Shloka 10
Brahmā’s Prayers to Lord Nārāyaṇa and the Lord’s Empowering Instructions for Creation
अह्न्यापृतार्तकरणा निशि नि:शयाना । नानामनोरथधिया क्षणभग्ननिद्रा: । दैवाहतार्थरचना ऋषयोऽपि देव युष्मत्प्रसङ्गविमुखा इह संसरन्ति ॥ १० ॥
ahny āpṛtārta-karaṇā niśi niḥśayānā nānā-manoratha-dhiyā kṣaṇa-bhagna-nidrāḥ daivāhatārtha-racanā ṛṣayo ’pi deva yuṣmat-prasaṅga-vimukhā iha saṁsaranti
हे देव! अभक्त लोग दिन में इन्द्रियों को अत्यन्त कष्टदायक और विस्तृत कर्मों में लगाते हैं, और रात में भी निश्चिन्त होकर सो नहीं पाते; अनेक मनोरथों की बुद्धि उनकी नींद को क्षण-क्षण तोड़ देती है। दैव उनके प्रयत्नों को विफल कर देता है; यहाँ तक कि बड़े ऋषि भी यदि आपके प्रसंग से विमुख हों, तो इस संसार में भटकते रहते हैं।
As described in the previous verse, people who have no taste for the devotional service of the Lord are occupied in material engagements. Most of them engage during the daytime in hard physical labor; their senses are engaged very extensively in troublesome duties in the gigantic plants of heavy industrial enterprise. The owners of such factories are engaged in finding a market for their industrial products, and the laborers are engaged in extensive production involving huge mechanical arrangements. “Factory” is another name for hell. At night, hellishly engaged persons take advantage of wine and women to satisfy their tired senses, but they are not even able to have sound sleep because their various mental speculative plans constantly interrupt their sleep. Because they suffer from insomnia sometimes they feel sleepy in the morning for lack of sufficient rest. By the arrangement of supernatural power, even the great scientists and thinkers of the world suffer frustration of their various plans and thus rot in the material world birth after birth. A great scientist may make discoveries in atomic energy for the quick destruction of the world and may be awarded the best prize in recognition of his service (or disservice), but he also has to undergo the reactions of his work by rotating in the cycle of repeated births and deaths under the superhuman law of material nature. All these people who are against the principle of devotional service are destined to rotate in this material world without fail.
FAQs
This verse says that people remain unsatisfied by day and sleepless by night because the mind runs after countless desires and plans, keeping the senses distressed and the heart without peace.
Brahmā explains that even ṛṣis can be pulled into worldly arrangements by fate; without attraction to hearing and speaking the Lord’s glories (yuṣmat-prasaṅga), one continues wandering in saṁsāra.
Reduce mental over-planning and desire-chasing by making daily space for Hari-kathā—reading, hearing, and chanting—so the mind gains real rest and direction toward liberation.