अहो महीयसी जन्तोर्जीविताशा यथा भवान् ।
भीमापवर्जितं पिण्डमादत्ते गृहपालवत् ॥२३॥

aho mahīyasī jantor
jÄ«vitÄÅ›Ä yathÄ bhavÄn
bhÄ«mÄpavarjitaá¹ piṇá¸am
Ädatte gá¹›ha-pÄlavat

 aho - alas; mahÄ«yasÄ« - powerful; jantoḥ - of the living beings; jÄ«vita-ÄÅ›Ä - hope for life; yathÄ - as much as; bhavÄn - you are; bhÄ«ma - of BhÄ«masena (a brother of Yudhiṣṭhira's); apavarjitam - remnants; piṇá¸am - foodstuff; Ädatte - eaten by; gá¹›ha-pÄla-vat - like a household dog.


Text

Alas, how powerful are the hopes of a living being to continue his life. Verily, you are living just like a household dog and are eating remnants of food given by Bhīma.

Purport

A sÄdhu should never flatter kings or rich men to live comfortably at their cost. A sÄdhu is to speak to the householders about the naked truth of life so that they may come to their senses about the precarious life in material existence. Dhá¹›tarÄṣṭra is a typical example of an attached old man in household life. He had become a pauper in the true sense, yet he wanted to live comfortably in the house of the PÄṇá¸avas, of whom BhÄ«ma especially is mentioned because personally he killed two prominent sons of Dhá¹›tarÄṣṭra, namely Duryodhana and DuḥśÄsana. These two sons were very much dear to him for their notorious and nefarious activities, and BhÄ«ma is particularly pointed out because he killed these two pet sons. Why was Dhá¹›tarÄṣṭra living there at the house of the PÄṇá¸avas? Because he wanted to continue his life comfortably, even at the risk of all humiliation. Vidura, therefore, was astonished how powerful is the urge to continue life. This sense of continuing one’s life indicates that a living being is eternally a living entity and does not want to change his bodily habitation. The foolish man does not know that a particular term of bodily existence is awarded to him to undergo a term of imprisonment, and the human body is awarded, after many, many births and deaths, as a chance for self-realization to go back home, back to Godhead. But persons like Dhá¹›tarÄṣṭra try to make plans to live there in a comfortable position with profit and interest, for they do not see things as they are. Dhá¹›tarÄṣṭra is blind and continues to hope to live comfortably in the midst of all kinds of reverses of life. A sÄdhu like Vidura is meant to awaken such blind persons and thus help them go back to Godhead, where life is eternal. Once going there, no one wants to come back to this material world of miseries. We can just imagine how responsible a task is entrusted to a sÄdhu like MahÄtmÄ Vidura.