Devanagari
एवमध्वन्यवरुन्धानो मृत्युगजभयात्तमसि गिरिकन्दरप्राये ॥ ३३ ॥
Verse text
evam adhvany avarundhāno mṛtyu-gaja-bhayāt tamasi giri-kandara-prāye.
Synonyms
evam
—
in this way
;
adhvani
—
on the path of sense gratification
;
avarundhānaḥ
—
being confined, he forgets the real purpose of life
;
mṛtyu
—
gaja — bhayāt — out of fear of the elephant of death
;
tamasi
—
in the darkness
;
giri
—
kandara — prāye — similar to the dark caves in the mountains .
Translation
In this material world, when the conditioned soul forgets his relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead and does not care for Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he simply engages in different types of mischievous and sinful activities. He is then subjected to the threefold miseries, and, out of fear of the elephant of death, he falls into the darkness found in a mountain cave.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
On the path, he is restricted to sinful acts, and out of fear of death, he falls into ignorance which is like a mountain cave.
With verse explains the phrase “out of inattention, he falls from a mountain cliff’’ mentioned in SB 5.13.18. Out of fear of death, in ignorance, he is confined (avarundhānaḥ) to performing sinful acts to prevent serious illness. In this way he is absorbed in himself.
Purport
Everyone is afraid of death, and however strong a materialistic person may be, when there is disease and old age one must certainly accept death’s notice. The conditioned soul becomes very morose to receive notice of death. His fear is compared to the fear experienced upon entering a dark mountain cave, and death is compared to a great elephant.