All material power vanishes at death; only pure bhakti brings eternal detachment and real happiness.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Dayānanda: Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Seventh Canto, Ninth Chapter, twenty-third verse. [chants verse and synonyms, Prabhupāda and devotees respond] dṛṣṭā mayā divi vibho 'khila-dhiṣṇya-pānām āyuḥ śriyo vibhava icchati yān jano 'yam ye 'smat pituḥ kupita-hāsa-vijṛmbhita-bhrūvisphūrjitena lulitāḥ sa tu te nirastaḥ [SB 7.9.23] Prabhupāda: [corrects pronunciation of Sanskrit] [06:28] Dayānanda: Translation: "My dear Lord, people in general want to be elevated to the higher planetary system for long duration of life, opulence, enjoyment. I have seen all of them through the activities of my father. When my father was very angry and laughing sarcastically upon the demigods, immediately they fell down simply by seeing the movements of his eyebrows.
Such my father is now finished within a moment." Prabhupāda: dṛṣṭā mayā divi vibho 'khila-dhiṣṇya-pānām āyuḥ śriyo vibhava icchati yān jano 'yam ye 'smat pituḥ kupita-hāsa-vijṛmbhita-bhrūvisphūrjitena lulitāḥ sa tu te nirastaḥ [SB 7.9.23] So this is experience, dṛṣṭā... Everyone has experience what is the situation of this material world. Every day we have seen big, big leaders, ministers. Just like in the history of the world there were so many big, big men—Hitler, Napoleon, this Churchill, Gandhi, Nehru.
But all their powers, position, in one minute it becomes vanquished. There is no question... They are so proud, they do not believe in God, but when the death comes, they cannot argue anything. The death orders, "Immediately vacate"—finished.
You have to vacate. At that time their power, opulence, position—nothing can help. So Kṛṣṇa says, therefore... The atheist class of men who do not believe in God, decry the authority of God, for them...
Of course, everyone dies, but for them, mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś cāham [Bg 10.34]: Kṛṣṇa comes as death and takes away everything in their possession. But foolish persons, they do not see still. God says, Kṛṣṇa says, that "This death I am." Still they'll not. And it is a fact.
When Kṛṣṇa comes as death, as Hiraṇyakaśipu, he was atheist, did not believe in God, but when God, Nṛsiṁhadeva came, then he was vanquished, everything, within a second. Nirastaḥ. Sa tu te nirastaḥ. So we have to see like that, the omnipotency, the power of Kṛṣṇa, how it is working. But the difficulty is that we are so foolish, paśyann api na paśyati.
Although we are having daily experience, still, we do not see. This is the position. dehāpatya-kalatrādiṣu ...asatsv api pramatta tasya nidhanaṁ paśyann api na paśyati [SB 2.1.4] We are making our plan that "I shall be happy in this way. I have got this body, so let me make this body very strong, go in the beach and run on the beach to make the body very strong." There are so many other methods to keep the body very strong. Deha, apatya, maintain the children very nicely.