SB 10.20.16 · Srimad-Bhagavatam

Devanagari

मार्गा बभूवु: सन्दिग्धस्तृणैश्छन्ना ह्यसंस्कृता: । नाभ्यस्यमाना: श्रुतयो द्विजै: कालेन चाहता: ॥ १६ ॥

Verse text

mārgā babhūvuḥ sandigdhās tṛṇaiś channā hy asaṁskṛtāḥ nābhyasyamānāḥ śrutayo dvijaiḥ kālena cāhatāḥ

Synonyms

mārgāḥ — the roads ; babhūvuḥ — became ; sandigdhāḥ — obscured ; tṛṇaiḥ — by grass ; channāḥ — covered over ; hi — indeed ; asaṁskṛtāḥ — not cleansed ; na abhyasyamānāḥ — not being studied ; śrutayaḥ — the scriptures ; dvijaiḥ — by the brāhmaṇas ; kālena — by the effects of time ; ca — and ; āhatāḥ — corrupted .

Translation

During the rainy season the roads, not being cleansed, became covered with grass and debris and were thus difficult to make out. These roads were like religious scriptures that brāhmaṇas no longer study and that thus become corrupted and covered over with the passage of time.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

During the rainy season the roads, not being cleansed, became covered with grass and debris and were thus difficult to make out. These roads were like religious scriptures that brāhmaṇas no longer study and that thus become corrupted and covered over with the passage of time. KB 10.20.16 In the rainy season some of the roads are not frequently used, and they become covered with long grasses. These roads are exactly like a brāhmaṇa who is not accustomed to studying and practicing the reformatory methods of the Vedic injunctions—he becomes covered with the long grasses of māyā. In that condition, forgetful of his constitutional nature, he forgets his position of eternal servitorship to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. By being deviated by the seasonal overgrowth of long grasses created by māyā, a person identifies himself with the māyic production and succumbs to illusion, forgetting his spiritual life.

Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Not studying the scriptures is compared to the unclean paths. Scriptures being lost due to time is compared to the paths overgrown with grass. The scriptures and the path are both defiled. This is unfavorable for the brahmanas.

Purport (Jiva Goswami)

The roads are like the Vedas not being studied, destroyed by Kali-yuga. There is a version with śrutayaḥ iva and with kālena āhataḥ as well as kālena hatāḥ. The word iva means “and.”