Short Lives Burn with Pride as Jealousy and Harsh Speech Fill the World
Uttara Kanda, Chhand 5
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Hunger, poverty, and attachment afflict the people. Fools demand happiness without dharma, while shallow minds harden and gentleness disappears. Disease robs the body of enjoyment, yet pride and causeless conflict remain fierce.
Life contracts to fifty or sixty years, but arrogance behaves as though no ending will come. Family respect dissolves. Contentment, reflection, and coolness vanish, and every station is reduced to begging before need and appetite.
Jealousy, harsh speech, and greed fill the age. Equality of regard disappears, as do self-restraint, generosity, compassion, and wisdom. Men and women live only to maintain the body, while slander spreads across the world. The Chhand presents a humanity both fragile and boastful, suffering from impermanence yet unable to learn humility from it. The shorter life becomes, the more desperately the ego speaks as though it were immortal.
A life of fifty years raises the voice of endless pride while compassion grows quiet in the crowded streets.
Read the passage from the Manas
अबला कच भूषन भूरि छुधा। धनहीन दुखी ममता बहुधा।। सुख चाहहिं मूढ़ न धर्म रता। मति थोरि कठोरि न कोमलता।।1।। नर पीड़ित रोग न भोग कहीं। अभिमान बिरोध अकारनहीं।। लघु जीवन संबतु पंच दसा। कलपांत न नास गुमानु असा।।2।। कलिकाल बिहाल किए मनुजा। नहिं मानत क्वौ अनुजा तनुजा। नहिं तोष बिचार न सीतलता। सब जाति कुजाति भए मगता।।3।। इरिषा परुषाच्छर लोलुपता। भरि पूरि रही समता बिगता।। सब लोग बियोग बिसोक हुए। बरनाश्रम धर्म अचार गए।।4।। दम दान दया नहिं जानपनी। जड़ता परबंचनताति घनी।। तनु पोषक नारि नरा सगरे। परनिंदक जे जग मो बगरे।।5।।
Women suffer from hunger and lack of ornaments, while the poor are tormented by manifold attachments. Fools desire happiness without practicing dharma; their minds are shallow, harsh, without gentleness. People are afflicted by diseases that prevent all enjoyment, yet they harbor pride and engage in pointless conflicts. Though life is short, lasting but fifty or sixty years, their arrogance persists as if they would never perish. Kali Yuga has made humanity miserable; no one respects younger brother or elder sibling. There is no contentment, reflection, or peace; all people of every station have become beggars. Jealousy, harsh speech, and greed fill every corner, while fairness and justice have utterly vanished. All people are separated from true joy; the duties of the four varnas and ashramas have disappeared. Self-restraint, generosity, compassion, and wisdom are no more. Stupidity and deceitfulness abound. All men and women serve only the body; slander of others has spread through the world.