Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.14.14 Prabhupada: sri munaya ucuh nrpa-varya nibodhaitad yat te vijnapayama bhoh ayuh-sri-bala-kirtinam tava tata vivardhanam (aside:) You can close this door. So irresponsible government. It is not now—such things happened in long, long days ago also. That is the nature of this material world, that everything deteriorates. Whatever good thing you may prepare, in due course of time, it will deteriorate. That is the nature of material nature, that something is produced which in the beginning it goes on nicely, then gradually it deteriorates. Influence of time, and then vanish. So even in religious movement, if there is materialistic motive, then it will deteriorate. It will not stand. So beginning of religious life should be without any material motive. Pure devotion means anyabhilasita-sunyam [BRS 1.1.11], no material motive. Generally, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gita, people go to the temple and the churches or any religious…, synagogue, with a material motive. Arto artharthi. Generally they are in need of money or they are unhappy somehow or other, and they go to God, Krsna, or according to their religious principle, and pray for material benefit. But that is also accepted as good, because they are approaching Krsna, or God. But that is not pure devotion. If such material motive continues, then he will fall down from that devotional service. Because as soon as his distress is mitigated, he will think that there is no more need of worshiping. Naturally he forgets. Just like rich man. A rich man becomes rich not very easily, with great austerity either in this life or in the past. But when he gets money, he becomes extravagant and again falls down. Similarly, we may go to Krsna in times of distress, but as soon as the distress is gone, we forget Krsna. There is a very nice verse in Hindi that duhk se sab hari bhaje, sukh se bhaje (?), sukh se agar hari bhaje, dukh ahan se hoi (?). Generally people take to devotional service when they are in materially distressed condition. The rich men, they do not care for it. But if a rich man takes care that “I have got this money by the grace of Krsna. I must use it for Krsna,” then he will never be unhappy. He will never be unhappy. Because after all, whatever we get, it is by the grace of Krsna. Isavasyam idam sarvam. Everything belongs to Krsna. So by His favor we get opulence, riches, but when we are opulent we forget Krsna, because maya is very strong. Maya will detect, “Oh, you have got so much money, why don’t you enjoy wine and woman?” As it is going on in European and American countries, anyone who gets money, he utilizes it for wine and woman. He has no other engagement. He does not know how to utilize money. Therefore, now the British Empire, we have seen it practically, how opulent British Empire was and now how they are coming down. Recently we have seen in London that people are lying down on bench. So this is the nature. Luxury leads to poverty. So we should be very much careful. Don’t think that “Because I am now initiated, I am chanting Hare Krsna, now everything is guaranteed. Now I shall do whatever I like.” No. Then it will deteriorate. We should not utilize this Hare Krsna movement for any material purpose. Then it will fall down. Either the man will fall down or the status will fall down. As it has become in India. Practically they have lost all spiritual interest, although India is the country for spiritual advancement of life. So either individually, collectively, socially, or politically, if we forget God, Krsna, then it is sure to deteriorate. But foolish people, they do not know this. They think that “Our good days will go on like this,” as the Britishers thought. I give the example of the Britishers because I have seen in my life how opulent were these Britishers, and I have seen now in London how they are dwindling. Everywhere. So such thing happened some long, long years ago in the family of Dhruva Maharaja. Dhruva Maharaja was a great devotee, and his family members also were great devotees, but gradually they deteriorated. And one king, whose name is Maharaja Vena, he was so extravagant just like demon. This also happened due to his mother. That is stated in the Srimad-Bhagavatam. His mother was born not of a very good father, so she inherited the nature of this bad father, and her son also inherited the nature of his mother. But the king, the father, was very pious, as it should be. So with his son’s behavior, he became so much disgusted that he left home without any notice. So the king’s son, Vena, Maharaja Vena, he was installed on the throne, but he behaved very badly, and the praja, or the citizens, were very much unhappy. So the great sages and saintly persons approached the king, because the king is supposed to be directed by saintly persons. And they are advising, nrpa-varya nibodha etad yat te vijnapayama bhoh. “My dear King, whatever we are speaking to you, kindly hear it with attention.” Ayuh-sri-bala-kirtinam tava tata vivardhanam: “If you kindly hear our advice, then you will live long.” A pious man lives long. Impious man dies very soon. Even one who is pure devotee, he can prolong his duration of life more than what is destined for him. Everyone has got a destination that “This person will live for so many years, this person will live for so many years.” But a pure devotee as a yogi can increase the duration of his life. Similarly, a pure devotee, although he does not artificially try to increase the duration of life, by God’s grace his duration of life is increased. He is… A pure devotee is no longer within the rules and regulation of material nature. Brahma-bhuyaya kalpate. Krsna says in the Bhagavad-gita, sa gunan samatityaitan brahma-bhuyaya kalpate [Bg. 14.26]. Mam ca ’vyabhicarena bhakti-yogena yah sevate. Anyone who engages himself in pure devotional service, avyabhicarena, he is no longer under the rules and regulation of this material nature. Brahma-bhuyaya kalpate. So the sages address the king that “Kindly hear our instruction and your duration of life will be increased.” Not only duration of life, sri-bala-kirtinam. Sri means beauty. Unless you are healthy, there will be no beauty of your body. So duration of life increased means he is healthy and, therefore, he should look bright and beautiful. Sri-bala, strength, and kirtinam. And if one is actually advanced in spiritual life or if one is actually religious, then his fame also increases. He doesn’t require to advertise himself, but if he is pious, if he is devotee, automatically his fame will be expanded. Just like there is one very nice example, Sri Madhavendra Puri. Madhavendra Puri was going to…, from this Vrndavana. Madhavendra Puri. Perhaps you do not know the story of Madhavendra Puri. Madhavendra Puri was a great devotee in this Gaudiya-sampradaya, and in this Govardhana, there was Gopala covered by dirty and jungles and trees. So the Gopala… When Madhavendra Puri was in Vrndavana, the Gopala in dream expressed Himself, “Madhavendra Puri, I am very much suffocated. I am covered by this dirt and jungles. Please re-excavate Me from this condition and install Me in the temple.” So Madhavendra Puri, with the help of villagers, he excavated the earth and found this Gopala murti. And this Gopala murti was installed by the help of the villagers very luxuriantly. For so many days there was festival. That is the way of installing Deity. At least for seven days there must be festival. So after some days, Madhavendra Puri was informed in dream that “Since I was long within the earth, My body is very much heated. So you kindly bring some sandalwood from Jagannatha Puri and smear all over the body the pulp of sandalwood, then I shall be happy.” So Madhavendra Puri was very old man at that time, and it is order of Gopalaji, so he started for Jagannatha Puri. On the way there is a Gopinatha temple in Orissa, on the border of Orissa and Bengal in the district of Dantarn(?), that is called Danta(?). So he stayed there overnight and he saw that the Gopala…, Gopinathaji was offered ksira, seven pots of ksira. So Madhavendra Puri thought within himself, “If I could taste a little ksira, then I would also make such ksira to offer my Gopala in Vrndavana.” Then again he thought that “Oh, I am so stupid that before offering to the Deity I am thinking of eating it.” He thought himself to be very much culprit, and he immediately left the temple, “No, I shall not. I am committing offense.” It is an offense. Therefore, when you bring bhoga for the Deity, it should be covered so that we greedy men may not see it and try to taste it. Kanistha-adhikaris, they sometimes do that. Sometimes they take away something before offering to the Deity. These are great offenses. So Madhavendra Puri thought it that he was a great offender; he should not live in this temple, he should go outside. So he went outside, and underneath a tree he was chanting Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, just to pass over the night, then proceed toward Jagannatha Puri. So at night the Deity, Gopinatha, was asking the pujari, the priest, that “I have kept one pot of ksira behind My back garment,” pitavastra(?) “So you take this pot of ksira, condensed milk, to Madhavendra Puri—he is sitting underneath a tree—and offer him.” So the pujari wake up, and actually when he opened the door of the Deity room, he found that pot of ksira. So he could understand that “This Madhavendra Puri is not an ordinary devotee, he is a great devotee; otherwise how the Lord has stolen this pot for him?” Since then, that Gopinatha is famous as Ksira-cora Gopinatha. Ksira-cora Gopinatha, the Gopinatha who stole the ksira for His devotee. So He is known as thief, Ksira-cora. He is famous as a great thief. Still people go to see Him, how nice this thief is. That is the difference between Krsna and ourself. When we are thief, we are beaten by shoes. And when Krsna is thief, He is worshiped by devotees. Just like Krsna is worshiped as Ranacora, who left the war field. When a man leaves the war field, he is called coward. But Krsna, everyone knows for pastimes He left the war field. It was in the Gujarat province. Krsna as the Ranacora who left the war field. That is cowardice; still He is worshiped. That is absolutism. Krsna in any condition, He is Krsna. Either as Ksira-cora Gopinatha, or as a taunter to the gopis, or any way in the material world which is abominable. But when Krsna does it, because He is absolute, it is good. That is absolutism. You cannot accuse Krsna that “Oh, You have done like this.” Whatever He has done, it is right. So just last evening one boy was criticizing Krsna that “Why Krsna makes this distinction stri-sudra-vaisya as papa-yoni?” So this is Godlessness, that we dare to criticize Krsna. We should not criticize Krsna. But those who are unaware of Krsna’s position, they do, we have to inform them rightly what is the right thing. So actually Krsna says that even the stri-sudra-vaisya, they are also elevated to the highest position if they take the shelter of the lotus feet of Krsna. Mam hi partha vyapasritya ye ’pi syuh papa-yonayah [Bg. 9.32]. The papa-yoni, the pious man or impious man, that is consideration of this material world. So long we are in this material world, there must be “this is good” and “this is bad.” Although there is nothing good in this material world—everything is bad—but we have concocted some formulas that “This is good and this is bad.” Caitanya-caritamrta, Krsnadasa Kaviraja says, dvaite bhadrabhadra sakali samana. In the material world, bhadra-abhadra, anything bhadra and abhadra, good and bad, they are simply mental concoctions. There cannot be anything good. Just like a man suffering from some disease lying on the bed, a friend goes and ask him, “My dear friend, how you are feeling today?” He can say, “Yes, I am feeling today all right.” What is that all right? He is lying on the bed and he is taking medicine, and so many discomfitures are there, and still he says, “I am all right.” So in the material world, this prosperity, so-called prosperity, is not prosperity, because the next life I do not know what is going to happen. And the next life is there. Janma-mrtyu-jara-vyadhi-duhkha-dosanudarsanam. Therefore learned man, he sees always that “My happiness…, what is the value of this happiness? I will have to die, I will have to accept old age, I will have to suffer from disease. And as soon as I die, again I will have to enter into the womb of a particular mother to take birth again.” So where is the happiness? In the womb of the mother to live for ten months in a very awkward position—we have forgotten—that is not very happiness. So our point was that this Madhavendra Puri, when he got that pot of condensed milk, ksira, and the priest praised him, “Oh, you are such a great devotee that Krsna has stolen for you this earthen, I mean to say, the condensed milk. So you take it.” And he bowed down before him, took his dust of the lotus feet. Then Madhavendra thought that “Now I have got this pot of condensed milk, next morning it will be advertised, and people will come in throng to congratulate me. So better leave this place immediately.” That means he did not want to be advertised as a great devotee. He left, but immediately as he reached Jagannatha Puri, the news was already there, and every man came to congratulate him, “Oh, Madhavendra Puri, you are so great devotee that Krsna has stolen this condensed milk. We have heard it.” So the point is that a devotee, even he does not know, does not want advertisement, Krsna advertises him. Krsna advertises him without his intention. Krsna wants to see that his devotee is very much advertised as a devotee. Therefore, when Caitanya Mahaprabhu was talking with Ramananda Raya that “Who is the most famous man?” Caitanya Mahaprabhu inquired, asked this question from Ramananda Raya. He answered, “He is the most famous man who is known as a great devotee of Krsna. He is the most famous man.” So here, kirti, fame, reputation. If one is religious, one is devotee, his reputation also increases, his strength of body also increases, his beauty increases, his duration of life increases. This is the purport. Ayuh-sri-bala-kirtinam tava tata vivardhanam. “The saintly persons said, ’My dear King, if you kindly follow our instruction, then these things will increase: your duration of life, your beauty of body, your strength, and your reputation.’” So what is that instruction? He says, dharma acaritah pumsam van-manah-kaya-buddhibhih lokan visokan vitaraty athanantyam asanginam He said that every man should execute his particular duty of life. That is called dharma. Now, we manufacture our duty, that is another thing, but according to sastra, just like Krsna says, catur-varnyam maya srstam guna-karma-vibhagasah [Bg. 4.13]. Duty means according to this catur-varnyam, four varnas and four asramas. That is called dharma, sadharma. The brahmana must execute his brahminical duties, a ksatriya must execute his ksatriya duties, similarly vaisya, a sudra, a brahmacari, a grhastha, a vanaprastha, sannyasi. That is called dharma. This is material dharma, this is not spiritual dharma. Material dharma means so long we are under the concept of this body, there are certain duties. That is called material dharma. Just like we eat, this is also one of the duty, because if I don’t eat, then I shall die. But what kind of food I shall eat, that is described in the sastra, that sattvic, rajasic, tamasic bhojana. So if we follow the instruction of the sastra, dharma-sastra … They are called dharma-sastra, the regulative principles. There are twenty kinds of dharma-sastra, just to regulate because every one of us come to enjoy this world. Just like government rules and regulation. Suppose you are selling liquor. The thing is bad, but because people want it, government gives license that you can sell for the drunkard but under these rules and regulations, not freely. Similarly, the living entities, all the conditioned souls who have come here in this material world, their real purpose is how to enjoy this material world. They have no other purpose. Because a living entity is not enjoyer, he is servitor. But when he wants to enjoy, he is sent into this material world. Krsna bhuliya jiva bhoga vancha kare. Because we are part and parcel of Krsna, our only duty is to serve Krsna. There is no other duty. Therefore Krsna demands, sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja [Bg. 18.66]. We have no other duty, just to serve Krsna. But when we forget our position, constitutional position, and we try to enjoy this material world, that is called materialistic way of life or conditioned life. So just like drinking. Drinking is not good. Nobody supports. But when a drunkard is persistent to drink, the government gives him some concession, “All right, this man will die without drinking. All right. You can take your liquor from that shop, licensed shop, and you can purchase under such a condition, ’You do not do this, do not do this,’ ” there are so many regulations. But there is no such restriction for eating rice or dahl, because that is not bad. The bad thing… Just like slaughterhouse. Slaughterhouse is not open to the public. It is done in a secret place so that people may not see. It is ghastly. So anything bad, that is licensed, licensed. Just like sex life. Sex life is also not very good thing. Therefore, the license is marriage. If you want to enjoy sex life, all right, take this license, marriage, not beyond that. Then you will be criminal. That is stated in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, that loke vyavayamisa-madya-seva nitya hi jantor na hi tatra codana. These things—to be intoxicated, to enjoy sex life, to eat meat—a natural propensity is there in everyone. When sastra says that “You do it like this,” that means that is restriction. Just like according to Vedic civilization, those who are meat-eaters, for them it is allowed that you can kill…, not kill, you can sacrifice one goat before Goddess Kali on the amavasya night under such-and-such restriction. That means indirectly it is discouraging, “Don’t do it. But if you do it, you do in this way.” But people even do not do that. The meat-eaters, without undergoing the process of meat-eating as it is described in the dharma-sastra, they directly purchase from the slaughterhouse and, therefore, so many slaughterhouses are maintained in this world. So everything is becoming against the religious principle. Therefore, the world is unhappy. The munaya, the great sages, therefore, advising the king, dharma acaritah pumsam van-manah-kaya-buddhibhih. [break] (Hindi) Indian Man: (Hindi) Prabhupada: The spiritual world, there are also so many planets as we have got planets in this material world. Beyond the sky, there is another spiritual sky. That information is there in the Bhagavad-gita, paras tasmat tu bhavah anyah ’vyakto’vyaktat sanatanah [Bg. 8.20]. There is another sky, which is eternal, it is beyond this manifested and nonmanifested material cosmic world. So in that world, nothing is vanquished. Everything is permanent, eternal. The jiva, the living entity, is eternal, and Krsna is also eternal, and His abode, Vaikuntha-dhama or Goloka Vrndavana-dhama, that is also eternal. This Vrndavana is replica of that Vrndavana. When Krsna comes on this planet, he comes here in this Vrndavana land. Therefore, it is so…, it is transcendental, because it is Krsna’s pastime, pastimeous place. Therefore it is transcendental. It is as good as Krsna. Aradhyo bhagavan vrajesa-tanayas tad-dhama vrndavanam. As much as Krsna is worshipable, similarly this Vrndavana is also worshipable. Therefore Vaisnavas, especially Gaudiya Vaisnavas… Because this Vrndavana was established by the Gaudiya Vaisnavas. The Gaudiya Vaisnavas under the order of Lord Caitanya, Sanatana Gosvami first of all came here. You have seen his old temple at Madana-Mohana. He was…, because he was ordered by his master, he came here, but it was a field only, there was no building, no nothing, nobody knew. But under the instruction of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, this Vrndavana city was established by Sanatana Gosvami. And later on, when Sanatana Gosvami first of all established the Madana-Mohana temple and then after Rupa Gosvami established Govindaji’s temple, then all other temples gradually developed. Many kings and princes came here. That is the history of this Vrndavana city. Of course, Vrndavana was existing because Krsna had His pastimes here. But because it is five thousand years ago, so many things happened. The relics were lost practically, but by the endeavor of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and His devotees, this Vrndavana is in the present condition. So Vrndavana is visokan, vigata-soka. There is no anxiety. If anyone comes to the Vrndavana and chants Hare Krsna mantra, he will have no disturbance. Still thousands and thousands of people are here, they do not like to go away from Vrndavana because it is so pleasing and anxiety-less, visokan. But if you have got another, ulterior motive, then that is a different… Then maya will capture even in Vrndavana. That is also going on. That is also going on. There are… We do not wish to criticize them, but that is also going on. So bhakti, therefore, should be without any material intention. anyabhilasita-sunyam jnana-karmady-anavrtam anukulyena krsnanu-silanam bhaktir uttama [BRS 1.1.11] First-class devotion without any motive. So the sages said that if you execute the prescribed duties of the humankind, then ultimately you will be elevated to the planet where there is no anxiety and you will be liberated, provided you keep yourself without any contamination of this material world. That can be done. That is also given by Rupa Gosvami. anasaktasya visayan yatharham upayunjatah nirbandhe krsna-sambandhe yukta-vairagyam ucyate If we want to be aloof from the contamination of this material world, then everything, whatever we use, whatever we need, it must be in relation with Krsna. Then we can keep ourself aloof from the contamination. That is the liberated condition. That means you are eternal servant of Krsna. If you always be engaged in the service of the Krsna, then you are above this material world, uncontaminated. But if you have got any material intention, then again you are under the clutches of maya. We should always remember it. Thank you very much. (end)
by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
November 16, 1971, Delhi, (new98)