SB 1.16.19 · Srimad-Bhagavatam

Devanagari

धर्म उवाच कच्चिद्भद्रेऽनामयमात्मनस्ते विच्छायासि म्‍लायतेषन्मुखेन । आलक्षये भवतीमन्तराधिं दूरे बन्धुं शोचसि कञ्चनाम्ब ॥ १९ ॥

Verse text

dharma uvāca kaccid bhadre ’nāmayam ātmanas te vicchāyāsi mlāyateṣan mukhena ālakṣaye bhavatīm antarādhiṁ dūre bandhuṁ śocasi kaṣcanāmba

Synonyms

dharmaḥ uvāca — Dharma inquired ; kaccit — whether ; bhadre — madam ; anāmayam — quite hale and hearty ; ātmanaḥ — self ; te — unto you ; vicchāyā asi — appear to be covered with the shadow of grief ; mlāyatā — which darkens ; īṣat — slightly ; mukhena — by the face ; ālakṣaye — you look ; bhavatīm — unto yourself ; antarādhim — some disease within ; dūre — long distant ; bandhum — friend ; śocasi — thinking of ; kaṣcana — someone ; amba — O mother .

Translation

Dharma [in the form of a bull] asked: Madam, are you not hale and hearty? Why are you covered with the shadow of grief? It appears by your face that you have become black. Are you suffering from some internal disease, or are you thinking of some relative who is away in a distant place?

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Dharma, moving about on one leg, seeing a cow with no effulgence, with tears in her eyes as if she had lost her calf, inquired from her.

Purport

The people of the world in this Age of Kali are always full of anxieties. Everyone is diseased with some kind of ailment. From the very faces of the people of this age, one can find out the index of the mind. Everyone feels the absence of his relative who is away from home. The particular symptom of the Age of Kali is that no family is now blessed to live together. To earn a livelihood, the father lives at a place far away from the son, or the wife lives far away from the husband and so on. There are sufferings from internal diseases, separation from those near and dear, and anxieties for maintaining the status quo. These are but some important factors which make the people of this age always unhappy.

Commentary (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

The moment that Kali-yuga had started dharma, the earth and Kali appeared in this situation. Though this was not seen by the people, Parīkṣit, who meditated with a desire to see this, saw it with his mystic eyes. Dharma in the form of a bull asked questions to the cow who had lost her effulgence (vicchāyām).