SB 12.3.31

SB 12.3.31

Devanagari

तस्मात् क्षुद्रद‍ृशो मर्त्या: क्षुद्रभाग्या महाशना: । कामिनो वित्तहीनाश्च स्वैरिण्यश्च स्त्रियोऽसती: ॥ ३१ ॥

Verse text

tasmāt kṣudra-dṛśo martyāḥ kṣudra-bhāgyā mahāśanāḥ kāmino vitta-hīnāś ca svairiṇyaś ca striyo ’satīḥ

Synonyms

tasmāt due to these qualities of the Age of Kali ; kṣudra dṛśaḥ — shortsighted ; martyāḥ human beings ; kṣudra bhāgyāḥ — unfortunate ; mahā aśanāḥ — excessive in their eating habits ; kāminaḥ full of lust ; vitta hīnāḥ — lacking wealth ; ca and ; svairiṇyaḥ independent in their social dealings ; ca and ; striyaḥ the women ; asatīḥ unchaste .

Translation

Because of the bad qualities of the Age of Kali, human beings will become shortsighted, unfortunate, gluttonous, lustful and poverty-stricken. The women, becoming unchaste, will freely wander from one man to the next.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Because of the bad qualities of the age of Kali, human beings will become shortsighted, unfortunate, gluttonous, lustful and poverty-stricken. The women, becoming unchaste, will freely wander from one man to the next. Now the faults of Kali are described. Tasmāt means “because of Kali.”

Purport

In the Age of Kali certain pseudointellectuals, seeking individual freedom, support sexual promiscuity. In fact, identification of the self with the body and the pursuit of “individual freedom” in the body rather than in the soul are signs of the most dismal ignorance and slavery to lust. When women are unchaste, many children are born out of wedlock as products of lust. These children grow up in psychologically unfavorable circumstances, and a neurotic, ignorant society arises. Symptoms of this are already manifest throughout the world.