Verse 1.7.18

Bengali text, Devanagari and Unicode transliteration of verse 1.7.18:

আর্যা-তরজা পঢে সব বৈষ্ণব দেখিযা “যতি, সতী, তপস্বীও যাইবে মরিযা ॥ ১৮ ॥

आर्या-तरजा पढे सब वैष्णव देखिया “यति, सती, तपस्वीओ याइबे मरिया ॥ १८ ॥

āryā-tarajā paḍhe saba vaiṣṇava dekhiyā “yati, satī, tapasvīo yāibe mariyā || 18 ||

arya-taraja padhe saba vaisnava dekhiya “yati, sati, tapasvio yaibe mariya (18)

English translation:

(18) They would compose blasphemous rhymes and recite them when they saw a Vaiṣṇava. They challenged, “What is the use of being a sannyāsī, a chaste wife, or a tapasvī? They must also die.

Commentary: Gauḍīya-bhāṣya by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura:

In the phrase āryā-tarajā the word ārya refers to a Bengali poem composed about some particular incident or person. The word tarajā is an Arabian word referring to insulting poems exchanged in the form of questions and answers between two parties in a musical performance or light songs.

The atheistic residents of Navadvīpa at that time followed the doctrine of Cārvāka Muni and were thus maddened by sense gratification due to falsely identifying themselves with their bodies. Whenever they saw the pure Vaiṣṇavas they would tease them with poems that they had composed. They even said that the performance of religious duties by sannyāsīs, chaste women, and ascetics are all useless, because in spite of accumulating great piety they cannot save themselves from death. So there was no need to observe such religious duties. In other words, they considered such people unfortunate miscreants.