Mukunda Mala Stotra 38 – Why give up nectar for poison?

ashcaryam etad dhi manushya-loke sudham parityajya visham pibanti

namani narayana-gocarani tyaktvanya-vacah kuhakah pathanti

The greatest wonder in human society is this: People are so incorrigible that they reject the life-giving nectar of Lord Narayana’s names and instead drink poison by speaking everything else.

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
glories Thank you. So, Krishna Shekar Maharaj is expressing his amazement over here in this mortal world of human beings there are people who give up nectar to drink poison and what does that imply? that the names of Lord Narayan which are like nectar people give them up for what? other words people keep speaking so actually the holy names of the Lord can purify us and can enable us to experience higher happiness whereas the words of this world simply cause agitation to the mind when we speak about mundane subjects, Srimad Bhagavatam describes that now just as a boat without a shelter is constantly buffeted by waves, similarly our mind gets buffeted by mundane events mundane subjects so the mind doesn’t find any shelter, any peace, any solace, any joy in the speech of mundane subjects of course we may have to speak material subjects at a functional level in order to get things done whatever is required in our life but we often speak about material things far more than what is necessary so in this way we underuse and misuse the power of our tongue the tongue can be used to taste nectar but instead of using it to taste nectar we use it to produce poison for ourselves and poison for the world when we talk about material subjects that talk infatuates us with material desires, and material desires are like poison when we chant the holy names the contact with Krishna through chanting nourishes and stimulates our desire to serve Krishna and that desire is like nectar so by our tongue we can either produce nectar for ourselves or we can produce poison for ourselves and when we think of the contrast in these stark terms then naturally we will feel inspired to produce nectar for ourselves but till then we have to use our intelligence and minimize the talking of the worldly subject, especially when the opportunity to chant the holy name is there we put our, not just the energy of the tongue but the concentration of the mind and the emotion of the heart into the chanting of the holy names to connect with Krishna, to nourish our desire to serve Krishna and thereby experience the holy name to be nectar sometimes we may experience the holy name to be nectar, and sometimes we may find it to be just dull and flat even in the times when we find the holy name to be dull and flat if we just keep chanting because the holy name will have its medicinal effect if we just keep taking it so sometimes if our mind is excessively influenced by the modes of passion and ignorance then that which is transcendental cannot be tasted, but still it can be accessed we can still chant the holy names although we don’t get the taste in it, but if we keep chanting gradually the holy name will counter the effects of the modes of passion and ignorance and therefore enable us to taste its sweetness and then we start relishing the holy name to be