IV: 12

[Krishna Jaya]

Chapter 4, Verse 12

 

“Some people worship the gods

For success in their worldly undertakings.

Material success can be gained quickly

Here on earth.”

 

Sri Eknath Easwaran:

 

“Every desire is a prayer.  When people keep on thinking, ‘I want money’, even though they may call themselves atheists, even though they may wear a button saying, ‘I don’t believe in God’, they are really saying to the Lord within, ‘Please give me money’.  In everything we do, whenever we desire, we are praying, and if our desire is deep enough, it will give us the will and show us the way to fulfill it.

 

It is possible through meditation to recall our desires for profit, power, pleasure and prestige from the wasteful channels into which they have flowed.  When we reel in our desires from the restaurant, from the bank, from our wardrobe, and from all those other channels which consume our vital wealth, they all merge into one huge, all-consuming desire that can never be satisfied with anything finite.  Only those who live on the superficial level can be satisfied by money, possessions, pleasure or fame.   

 

This is not a moral issue.  It is an engineering issue.  Krishna has given each of us a certain amount of fuel to undertake a journey involving the cultivation of a love for God that is constant and firm.  He gives us a few extra gallons for detours.  As long as we make only a few side trips and find out that nothing much is going on, the Lord is satisfied, and life has served its purpose.  Tragedy strikes when we use all of our supply of fuel going around and around in the same old circle, so that when the time comes to fly across the ocean, like Hanuman, we are out of gas.”

 

Srila Prabhupada:

 

“Foolish people worship the demigods because they want immediate results.  They get the results but do not understand that the results so obtained are temporary.  The person in Krishna consciousness has no need to worship the demigods for some immediate, temporary benefit.  In this world, however, human society is mad after temporary things such as the material opulence of possessing property and enjoyable paraphernalia.  To achieve such temporary things, people worship the demigods or powerful people in human society.  Such people are not interested in Krishna consciousness for the permanent solution to the hardships of material existence.”