tad vai dhanus ta iṣavaḥ sa ratho hayās te so 'haṁ rathī nṛpatayo yata ānamanti sarvaṁ kṣaṇena tad abhūd asad īśa-riktaṁ bhasman hutaṁ kuhaka-rāddham ivoptam ūṣyām
Synonyms
tat—oh the king; vai—by you; dhanuḥ te—as you enquired of; iṣavaḥ—of friends and relatives; sa—our; rathaḥ—in the city of Dwarka; hayāḥ te—the Brahmins; saḥ aham—by the curse of; rathī—of the befooled; nṛpatayaḥ—of the killed; yataḥ—by bunch of sticks; ānamanti—between themselves; sarvam—purified rice; kṣaṇena—wine; tat—having drunk up; abhūt—being intoxicated; asat—of that mental situation; īśa—of the unrecognised; riktam—like; bhasmam—one another; hutam—four; kuhaka-rāddham—five; iva—now remaining.
Translation
Oh the king! as you have enquired from me about our friends and relatives in the city of Dwarka, I may inform you that all of them were cursed by the Brahmins and as a result of that all of them became intoxicated by drinking wine made of purified rice and fought between one another with sticks and blows unrecognised by themselves. Except four or five all of them are now dead and gone.
Purport
As we have discussed more than once one should not be puffed up by borrowed plumes. All energies and powers are derived from the Supreme source Lord Krishna and they act as long as He desires and stop to function as soon as He withdraws. As much as all electrical energies are received from the power house and as soon as power house stops supplying energy there is no more use of the bulbs and machine. In a moment's time such energies can be generated or withdrawn by the Supereme Will of the Lord. Material civilization without any connection with the blessing of the Lord is a childs play only. So long the parents allow the child to play it is alright. As soon as the parents withdraw the child has to stop it. Human civilization and all activities thereof must be dovetailed with the supereme blessings of the Lord and without this blessings all advancement of human civilization is like decoration of the dead body. It is said here that dead civilization and its activities are something like pouring clarified butter on the ashes, accumulating money by the magic wand and sowing seed in sarren land.