te vai rajaḥ-prakṛtayas
tamasÄ mÅ«á¸ha-cetasaḥ
satÄá¹ vidveá¹£am Äcerur
ÄrÄd Ägata-má¹›tyavaḥ
te - all the asuric ministers; vai - indeed; rajaḥ-praká¹›tayaḥ - surcharged with the mode of passion; tamasÄ - overwhelmed by the mode of ignorance; mÅ«á¸ha-cetasaḥ - foolish persons; satÄm - of saintly persons; vidveá¹£am - persecution; Äceruḥ - executed; ÄrÄt Ägata-má¹›tya-vaḥ - impending death having already overtaken them.
Surcharged with passion and ignorance and not knowing what was good or bad for them, the asuras, for whom impending death was waiting, began the persecution of the saintly persons.
As stated in Bhagavad-gÄ«tÄ (2.13):
dehino ’smin yathÄ dehe
kaumÄraá¹ yauvanaá¹ jarÄ
tathÄ dehÄntara-prÄptir
dhīras tatra na muhyati
“As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change.†Irresponsible persons, surcharged with passion and ignorance, foolishly do things that are not to be done (nūnaṠpramattaḥ kurute vikarma). But one should know the results of irresponsible actions, as explained in the next verse.
