bad-smelling stool, which he finds very relishable. Materialistic persons are considered condemned because they are interested in hellish activities and not in transcendental activities. The message of the Lord's activities is nectar, and besides that message, any information in which we may be interested is actually hellish.

<<< >>>

Copyright © The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International, Inc.
His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness