SB 6.14.54 · Srimad-Bhagavatam

Devanagari

अहो विधातस्त्वमतीव बालिशो यस्त्वात्मसृष्ट्यप्रतिरूपमीहसे । परे नु जीवत्यपरस्य या मृति- र्विपर्ययश्चेत्त्वमसि ध्रुव: पर: ॥ ५४ ॥

Verse text

aho vidhātas tvam atīva bāliśo yas tv ātma-sṛṣṭy-apratirūpam īhase pare nu jīvaty aparasya yā mṛtir viparyayaś cet tvam asi dhruvaḥ paraḥ

Synonyms

aho — alas (in great lamentation) ; vidhātaḥ — O Providence ; tvam — You ; atīva — very much ; bāliśaḥ — inexperienced ; yaḥ — who ; tu — indeed ; ātma — sṛṣṭi — of Your own creation ; apratirūpam — just the opposite ; īhase — You are performing and desiring ; pare — while the father or the elder ; nu — indeed ; jīvati — is living ; aparasya — of one who was born later ; yā — which ; mṛtiḥ — death ; viparyayaḥ — contradictory ; cet — if ; tvam — You ; asi — are ; dhruvaḥ — indeed ; paraḥ — an enemy .

Translation

Alas, O Providence, O Creator, You are certainly inexperienced in creation, for during the lifetime of a father You have caused the death of his son, thus acting in opposition to Your creative laws. If You are determined to contradict these laws, You are certainly the enemy of living entities and are never merciful.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

O Creator! You are certainly inexperienced in creation, for during the lifetime of a father you have caused the death of his son, thus acting in opposition to your laws of creation. If you are determined to contradict these laws, you are certainly our enemy. The cause of lamentation is the Lord. The cause of him doing this is his foolishness. She gives the Lord some advice for his own benefit, so that he will not do as he has done again. The Lord is inexperienced, childish, because he has made his own creation improperly (apratirūpam). “How is it improper?” While the elder lives, the child dies. There is a problem in the creation if the elders cannot create and the children die. If you think that now you will do everything in an opposite way during creation, then you are certainly our enemy (paraḥ). Doing what is wrong for you to do, you also show that you are inimical to us by making us suffer.

Purport

This is the way a conditioned soul condemns the supreme creator when he meets reverses. Sometimes he accuses the Supreme Personality of Godhead of being crooked because some people are happy and some are not. Here the Queen blames supreme providence for her son’s death. Following the creative laws, a father should die first and then his son. If the creative laws are changed according to the whims of providence, then providence certainly should not be considered merciful, but must be considered inimical to the created being. Actually it is not the creator, but the conditioned soul who is inexperienced. He does not know how the subtle laws of fruitive activity work, and without knowledge of these laws of nature, he ignorantly criticizes the Supreme Personality of Godhead.