Devanagari
अधर्मोपचितं वित्तं हरन्त्यन्येऽल्पमेधस: ।
सम्भोजनीयापदेशैर्जलानीव जलौकस: ॥ २२ ॥
Verse text
adharmopacitaṁ vittaṁ
haranty anye ’lpa-medhasaḥ
sambhojanīyāpadeśair
jalānīva jalaukasaḥ
Synonyms
adharma
—
by irreligious means
;
upacitam
—
gathered
;
vittam
—
wealth
;
haranti
—
steal
;
anye
—
other persons
;
alpa
—
medhasaḥ — of one who is unintelligent
;
sambhojanīya
—
as requiring support
;
apadeśaiḥ
—
by the false designations
;
jalāni
—
water
;
iva
—
as
;
jala
—
okasaḥ — of a resident of the water .
Translation
In the guise of dear dependents, strangers steal the sinfully acquired wealth of a foolish man, just as the offspring of a fish drink up the water that sustains the fish.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
In the guise of dear dependents, strangers steal the sinfully acquired wealth of a foolish man, just as the offspring of a fish drink up the water that sustains the fish.
KB 10.49.22
Sometimes it happens that one’s father accumulates wealth by illegal ways, and the son takes away the money, although it was earned with great difficulty by the father, just as a small fish in the ocean eats the material body of a large, old fish.
Purport
Ordinary people feel they cannot live without their wealth, although their possession of it is circumstantial and temporary. Just as wealth gives life to an ordinary man, water gives life to a fish. One’s dear dependents, however, steal one’s wealth, just as a fish’s offspring drink up the water sustaining the fish. In the words of Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, this world is “a weird abode.”
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
"When a son living with his father steals his hard earned money, he should be known as an enemy with the name of a son. They steal the wealth of the foolish father using the pretext that it is the fathers duty to support them (sambhojaniyah), just as numerous offspring of the fish end up contaminating the very water, which gives life to the fish."
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
Others such as sons stead the wealth one has personally earned with labor by forbidden actions or not following one’s svadharma because though one knows they are stealing, one has no ability to decide what to do. In a temporary body of water the small fish by making the water dirty and foul smelling and smaller in quantity because of the over-crowding. Thus the big fish dies first.