Shloka 2
यं यमर्थमुपादत्ते दु:खेन सुखहेतवे । तं तं धुनोति भगवान्पुमाञ्छोचति यत्कृते ॥ २ ॥
yaṁ yam artham upādatte duḥkhena sukha-hetave taṁ taṁ dhunoti bhagavān pumāñ chocati yat-kṛte
Whatever the materialist acquires with pain and labor for so‑called happiness, Bhagavān, as kāla—time—shakes it away and destroys it; therefore the conditioned soul laments.
The main function of the time factor, which is a representative of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is to destroy everything. The materialists, in material consciousness, are engaged in producing so many things in the name of economic development. They think that by advancing in satisfying the material needs of man they will be happy, but they forget that everything they have produced will be destroyed in due course of time. From history we can see that there were many powerful empires on the surface of the globe that were constructed with great pain and great perseverance, but in due course of time they have all been destroyed. Still the foolish materialists cannot understand that they are simply wasting time in producing material necessities, which are destined to be vanquished in due course of time. This waste of energy is due to the ignorance of the mass of people, who do not know that they are eternal and that they have an eternal engagement also. They do not know that this span of life in a particular type of body is but a flash in the eternal journey. Not knowing this fact, they take the small flash of life to be everything, and they waste time in improving economic conditions.
FAQs
This verse says that people toil painfully for objects they think will bring happiness, yet by the Lord’s arrangement those very objects are taken away, leading to lamentation—showing the instability of material happiness.
Kapila instructs Devahuti in sāṅkhya-bhakti, exposing the futility of clinging to temporary gains so she can develop detachment and turn her consciousness toward devotional liberation.
Treat gains and losses as temporary, reduce obsessive attachment to outcomes, and redirect effort toward steady spiritual practice (bhakti), so setbacks don’t collapse your peace of mind.