nÅ«naá¹ daivena vihatÄ
ye cÄcyuta-kathÄ-sudhÄm
hitvÄ Å›á¹›á¹‡vanty asad-gÄthÄḥ
purīṣam iva viá¸-bhujaḥ
nÅ«nam - certainly; daivena - by the order of the Lord; vihatÄḥ - condemned; ye - those who; ca - also; acyuta - of the infallible Lord; kathÄ - stories; sudhÄm - nectar; hitvÄ - having given up; śṛṇvanti - they hear; asat-gÄthÄḥ - stories about materialistic persons; purīṣam - stool; iva - like; viá¹-bhujaḥ - stool-eaters (hogs).
Everyone is addicted to hearing of the activities of another person, whether a politician or a rich man or an imaginary character whose activities are created in a novel. There are so many nonsensical literatures, stories and books of speculative philosophy. Materialistic persons are very interested in reading such literature, but when they are presented with genuine books of knowledge like ÅšrÄ«mad-BhÄgavatam, Bhagavad-gÄ«tÄ, Viṣṇu PurÄṇa or other scriptures of the world, such as the Bible and Koran, they are not interested. These persons are condemned by the supreme order as much as a hog is condemned. The hog is interested in eating stool. If the hog is offered some nice preparation made of condensed milk or ghee, he won’t like it; he would prefer obnoxious, bad-smelling stool, which he finds very relishable. Materialistic persons are considered condemned because they are interested in hellish activities and not in transcendental activities. The message of the Lord’s activities is nectar, and besides that message, any information in which we may be interested is actually hellish.