Bhagavatam-daily 96 – 11.08.12 – Don’t let possessions possess you

Thank you Srimad Bhagavatam 11.8.12 Sāyantanaṁ Svasthanaṁ vā na saṅgruṇīta bhīkṣukaha makṣikaiva saṅgrūnaṁ sahatena vinasyati Sāyantanaṁ Svasthanaṁ vā for the evening or for the next day na saṅgruṇīta bhīkṣukaha bhīkṣuka the mendicant should not saṅgruṇīta accumulation should not accumulate food makṣikaiva saṅgrūnaṁ but if the mendicant accumulates food like a makṣika like a honey bee then sahatena vinasyati like it with it it will be he will be destroyed vinasyati now there are two kinds of honey bees one is called a bhramara and the other is the makṣika the bhramara goes from one flower to another flower and relishes the honey over there but the bhramara does not go about accumulating the honey in a beehive whereas a makṣika not only drinks the honey from various flowers but actually accumulates them in a beehive and so the mendicant with respect to receiving knowledge is recommended that mendicant be like a bhramara but with respect to collecting food it is enjoined that the mendicant not be like a makṣika sahatena vinasyati the same point was talked about in the previous verse but there it was talked about from the point of affirmative this is what one should not do and the result was mentioned that if one does like this that person will be entangled so now this verse goes to take that thing further and says the consequence even more explicitly that the consequence will be vinasyati now how exactly will a person be destroyed by the mentality to accumulate now the honey bee we know the honey bee makes a lot of honey accumulates it and then while it is building a honey bee a beehive then the honey collector comes maybe with a fire or something and drives away all the honeys and just takes the honey and goes away tries away all the honey bees and takes the honey so and in fact sometimes the honey bees in the during the process of the attack of the bee collector on the honey on the beehive many of the honey bees die so either they die physically or they die emotionally die emotionally means that they have become so attached to the honey beehive and the honey in it we have got so much honey and to see it all helplessly stripped away from them that is like death it is agonizing so that is vinasyati so similarly a person who accumulates too much specifically with respect to renunciate the purpose of renunciation is absorption in spiritual truth in the householder life a person has to think of so many worldly things maintenance of oneself maintenance of one’s own family these are all important responsibilities for a householder but for renunciate there is no distraction and the only responsibility is meditating on the absolute truth and when the renunciate starts accumulating worldly things even if the worldly things are not luxuries but are necessities like food still that accumulation becomes a distraction as it is said everything that I own owns me that means that whenever we possess something that possession gains a portion of our consciousness there is always a thought I have got this food is it safe is somebody stealing it or some ants come over there is it getting decayed that sort of thoughts can come about food and what to speak of other possessions and just as a person who has is carrying a very valuable jewel in one’s pocket that person is constantly thinking oh some thief coming some thief coming oh sir jewell fallen away so whatever the person does the consciousness is caught and in that case it is not just a portion much more than a portion of the consciousness is devoted to that particular possession so everything that I own owns me now the renunciate is meant to own Krishna and thereby be owned by Krishna so the renunciate is meant to focus completely on Krishna and by that absorption in Krishna Krishna offers himself to the renunciate and the devotees are in me and I am in them Krishna said very intimate state of union Krishna talks about here but if someone is at a situation where in the renounced order the person starts accumulating and the accumulation becomes a distraction from absorption in Krishna and gradually the accumulation increases more and more the desire to accumulate becomes more and more and that way the person gets entangled we all know this many of us may be knowing about the story of the disciple who simply had a copain and to protect the copain from rats he got a cat and to protect the cat and to provide for the cat he got a cow and to provide for the cow to maintain the cow he got a wife and then he got completely entangled now these sort of stories we may laugh at the way the person got entangled it sounds so simplistic and so almost ridiculous but the principle holds true that how from one thing to another our possessiveness can move forward and how we can become entangled it is very difficult to check ourselves and to catch ourselves once we have let ourselves be pushed into that momentum so we all need to be cautious to prevent the distraction of our consciousness from Krishna because of the desire to use our consciousness because of the desire to accumulate things now we may get some technological gadget ok i may get a smart phone so that i can use it in Krishna’s service or i can get whatsapp messages i can get darshan of Krishna i can get spiritual message that’s good but then ok i get this thing then i get some other people also send me messages and then people send me messages about movies people send me messages about cricket matches and then some unscrupulous people they start sending me messages either emails or messages or about sex you know there are people who invite for hook up or there are people who give information about porn sites or whatever and in that way if one gets tempted in that gets caught in that then it can become serious grievous violation of one’s initial force and a terrible entanglement so of course this is hypothetical example but the principle remains that once we let ourselves get once we enter into the momentum of accumulation where that momentum will stop its very difficult to know now this does not mean that we can live without accumulation we will all need certain level of necessities and certain level of comforts according to our own individual situation but always there has to be vigilance to make sure that i am staying on the path to Krishna that the desire to acquire resources for the service of Krishna is not taking me first on a detour from Krishna and eventually from the detour to a U-turn away from Krishna so i want to have a house near the temple so that i can go to the temple morning program regularly but say near the temple the rates are so high so i need to take a big loan i take a big loan and then for that i need to instead of working for 8 or 10 hours i have to work for 15 hours and then the excess work and the excess anxiety both create so much distraction that i associate i am physically near the temple but emotionally i am more in material things and i associate more with materialistic people because i am working more making more plans to deal with the anxieties and then i get caught more and more and actually i go away from Krishna eventually so it’s not of course we can stay close to the temple that is very good but the important principle here is that whatever we do even if it is done with the intention of going closer to Krishna even we acquire material resources for going closer to Krishna we have to always be checking that those material resources are taking me closer to Krishna and not taking me away from him and with that vigilance when satena vinashyati has been described that fate will not come upon us that we will not get entangled, distracted and spiritually wrecked but rather we will use whatever resources we have and whatever resources we acquire for facilitating and accelerating our journey towards Krishna