Srimad Bhagavatam — Panchama Skandha, Shloka 27
अध्वन्यमुष्मिन्निम उपसर्गास्तथा सुखदु:खरागद्वेषभयाभिमानप्रमादोन्मादशोकमोहलोभमात्सर्येर्ष्यावमानक्षुत्पिपासाधिव्याधिजन्मजरामरणादय: ॥ २७ ॥
adhvany amuṣminn ima upasargās tathā sukha-duḥkha-rāga-dveṣa-bhayābhimāna-pramādonmāda-śoka-moha-lobha-mātsaryerṣyāva-māna-kṣut-pipāsādhi-vyādhi-janma-jarā-maraṇādayaḥ.
On this materialistic path there are many hardships, as I have said, all of them difficult to overcome. Beyond these come troubles born of so-called happiness and distress, attachment and hatred, fear, false prestige, negligence, madness, lamentation, bewilderment, greed, envy, enmity, insult, hunger and thirst, anxiety, disease, birth, old age, and death. Together they grant the conditioned soul, hungry for enjoyment, nothing but misery.
The conditioned soul has to accept all these conditions simply to enjoy sense gratification in this world. Although people declare themselves great scientists, economists, philosophers, politicians and sociologists, they are actually nothing but rascals. Therefore they have been described as mūḍhas and narādhamas in Bhagavad-gītā (7.15) :
FAQs
In this verse, Śukadeva lists common afflictions on the path of saṁsāra—attachment and hatred, fear and false pride, grief and delusion, greed and envy, hunger and thirst, mental distress and disease—culminating in birth, old age, and death.
He is teaching Parīkṣit the nature of the ‘forest’ of material enjoyment: even when one seeks pleasure, the journey is filled with obstacles and suffering, encouraging detachment and exclusive shelter in devotional service.
Use it as a diagnostic list: notice which afflictions (fear, greed, envy, anxiety, etc.) are active, and counter them by simplifying desires, practicing self-control, and grounding daily life in bhakti—hearing, chanting, and remembering the Lord.