232 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 1, Ch. 5
pilgrimage; usanti—think; ma@nasah—saintly persons; na—not; yatra—where;
hamsah—all-perfect beings; niramanti—take pleasure; usikksayah—those
who reside in the transcendental abode.
TRANSLATION
Those words which do not describe the glories of the Lord, who alone
can sanctify the atmosphere of the whole universe, are considered by
saintly persons to be like unto a place of pilgrimage for crows. Since the
all-perfect persons are inhabitants of the transcendental abode, they do not
derive any pleasure there.
PURPORT

Crows and swans are not birds of the same feather because of their
different mental attitudes. The fruitive workers or passionate men are
compared to the crows, whereas the all-perfect saintly persons are
compared to the swans. The crows take pleasure in a place where garbage
is thrown out, just as the passionate fruitive workers take pleasure in wine
and woman and places for gross sense pleasure. The swans do not take
pleasure in the places where crows are assembled for conferences and
meetings. They are instead seen in the atmosphere of natural scenic
beauty where there are transparent reservoirs of water nicely decorated
with stems of lotus flowers in variegated colors of natural beauty. That is
the difference between the two classes of birds.

Nature has influenced different species of life with different mentalities,
and it is not possible to bring them up into the same rank and file.

Similarly, there are different kinds of literature for different types of
men of different mentality. Mostly the market literatures which attract
men of the crow’s categories are literatures containing refused remnants of
sensuous topics. They are generally known as mundane talks in re-
lation with the gross body and subtle mind. They are full of sub-
ject matter described in decorative language full of mundane similes
and metaphorical arrangements. Yet with all that, they do not glorify
the Lord. Such poetry and prose, on any subject matter, is considered
decoration of a dead body. Spiritually advanced men who are compared
with the swans do not take pleasure in such dead literatures, which are
sources of pleasure for men who are spiritually dead. These literatures in
the modes of passion and ignorance are distributed under different labels,
but they can hardly help the spiritual urge of the human being, and thus
the swanlike spiritually advanced men have nothing to do with them. Such
