Devanagari
आयु: श्री: कीर्तिरैश्वर्यमाशिष: पुरुषस्य या: ।
भवन्त्येव हि तत्काले यथानिच्छोर्विपर्यया: ॥ १३ ॥
Verse text
āyuḥ śrīḥ kīrtir aiśvaryam
āśiṣaḥ puruṣasya yāḥ
bhavanty eva hi tat-kāle
yathānicchor viparyayāḥ
Synonyms
āyuḥ
—
longevity
;
śrīḥ
—
opulence
;
kīrtiḥ
—
fame
;
aiśvaryam
—
power
;
āśiṣaḥ
—
benedictions
;
puruṣasya
—
of the living entity
;
yāḥ
—
which
;
bhavanti
—
arise
;
eva
—
indeed
;
hi
—
certainly
;
tat
—
kāle — at that proper time
;
yathā
—
just as
;
anicchoḥ
—
of one not desiring
;
viparyayāḥ
—
reverse conditions .
Translation
Just as a person not inclined to die must nonetheless give up his longevity, opulence, fame and everything else at the time of death, so, at the appointed time of victory, one can gain all these when the Supreme Lord awards them by His mercy.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
The blessings of long life, wealth, fame and power for man arise according to a favorable time. Similarly, the opposites arise according to time, for the unwilling person.
“There is no worry that you will be victorious over me, since you have defeated me. Why do you fight me with force?” Long life, wealth, fame and power appear according to the time favorable for these things. Now is the time for your victory. You will be victorious. The opposites are death, poverty, infamy, and weakness.
Purport
It is not good to be falsely puffed up, saying that by one’s own effort one has become opulent, learned, beautiful and so on. All such good fortune is achieved through the mercy of the Lord. From another point of view, no one wants to die, and no one wants to be poor or ugly. Therefore, why does the living entity, against his will, receive such unwanted troubles? It is due to the mercy or chastisement of the Supreme Personality of Godhead that one gains or loses everything material. No one is independent; everyone is dependent on the mercy or chastisement of the Supreme Lord. There is a common saying in Bengal that the Lord has ten hands. This means that He has control everywhere — in the eight directions and up and down. If He wants to take everything away from us with His ten hands, we cannot protect anything with our two hands. Similarly, if He wants to bestow benedictions upon us with His ten hands, we cannot factually receive them all with our two hands; in other words, the benedictions exceed our ambitions. The conclusion is that even though we do not wish to be separated from our possessions, sometimes the Lord forcibly takes them from us; and sometimes He showers such benedictions upon us that we are unable to receive them all. Therefore either in opulence or in distress we are not independent; everything is dependent on the sweet will of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.