नैनं प्राप्स्यथ शोचन्त्यः पतिं वर्षशतैरपि ॥५७॥
evaṠyūyam apaśyantya
ÄtmÄpÄyam abuddhayaḥ
nainaá¹ prÄpsyatha Å›ocantyaḥ
patiṠvarṣa-śatair api
evam - thus; yÅ«yam - you; apaÅ›yantyaḥ - not seeing; Ätma-apÄyam - own death; abuddhayaḥ - O ignorant ones; na - not; enam - him; prÄpsyatha - you will obtain; Å›ocantyaḥ - lamenting for; patim - your husband; vará¹£a-Å›ataiḥ - for a hundred years; api - even.
Thus YamarÄja, in the guise of a small boy, told all the queens: You are all so foolish that you lament but do not see your own death. Afflicted by a poor fund of knowledge, you do not know that even if you lament for your dead husband for hundreds of years, you will never get him back alive, and in the meantime your lives will be finished.
YamarÄja once asked MahÄrÄja Yudhiá¹£á¹hira, “What is the most wonderful thing within this world?†MahÄrÄja Yudhiá¹£á¹hira replied (MahÄbhÄrata, Vana-parva 313.116):
ahany ahani bhÅ«tÄni
gacchantÄ«ha yamÄlayam
Å›eá¹£Äḥ sthÄvaram icchanti
kim ÄÅ›caryam ataḥ paraá¹
Hundreds and thousands of living entities meet death at every moment, but a foolish living being nonetheless thinks himself deathless and does not prepare for death. This is the most wonderful thing in this world. Everyone has to die because everyone is fully under the control of material nature, yet everyone thinks that he is independent, that whatever he likes he can do, that he will never meet death but live forever, and so on. So-called scientists are making various plans by which living entities in the future can live forever, but while they are thus pursuing such scientific knowledge, YamarÄja, in due course of time, will take them away from their business of so-called research.
