Time conquers all material possessions; only Krishna consciousness offers escape from death's relentless dominion.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.1.23 — July 7, 1975, Chicago 750707SB-CHICAGO [37:27 Minutes] SB-06.01.23_750707SB-CHICAGO Nitāi: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. [devotees repeat] Sixth Canto, First Chapter, verse number 23.
[leads chanting of verse, etc.] evaṁ nivasatas tasya lālayānasya tat-sutān kālo 'tyagān mahān rājann aṣṭāśītyāyuṣaḥ samāḥ [SB 6.1.23] [02:33] "My dear King, Ajāmila, while maintaining his large family of many sons by abominable activities, passed eighty-eight years of his life." Prabhupāda: evaṁ nivasatas tasya lālayānasya tat-sutān kālo 'tyagān mahān rājann aṣṭāśītyāyuṣaḥ samāḥ [SB 6.1.23] So his living condition was cheating and stealing and forcing others to snatch away some money. This was his living condition. So he was thinking, "I am very happy. I am begetting children," lālayānasya tat-sutān.
Every year, one children, and getting money by cheating others, and living very peacefully. But the time factor was waiting, according to one's duration of life. So when aṣṭāśīti, eighty-eight years reached, his death was imminent. Kāla.
Kāla means death. So he did not know that time and tide waits for no man. When time will come, death, then all this my paraphernalia will be taken away. I am very proud of my wealth, prestigious position, family, society.
Everything is all right. But what about your death? Do you think that any day death will come and it will take everything, what you possess? In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that mṛtyuḥ aham sarva-haraś [Bg. 10.34]. We are accumulating so many things—big, big buildings, big, big estate, big, big bank balance, big, big family.
That's all right, but what is the guarantee that we will be able to enjoy this? That they are not thinking. And it is a fact that death may come at any moment, especially nowadays. So you...
There is no guarantee. Even in your ordinary life you are going by the car, there may be accident. "Maybe" not; they are taking place. So many people are dying.