Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.20.37
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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āyuḥ
—
lifespan
From √i — to go. Āyus is what is going, by definition. Gauḍīyas keep this etymology alive: every breath is āyus departing; only kṛṣṇa-smṛti redeems each one before it leaves.
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kṣayyam
—
dwindling
From √kṣi — to decrease. Kṣaya is the standing word for diminishment, used also for inauspicious lunar days. Lifespan is structurally kṣayya.
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kuṭumbinaḥ
—
family men
Plural of kuṭumbī — one with a kuṭumba (extended family). Not condemned per se, but warned. Gauḍīyas distinguish gṛhastha (a sacred order) from kuṭumbī (an attachment-state inside it); only the second is the verse's target.
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mūḍhāḥ
—
fools
From √muh — to be bewildered. The standing Bhāgavatam name for the conditioned soul who misreads his situation. Gauḍīyas always pair mūḍha with kṛpā — the mūḍha is precisely the one bhakti is for.
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anu-aham
—
day by day
Distributive — every day. Time's drip-rate. The Bhāgavatam often uses such distributives to defamiliarize routine — every day, every breath, every glance: each is being subtracted.
After the rainy season the water gradually goes down, but stupid fish do not understand this; thus they are often stranded on the lakeshores and riverbanks. Similarly, those infatuated with family life do not understand that the remainder of their life is constantly decreasing; thus they fail to perfect their Kṛṣṇa consciousness and are stranded in the cycle of birth and death.
As a foolish man attached to his family does not realize that his lifespan is decreasing at every moment, fish play in the shallow water, not realizing that it is decreasing at every moment. This is a negative analogy.
Since the fish are accustomed to shallow water, they should know that the water is decreasing. However they do not know this. It is possible for the householder to realize that his life is temporary by seeing the death of his family members, but he does not.
The fish, being small, since he is used to swimming in deep water, does not understand that the water, which is like his life, is diminishing. The man of no discrimination, attached to wife and sons, is like the small fish in the water. He does not see death though he can infer it from the death of his father. Unlike the fish, he is called a fool. Or, the fish should understand the water is diminishing since it usually swims in deep water. Thus the fish is a fool, without intelligence. The phrase anv-aham day by day) applies to both sentences. The man also by seeing death of his family members should understand that his life is diminishing.
- Akuti Mataji SB 10-20-37-38 - 2013-06-26 ISKCON Alachua
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- Vrindavan Chandra Das Goswami SB 10-20-37 Hindi - 2023-08-20 ISKCON Vrindavan
- What background contraction in my life — time, energy, opportunity — have I stopped noticing?
- Where am I living as if the water will keep filling on its own?
Fish in dwindling water do not see the water dwindling — like householders who do not see their āyus dwindling day by day. The verse cuts: the disease is not death; it is failure to notice. Gauḍīyas hear this and remember the standing Bhāgavatam call to begin bhakti at once, while the water still covers the fins.
The Yakṣa asked Yudhiṣṭhira: what is the greatest wonder? He answered: every day, beings die, and those who remain still believe they will never die (Mahābhārata, Vana-parva 313). The fish of SB 10.20.37 are this wonder in animal form.
Gauḍīyas read Yudhiṣṭhira's saying as the verse's commentary. The water is going; only the one who notices steps out in time.
My note
Source: vedabase.io