BG 5.20 – Nityananda’s Mercy

Giriraj Swami: We read from Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, Chapter Five, “Karma-yoga, Action in Kṛṣṇa Consciousness":

TEXT 20

na prahṛṣyet priyaṁ prāpya
nodvijet prāpya cāpriyam
sthira-buddhir asammūḍho
brahma-vid brahmaṇi sthitaḥ

TRANSLATION

A person who neither rejoices upon achieving something pleasant nor laments upon obtaining something unpleasant, who is self-intelligent, who is unbewildered, and who knows the science of God is already situated in transcendence.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

The symptoms of the self-realized person are given herein. The first symptom is that he is not illusioned by the false identification of the body with his true self. He knows perfectly well that he is not this body but is the fragmental portion of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is therefore not joyful in achieving something, nor does he lament in losing anything which is related to his body. This steadiness of mind is called sthira-buddhi, or self-intelligence. He is therefore never bewildered by mistaking the gross body for the soul, nor does he accept the body as permanent and disregard the existence of the soul. This knowledge elevates him to the station of knowing the complete science of the Absolute Truth, namely Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān. He thus knows his constitutional position perfectly well, without falsely trying to become one with the Supreme in all respects. This is called Brahman realization, or self-realization. Such steady consciousness is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

COMMENT

This verse contains many important words that describe someone in the transcendental position. He neither rejoices when he achieves something desirable for the body nor becomes agitated when he loses something desirable or fails to obtain something he desires. Rather, he is sthira-buddhiḥ (self-intelligent). His intelligence is steady and asammūḍhaḥ (unbewildered). Most important, he is brahma-viṭ: he knows the Supreme brahman.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam explains that the Supreme brahman is realized in three phases: Brahman, Paramātmā, and Bhagavān. The first verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam informs us that the Absolute Truth is that from which everything emanates (janmādy asya yataḥ), and the same words appear as the first code of the Vedānta-sūtra. The Vedānta-sūtra begins, athāto brahma jijñāsā: “Now that you have come to the human form of life, you should inquire into the Absolute Truth.” And what is the Absolute Truth? Janmādy asya yataḥ: The Absolute Truth is that from which everything emanates. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the natural commentary on the Vedānta-sūtra, and so it begins from the same point: janmādy asya yataḥ—-the Absolute Truth is that from which everything emanates. And from the very first verse, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam explains that the Absolute Truth is Krishna, the son of Vasudeva. He is fully cognizant (abhijñaḥ) and fully independent (sva-rāṭ). He imparted the Vedic knowledge into the heart of Lord Brahma, the original created being (tene brahma hṛdā ya ādi-kavaye). Krishna, the Absolute Truth, is described in so many ways, and the conclusion is that it is upon Him that we meditate (satyaṁ paraṁ dhīmahi). The self-realized soul knows the science of God, and in particular he has realization of Krishna, the origin of everything material and spiritual—the origin of Paramātmā and brahman.

When one is established in one’s relationship with the Absolute Truth, one manifests the symptoms mentioned in this verse. One realizes that one is spirit soul and that one’s actual relationship is with the Supreme Soul, Krishna, not with the body or things related to the body. One considers anything that pertains to the body to be external and therefore insignificant.

The Bhagavad-gītā (2.22) compares the body to cloth:

vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya
navāni gṛhṇāti naro ‘parāṇi
tathā śarīrāṇi vihāya jīrṇāny
anyāni saṁyāti navāni dehī

As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones.

One may wear some cloth, and after a time the cloth will become old and useless, so one discards it and puts on some new cloth. It is neither an occasion of great lamentation when the old cloth is finished nor an occasion of great jubilation when one gets new cloth. But when one misidentifies the self as the body, one becomes preoccupied with the body, in achieving things that are pleasurable for the body and in avoiding things that are unpleasant. In that bewildered state of consciousness, one will rejoice over achieving something pleasant and lament over losing something pleasant or obtaining something unpleasant for the body.

There is a saying that the body doesn’t distinguish between good stress and bad stress. A story appeared in the news last year about a person who won the lottery and became so excited over his gain that he had a heart attack and died on the spot. And of course, there are many examples of people who get some terrible news and die. Another item appeared in the media some months ago about a car crash in which four children in the same family died, and when the grandfather heard about the calamity, he had a heart attack and died. We can’t even imagine how the mother felt, losing four children and then her father. But stress can kill a person, whether the stress is “good” or “bad.”

Such responses are natural when we identify with the body, because the body is most dear to us. And after the body, the expansions of the body, the family members—parents, children, husband, and wife—are dear. And the facilities for the body—the house and property and possessions and money—are dear. Every conditioned soul identifies with the body and thus rejoices and laments.

Imagine if we took a survey of everyone in the room today: “Do you feel happy when something good happens? Do you feel bad when something bad happens?” We would probably find that yes, to a greater or lesser extent we all do. We do rejoice when we win the lottery, so to speak, and we do become agitated when our plans are wrecked.

So the question arises: How do we come to the stage mentioned in the verse? Now, we know how someone who is self-realized acts or reacts, or doesn’t act or react; we are in touch with knowledge of transcendence, and to some extent we have the desire to attain transcendence. But how do we actually reach such an elevated state of consciousness? We read in the “Kevalastakam,” trni-krtya jaga sarvaṁ: the holy name “makes the entire universe seem as insignificant as a blade of grass.” The same consciousness is mentioned in the verse here. Yet we chant the holy name but don’t see the whole universe as insignificant as a clump of grass. In fact, what happens just in our little apartment may seem very big. From a more elevated point of view, one may see it as a tempest in a teapot: Who cares if there is some turbulence in the teapot? It is just a teapot, after all. But when we are immersed in that teapot, that turbulence—those waves—can rack us and whack us from one side of the teapot to the other.

So, how do we actually develop the consciousness described in today’s verse? Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.14.58) explains,

samāśritā ye pada-pallava-plavaṁ
mahat-padaṁ puṇya-yaśo murāreḥ
bhavāmbudhir vatsa-padaṁ paraṁ padaṁ
padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadāṁ na teṣām

For those who have accepted the boat of the lotus feet of the Lord, who is the shelter of the cosmic manifestation and is famous as Murāri, the enemy of the Mura demon, the ocean of the material world is like the water contained in a calf’s hoof-print. Their goal is paraṁ padam, Vaikuṇṭha, the place where there are no material miseries, not the place where there is danger at every step.

For one who has taken shelter of the lotus feet of Krishna, the vast ocean of material existence shrinks to the size of a puddle of water contained in the hoof print of a calf. Although there is danger at every step, the devotee crosses right over it. So we have to take shelter of Krishna, like those who are brahma-viṭ; they know Krishna through the process of surrender, because only by devotional service can one know Him (bhaktyā mām abhijānāti [Bg 18.55]).

Then the question arises: How do we surrender to Krishna? Sometimes devotees would ask Srila Prabhupada about the process of surrender, how long it takes to surrender to Krishna, and Srila Prabhupada would reply, “It can take one minute, or it can take millions of lifetimes. It depends on you.” Coming to our position, at least to some extent we do want to surrender to Krishna, and so we need to know how: What is the process of surrender?

Many authorities in the line have given instructions about the process of surrender:

ānukūlyasya saṅkalpaḥ

prātikūlyasya varjanam

rakṣiṣyatīti viśvāso

goptṛtve varaṇaṁ tathā

ātma-nikṣepa-kārpaṇye

ṣaḍ-vidhā śaraṇāgatiḥ

“ ‘The six divisions of surrender are the acceptance of those things favorable to devotional service, the rejection of unfavorable things, the conviction that Kṛṣṇa will give protection, the acceptance of the Lord as one’s guardian or master, full self-surrender and humility.” (Hari-bhakti-vilāsa 11.417, quoted as Cc Madhya 22.100.)

So, there are six items in surrender: accepting whatever is favorable, rejecting what is unfavorable, considering Krishna to be one’s only protector and maintainer, having faith that Krishna will protect and maintain, being meek and humble, and surrendering oneself in all respects.

But we, in Kali-yuga, are especially fortunate because we have the benefit of the mercy of Gaura-Nitai, and Gaura-Nitai’s mercy can really make the whole process practical. The basic attachment for most people, ordinary people, is family. Material attachment in general, and family attachment in particular, can be made insignificant by the mercy of Lord Nityananda.

In the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, after listing the items of devotional service, or bhakti-yoga, Srila Rupa Gosvami discusses some items that he did not include in the list, and he explains why they were excluded. One such item is vairāgya, the cultivation of renunciation. He explains that the cultivation of renunciation is not considered an item of devotional service, because bhakti by nature is tender—it makes the heart soft—and artificial renunciation can make the heart hard. Actually, both sense gratification and artificial renunciation make the heart hard, and thus Srila Rupa Gosvami rejected the cultivation of renunciation as an item of devotional service—though detachment arises naturally from genuine devotion (janayaty āśu vairāgyaṁ jñānaṁ ca yad ahaitukam [SB 1.2.7]) In other words, what is excluded is the artificial rejection of material things by extraneous effort—not the detachment that comes as a by-product of actual Krishna consciousness.

And we, in Kali-yuga, can now be lifted out of our material attachments by the mercy of Lord Nityananda. Of course, we must make an earnest effort to follow the process, especially to chant the holy names, to follow the regulative principles, and to serve the lotus feet of Lord Nityananda and Lord Chaitanya, spreading the saṅkīrtana movement. Those activities will make us eligible to receive the mercy of Lord Nityananda, but it is actually Lord Nityananda’s mercy that loosens the grip of material existence on us and ultimately frees us.

One of the best examples is Raghunatha dasa Gosvami, who was the only son of a great family of landlords in Bengal. Their wealth was like kings,’ and Raghunatha’s father and uncle’s annual income was 1,200,000 rupees—a lot. As the only son of his father and uncle, he was looked to by the whole family to continue the dynasty.

As a young man in his early twenties, Raghunatha heard about the glories of Lord Chaitanya, the mercy of Lord Chaitanya, and wanted to leave home to join Him. With his father’s permission, Raghunatha met Mahaprabhu in Śāntipura and served Him for seven days. The Lord could understand Raghunatha’s mind and thus advised him, “Don’t be a crazy fellow. Don’t make a show and become a false renunciant. Return home and act externally just like an ordinary man, but internally remain fixed in Krishna consciousness. Soon Krishna will be pleased and deliver you.” Lord Chaitanya used the phrase markaṭa-vairāgya, “monkey renunciation.” Monkeys appear to be very renounced. They live in the jungle without any clothes or possessions and eat only fruits and berries, but each he-monkey, Prabhupada says, has dozens of she-monkeys. So, Lord Chaitanya told Raghunatha, “Don’t be a markaṭa-vairāgī, a renunciant like a monkey, who externally appears very renounced but actually is filled with mischief.” Lord Chaitanya advised Raghunatha to accept material things in an appropriate way, without becoming attached.

Srila Rupa Gosvami also speaks about phalgu-vairāgya and yukta-vairāgya. Phalgu-vairāgya means “artificial renunciation.” There is a river in Bihar called the Phalgu, which on the surface looks like sand but underneath is a deep river. There is a whole current under the surface, and one can actually get carried away by it. So it looks like sand but actually is a river—it is not what it appears to be. People who engage in phalgu-vairāgya appear to be renounced, but under the surface there is a strong current of material desire. Often impersonalists are like that. By mental effort they try to be detached, to not distinguish between pleasant and unpleasant occurrences, but under the surface they are lusty. They have desires, and when their lust becomes frustrated, they become angry, and so on.

Opposed to phalgu-vairāgya is yukta-vairāgya, often translated as “appropriate renunciation” or “balanced renunciation,” in which one does not artificially try to reject everything but uses things in a way favorable to Krishna’s service. Impersonalists reject: “Neti, neti—not this, not that,” but it is artificial. They have material desires. Devotees don’t reject things that can be used in Krishna’s service. Rather, they accept them and engage them in appropriate ways. And because devotees are reciprocating with Krishna, having tasted a drop of nectar from the ocean of devotional service (Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu), material enjoyment becomes insignificant. Material objects and pleasures don’t matter to them—by the mercy of Nityananda Prabhu.

So, Raghunatha returned home and acted according to Lord Chaitanya’s instructions. He performed his household duties expertly, without attachment. But after a year he decided to run away from home again, and his father caught him and brought him back. Almost daily he would run away, and every time, his father would find him and bring him back. Finally, with his father’s permission, and accompanied by many servants and guards, he went to meet Nityananda Prabhu in the village of Panihati.

From a distance, Raghunatha saw Nityananda Prabhu and offered obeisances. He was so humble. Nityananda Prabhu saw him and said, “You are just like a thief, because instead of coming near, you hide in the background. But now that I have captured you, I will punish you: You must hold a festival and serve Me and all My associates chipped rice and yogurt.”

Lord Nityananda is by nature very merciful and also humorous. Not only was His exchange with Raghunatha humorous, but the conception of the “punishment” was too. Here was Raghunatha dasa, the son of the wealthiest landowners in Bengal who practically maintained the whole brahman community by their charity, and Nityananda Prabhu was asking him for a feast of chipped rice, which is the most ordinary—and cheapest—foodstuff.

So Raghunatha dasa bought all the chipped rice and yogurt and milk in the village, and he mixed half of the chipped rice with milk and half with yogurt. It was a great festival, and Lord Nityananda and His associates enjoyed it. As news of the festival spread, people from all over came to partake of the feast. Vendors of chipped rice and yoghurt and sweetmeats and fruits came to sell their goods, and Raghunatha bought what they brought and then fed them the very same items. So many brahmans and gentlemen came that soon there was no place for them on the raised platform with Nityananda Prabhu, and so they ate their chipped rice on the bank of the Ganges, and when all the space there was taken, they stood in the waters of the Ganges and ate their pots of cida and dadhi.

During the festival, Lord Nityananda brought Lord Chaitanya in meditation, and after Mahaprabhu arrived, Nityananda Prabhu led him from person to person, and took one morsel of chipped rice from each pot and pushed it into the mouth of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who in turn took a morsel from the same pot and pushed it into Nityananda Prabhu’s mouth. All the Vaishnavas laughed to see the fun, but only the most fortunate could see that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was there.

That night there was a great saṅkīrtana festival at the home of Raghava Pandita, with a sumptuous feast, and Lord Chaitanya, still invisible to most, came to see the dancing of Nityananda Prabhu and the devotees, and to honor the prasāda.

The next morning, before Raghunatha left, Nityananda Prabhu blessed him that very soon all impediments would be removed and he would achieve shelter at the lotus feet of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

Thus Raghunatha returned home. But from that day on, he didn’t go into the interior section of the house; he slept in the darśana-maṇḍapa outside the house. And there the guards kept watch over him, to make sure he did not escape.

Yet soon enough an occasion arose. Yadunandana Acharya, Raghunatha dasa’s dīkṣā-guru and family priest, came to the house one night because one of his brahman disciples was refusing to do his deity worship. Sometimes our temple managers in ISKCON face similar crises, when a pujari wants to give up his service and there is no one else to do it. So Yadunandana Acharya asked Raghunatha, who was most intelligent and influential, to accompany him to that disciple’s place and induce him to take up his service again. By then, all the watchmen were deeply asleep, because it was the end of the night.

So Raghunatha dasa went with Yadunandana Acharya. On the way, he told his spiritual master, “You may return home. I will induce that brahman to take up his service again, and send him to you.” And that was the opportunity Raghunatha had been waiting for. Alone, he went by foot toward Jagannatha Puri. For twelve days he walked, keeping his body and soul together with whatever food he could manage along the way. In fact, he ate on only three of the days. But finally he reached Puri and the lotus feet of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Thus, by the mercy of Nityananda Prabhu, he attained the shelter of Lord Chaitanya and was released from the shackles of household life.

So, that is Lord Nityananda’s mercy. Narottama dasa Thakura prays to Nityananda Prabhu:

āra kabe nitāi-cānder koruṇā hoibe,
saṁsāra-bāsanā mora kabe tuccha ha’b

“When will Lord Nityananda be merciful to me and my material desires become insignificant?” Tuccha. That word tuccha means “insignificant,” and it appears in many places. Tyaktvā tūrṇam aśeṣa-maṇḍala-pati-śreṇīṁ sadā tuccha-vat: “The six Gosvamis kicked off all association of aristocracy as insignificant.”

So, it is not that one struggles to get free from attachments. That is not part of devotional service per se; that would be cultivation of renunciation. Rather, it is that the things we are attached to become insignificant.

How do they become insignificant? We become associated with something so great that in comparison material things are insignificant. And what is it that is so great? It is Krishna and Krishna consciousness—the bliss of Krishna consciousness, which gives us a higher taste. Earlier in the Bhagavad-gītā (2.59) Lord Krishna said,

viṣayā vinivartante
nirāhārasya dehinaḥ
rasa-varjaṁ raso ‘py asya
paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate

The embodied soul may be restricted from sense enjoyment, the taste for sense objects remains. But, ceasing such engagements by experiencing a higher taste, he is fixed in consciousness.

One may artificially try to restrain the senses from the objects of the senses, but still the taste for sense enjoyment remains. We may try to say no, but actually we want to say yes; but we know we shouldn’t, so we try to say no—and if we do say yes, there could be consequences. So it is not that we want to give in to the senses. In fact, in the beginning we do have to make an effort to restrain the senses; otherwise, they can go all over the place and get us in trouble. But if internally we maintain material desires and externally try to restrain ourselves—that will be difficult, and as stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, we could be called “pretenders.” Only when one experiences the higher taste of Krishna consciousness does one remain fixed in consciousness, no longer attracted by, as Srila Prabhupada says in the purport, “dead, material things.”

These bodies are actually dead. They are machines. A devotee once gave the example of two bulldozers. He said that two bulldozers facing each other with their bumpers touching each other—that is kissing. Because the body is just a machine, that is what kissing is. That is the inferior taste: dead, material things. And the superior taste is alive: Krishna consciousness—realized by the mercy of Nityananda Prabhu.

We are very fortunate that we are in Kali-yuga, so close in time to when Lord Nityananda and Lord Chaitanya manifested Their pastimes on earth. And we are even more fortunate that we are contemporaries, or almost contemporaries, of Srila Prabhupada, who was fully endowed with the mercy of Lord Nityananda. Many learned devotes have determined that Srila Prabhupada was a śaktyāveśa-avatāra, empowered by Krishna. Srila Prabhupada himself often cited the verse in Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Antya 7.11):

kali-kālera dharma — kṛṣṇa-nāma-saṅkīrtana
kṛṣṇa-śakti vinā nahe tāra pravartana

“The fundamental religious system in the Age of Kali is the chanting of the holy name of Kṛṣṇa. Unless empowered by Kṛṣṇa, one cannot propagate the saṅkīrtana movement.

The religious process for the Age of Kali is hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana, and only one who is empowered by Krishna can spread the saṅkīrtana movement. So, Srila Prabhupada was empowered by Krishna, and, as His Holiness Bhakti Raksaka Śrīdhara deva Gosvami Maharaja said, in particular by the mercy of Lord Nityananda.

That mercy comes in the form of the holy name—from chanting the holy name and from spreading the chanting, expanding the saṅkīrtana movement. We must sincerely and seriously and carefully and faithfully chant and chant and chant and chant. And we must also work to inspire others to chant.

In just a few sentences, in a lecture in Los Angeles, Srila Prabhupada outlined the whole system of spiritual advancement, which culminates in service to Radha and Krishna. He said, “To approach Radha and Krishna, you need the mercy of Lord Chaitanya. And to get the mercy of Lord Chaitanya, you need the mercy of Lord Nityananda. And to get the mercy of Lord Nityananda, you have to approach people like Jagai and Madhai"—the most sinful creatures in Kali-yuga. We have to approach them and try to give them the holy name, get them to take Krishna consciousness.

The songs of our acharyas, especially Narottama dasa Thakura’s, are filled with these ideas. Our goal is to attain the service of Radha and Krishna, but to attain Their service we need the mercy of Lord Chaitanya—and Lord Nityananda. Nitāiyer koruṇā habe braje rādhā-kṛṣṇa pābe: “If you actually want to approach the association of Radha-Krishna, you must first achieve the mercy of Lord Nityananda.” That same mercy comes to us through disciplic succession, through Srila Prabhupada.

To actually reach the liberated stage may sound difficult, and certainly, if we were to try to do so by our own efforts, it would be next to impossible. But it is possible by the mercy of Nityananda Prabhu. So we don’t make an artificial endeavor. Yes, we may have to struggle to control our senses and follow the principles. We have to do that; that is our duty. But our real effort is to get the mercy of Lord Nityananda through the mercy of Srila Prabhupada and the disciplic succession, through the process of devotional service. And by the mercy of Lord Nityananda, this vast ocean of material existence will become just like a small puddle that we can cross over without difficulty.

Hare Krishna.

Are there any questions or comments?

Bhava Sindhu dasa: How does one determine if one’s renunciation is artificial as opposed to genuine?

Giriraj Swami: If our focus is devotional service in Krishna consciousness and our renunciation is more a by-product of Krishna consciousness, then it is genuine. But if we come to the point where our focus is on avoiding, for example, marriage. . . Sometimes a brahmachari in a temple becomes so preoccupied with trying to avoid getting married that that becomes his focus, rather than devotional service in Krishna consciousness. This could be an indication that we need to make the adjustment.

Urvashi dasi: Maharaja, in the same way, as devotees, how can we tell if material opulence is for our own sense gratification, or if we are truly desiring that or using that for the service of Krishna?

Giriraj Swami: If we have material opulence, or we desire material facility, how do we know if it is for Krishna’s service or for some personal sense gratification?

Here we come to the very essence of yukta-vairāgya. Srila Prabhupada said that yukta-vairāgya is a fine line between artificial renunciation and material enjoyment. If we go to the one side, there is artificial renunciation. If we go to the other side, there is sense gratification. And bhakti, pure devotional service, is free from both. Jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam: pure devotional service is not covered by fruitive activities, impersonal speculation, or artificial detachment.

As we progress in devotional service, we should know how attached or not we are, and one symptom may be how disturbed we are without a facility. Srila Prabhupada gave the example that we may want a microphone to give a lecture or lead a kirtan, but if we don’t get the microphone, if we don’t have a microphone, still we will speak about Krishna and chant Hare Krishna. If we become too disturbed by the lack of facility, it could be an indication that there is some material attachment mixed with the desire for devotional service. But if we see the thing for what it is—a facility to be used in Krishna’s service—if it is there, we will use it, and if not, we will serve Krishna anyway. We won’t be so upset if it’s not there that we will forget about serving Krishna.

Srila Rupa Gosvami’s definition of yukta-vairāgya says that we may accept material things in relation to Krishna, but without attachment.

anāsaktasya viṣayān
yathārham upayuñjataḥ
nirbandhaḥ kṛṣṇa-sambandhe
yuktaṁ vairāgyam ucyate

prāpañcikatayā buddhyā
hari-sambandhi-vastunaḥ
mumukṣubhiḥ parityāgo
vairāgyaṁ phalgu kathyate

“Things should be accepted for the Lord’s service and not for one’s personal sense gratification. When one is not attached to anything, but at the same time accepts everything in relation to Krishna, one’s renunciation is called ‘balanced.’ On the other hand, when a person eager to achieve liberation renounces things that are related to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, though they are material, his or her renunciation is said to be incomplete.”
(BRS 1.2.255–256)

Now, this doesn’t mean that because we have some material facility that we want to use for Krishna but at the same time are attached to materially—it doesn’t mean that we should reject it, because that could put us on the side of artificial renunciation. The only way to actually achieve the position of yukta-vairāgya is to become truly Krishna conscious, to become sufficiently absorbed in devotional service that it is the main focus.

Sometimes devotees have the idea that they want to make money to use to spread Krishna consciousness, but what often happens is that they then desire to make more and more money, and along the way they spend the money on themselves, and they keep wanting more and more, and they hardly get around to using it for Krishna. It does happen that they spend for Krishna, certainly. But it also happens that they keep making money with the idea of using it to spread Krishna consciousness and then never get around to it. And they may have reasons. They may not have faith in any project or any authority, and they do not have any project of their own, so what to do? “Just spend it on myself.” Still, in our generation there are many devotees who have been successful over the years in their professions or in business and now they have come to the stage where their children are grown up and they don’t really have a lot of wants or desires. They have experienced material life, they realize there is not that much to it, and they would rather get back to the essence—Krishna consciousness—and use the money to serve the devotees, support projects, or develop their own projects.

Another instruction is that we shouldn’t artificially try to increase or decrease our opulence. In other words, some people are destined to have more opulence and some to have less. But a devotee is neutral. If opulence comes, he uses it in Krishna’s service, and if it doesn’t come, he uses whatever he has—be it only his ears and tongue—to hear and speak about Krishna.

Still, we have to make some effort. Depending on our situation in life, we have to make some effort to earn or collect. But for some people things come easy, and for others they don’t. That could be due to our karma, or destiny. And sometimes our destiny changes. For a while things may be easy, and then they become difficult. Or they may be difficult, and then they become easy. In every circumstance, we must persevere in Krishna consciousness.

Even if we are struggling with material attachments, we have to keep pushing forward in our spiritual practices and in our efforts to serve the devotees and spread Krishna consciousness. By the mercy of Nityananda Prabhu, by the mercy of the paramparā, genuine renunciation will come. Such detachment does not necessarily mean that we will reject something that is around us; it may just mean that we are detached from it and will use it exclusively for its real purpose, Krishna’s service, and not for personal gratification.

In any order of life, one who is actually a Vaishnava will come to yukta-vairāgya. An empowered preacher such as Srila Prabhupada is detached but accepts everything for Krishna’s service. In a way, Srila Prabhupada had a lot of opulence; even materially, one could say that he had more opulence than anyone on earth. But it was obvious to anyone who could see him as he was that he wasn’t attached to any of it. In Mayapur he was living in a straw hut, and he was very happy. He said that for himself he would rather just stay in that grass hut and chant Hare Krishna, but if he did, who would come to hear him? In previous times, when people were more elevated, more in the mode of goodness, they would seek out a saintly person even if he was sitting under a tree, but now we need some opulent arrangement to attract people. So Prabhupada said, “For myself, I would have preferred to stay in the grass hut, but then who would come to hear me? So I have to move into the marble palace.” (It wasn’t quite a marble palace, though it did have large marble verandas. And his personal quarters, though they seemed opulent to us then, now appear rather simple. Still, he made wherever he stayed seem like the spiritual world.) But he wasn’t attached. And he was happy in any situation. Once, when some devotees presented some proposals to him—where he should go and what programs he should do, he replied, “Arrange whatever you think is best. I am like a cow. Wherever you put me, I will give milk.”

He was detached, because internally he was relishing reciprocation from his guru maharaja and the Pancha-tattva, and he was absorbed in consciousness of Sri Sri Radha-Shyamasundara in Vrindavan.

Thank you. Hare Krishna.

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!
Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai ki jaya!
Sri Sri Radha-Govinda ki jaya!
Nitai-Gaura premānande Hari-Haribol!