Material Greed

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Morning class, Sri Nrisingha Palli
2 March 2020, part 5

There are two things told in Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita. On the one hand,

কৃষ্ণ কহে,—আমা ভজে, মাগে বিষয়-সুখ ।
অমৃত ছাড়ি’ বিষ মাগে,—এই বড় মূর্খ ॥

krsna kahe,—ama bhaje, mage visaya-sukha
amrta chhadi' visa mage,—ei bada murkha

"Krishna says, 'They worship Me, desiring material happiness—leaving aside nectar, they ask for poison. They are great fools.'"

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.38)

On the other hand, it is also written,

কৃষ্ণ যদি ছুটে ভক্তে ভুক্তি মুক্তি দিয়া ।
কভু ভক্তি না দেন রাখেন লুকাইয়া ॥

krsna yadi chhute bhakte bhukti mukti diya
kabhu prema-bhakti na dena rakhena lukaiya

"If you ask Krishna for anything except devotion, He can give you those things—bhukti, mukti, liberation, and so on—but He will hide devotion from you. You will not get devotion."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 8.18)

In other words, Krishna says, "People worship Me and ask Me to fulfil their material desires (visaya-sukha), but I am intelligent—I am not a fool." Such people are all foolish like babies—when a baby eats soil, the mother comes and immediately takes out the soil, and the baby starts crying, "Oh, my mother does not allow me to take these very nice things!" But when the mother gives the baby some chocolate or some sweet, then the baby becomes happy." Krishna also thinks, "They are all My babies. They want to take soil, they want to eat cow dung, they want to eat stool—people say, 'I want a girl,' 'I want a house,' 'I want this, this, this.' People worship Me but what something in return, but I am not a fool, I will not give it to them. Instead, I will give them Myself, and they will forget all about these material desires."

When Dhruva Maharaj went to the forest to worship the Lord, he had meditated there for five years. What did he worship the Lord for? Because he wanted to get the chair of his father—he wanted to become the king. When Krishna became very happy with his worship, He sent Narad Muni to him (Krishna never comes Himself—He always sends His associate as a guru). So, Narad Muni came to Dhruva Maharaj, and Dhruva Maharaj followed everything Narad Muni had taught him. A a result, Dhruva Maharaj had become a pure devotee, and when Krishna came to him and said, "O Dhruva Maharaj! Take your chair, take raja-singhasan (royal throne; kingdom)," Dhruva Maharaj became shy, "No, no, Prabhu. I feel very shy. Under the influence of Your illusory potency, I had forgotten You—I did not want You, I wanted some bad things, but now that You have come to me, when I have got You, what need is there for any kingdom, house, car, etc.? When I have got You, what need is there for anything else?"

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