Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 4.24.65

sa eṣa lokān aticaṇḍa-vego

vikarṣasi tvaḿ khalu kāla-yānaḥ

bhūtāni bhūtair anumeya-tattvo

ghanāvalīr vāyur ivāviṣahyaḥ

SYNONYMS

saḥ — that; eṣaḥ — this; lokān — all the planetary systems; ati — very much; caṇḍa-vegaḥ — the great force; vikarṣasi — destroys; tvam — Your Lordship; khalu — however; kāla-yānaḥ — in due course of time; bhūtāni — all living entities; bhūtaiḥ — by other living entities; anumeya-tattvaḥ — the Absolute Truth can be guessed; ghana-āvalīḥ — the clouds; vāyuḥ — air; iva — like; aviṣahyaḥ — unbearable.

TRANSLATION

My dear Lord, Your absolute authority cannot be directly experienced, but one can guess by seeing the activities of the world that everything is being destroyed in due course of time. The force of time is very strong, and everything is being destroyed by something else — just as one animal is being eaten by another animal. Time scatters everything, exactly as the wind scatters clouds in the sky.

PURPORT

The process of destruction is going on according to the law of nature. Nothing within this material world can be permanent, although scientists, philosophers, workers and everyone else are trying to make things permanent. One foolish scientist recently declared that eventually life will be made permanent through science. Some so-called scientists are also trying to manufacture living entities within the laboratory. Thus in one way or another everyone is busy denying the existence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and rejecting the supreme authority of the Lord. However, the Lord is so powerful that He destroys everything in the form of death. As Kṛṣṇa says in Bhagavad-gītā (10.34), mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś cāham: "I am all-devouring death." The Lord is just like death to the atheists, for He takes away everything they accumulate in the material world. Hiraṇyakaśipu, the father of Prahlāda, always denied the existence of the Lord, and he tried to kill his five-year-old boy due to the boy's unflinching faith in God. However, in due course of time the Lord appeared as Nṛsiḿhadeva and killed Hiraṇyakaśipu in the presence of his son. As stated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.13.47), this killing process is natural. Jīvo jīvasya jīvanam: "one animal is food for another animal." A frog is eaten by a snake, a snake is eaten by a mongoose, and the mongoose is eaten by another animal. In this way the process of destruction goes on by the supreme will of the Lord. Although we do not see the hand of the Supreme Lord directly, we can feel the presence of that hand through the Lord's process of destruction. We can see the clouds scattered by the wind, although we cannot see how this is being done because it is not possible to see the wind. Similarly, although we do not directly see the Supreme Personality of Godhead, we can see that He controls the process of destruction. The destructive process is going on fiercely under the control of the Lord, but the atheists cannot see it.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness