Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.52.2

saḿvīkṣya kṣullakān martyān

paśūn vīrud-vanaspatīn

matvā kali-yugaḿ prāptaḿ

jagāma diśam uttarām

SYNONYMS

saḿvīkṣya — noticing; kṣullakān — tiny; martyān — the human beings; paśūn — animals; vīrut — plants; vanaspatīn — and trees; matvā — considering; kali-yugam — the age of Kali; prāptam — having arrived; jagāma — he went; diśam — to the direction; uttarām — northern.

TRANSLATION

Seeing that the size of all the human beings, animals, trees and plants was severely reduced, and thus realizing that the age of Kali was at hand, Mucukunda left for the north.

PURPORT

There are several significant words in this verse. A standard Sanskrit dictionary gives the following English meanings for the word kṣullaka: "little, small, low, vile, poor, indigent, wicked, malicious, abandoned, hard, pained, distressed." These are the symptoms of the age of Kali, and all these qualities are said here to apply to men, animals, plants and trees in this age. We who are enamored of ourselves and our environment can perhaps imagine the superior beauty and living conditions available to people in former ages.

The last line of this text, jagāma diśam uttarām — "He went toward the north" — can be understood as follows. By traveling north in India, one comes to the world's highest mountains, the Himalayan range. There one can still find many beautiful peaks and valleys, where there are quiet hermitages suitable for austerity and meditation. Thus in Vedic culture "going to the north" indicates renouncing the comforts of ordinary society and going to the Himālayan Mountains to practice serious austerities for spiritual advancement.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
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