SB 11.8.36 · Srimad Bhagavatam

Devanagari

कियत् प्रियं ते व्यभजन् कामा ये कामदा नरा: । आद्यन्तवन्तो भार्याया देवा वा कालविद्रुता: ॥ ३६ ॥

Verse text

kiyat priyaṁ te vyabhajan kāmā ye kāma-dā narāḥ ādy-antavanto bhāryāyā devā vā kāla-vidrutāḥ

Synonyms

kiyat — how much ; priyam — actual happiness ; te — they ; vyabhajan — have provided ; kāmāḥ — sense gratification ; ye — and those ; kāma — dāḥ — who give sense gratification ; narāḥ — men ; ādi — a beginning ; anta — and an end ; vantaḥ — having ; bhāryāyāḥ — of a wife ; devāḥ — the demigods ; vā — or ; kāla — by time ; vidrutāḥ — separated and thus disturbed .

Translation

Men provide sense gratification for women, but all these men, and even the demigods in heaven, have a beginning and an end. They are all temporary creations who will be dragged away by time. Therefore how much actual pleasure or happiness could any of them ever give to their wives?

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Sense objects, men who provide sense gratification for women, and even the devatās have a beginning and an end and are destroyed by time. Therefore how much actual pleasure could any of them ever give to their wives? Sense objects (kāmāḥ), men who give pleasure, and devatās as well, are all destroyed by time. What pleasure can they give their wife? None at all. Thus, in this world and the next, no one except the Lord should be served.

Purport

In this material world everyone is basically pursuing his personal sense gratification, and thus everyone is being ruined by the influence of time. On the material platform no one actually helps anyone else. So-called material love is simply a cheating process, as the lady Piṅgalā is now discovering.