Text 39] What Prahlada Learned in the Womb 95
sarve—all; artha—economic development; kamah—and sense gratifica-
tion; ksana-bhangura —perishable in a moment; dyusah—of one whose
duration of life; kurvanti—effect or bring; martyasya—of one who is
destined to die; kiyat—how much; priyam—pleasure; calah—flickering
and temporary.
TRANSLATION

One’s riches, beautiful wife and female friends, one’s sons and
daughters, one’s residence, one’s domestic animals like cows,
elephants and horses, one’s treasury, economic development and
sense gratification —indeed, even the lifetime in which one can en-
joy all these material opulences—are certainly temporary and
flickering. Since the opportunity of human life is temporary, what
benefit can these material opulences give to a sensible man who has
understood himself to be eternal?

PURPORT

This verse describes how the advocates of economic development are
frustrated by the laws of nature. As the previous verse asks, kim
visayopapadanaih: what is the actual benefit of so-called economic
development? The history of the world has factually proved that at-
tempts to increase economic development for bodily comfort through the
advancement of material civilization have done nothing to remedy the
inevitability of birth, death, old age and disease. Everyone has knowl-
edge of huge empires throughout the history of the world—the Roman
Empire, the Moghul Empire, the British Empire and so on—but all the
societies engaged in such economic development (sarve ’rtha-kamah)
have been frustrated by the laws of nature through periodic wars,
pestilence, famine and so on. Thus all their attempts have been flickering
and temporary. In this verse, therefore, it is said, kurvanti martyasya
kiyat priyam calah: one may be very proud of possessing a vast empire,
but such empires are impermanent; after one hundred or two hundred
years, everything is finished. All such positions of economic develop-
ment, although created with great endeavor and hardship, are van-
quished very soon. Therefore they have been described as calah. An in-
telligent man should conclude that material economic development is not
at all pleasing. The entire world is described in Bhagavad-gita as
