SB 11.23.17 – Letting money become our default object of thought leads only to misery

Transcript

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thank you Srimad Bhagavatam 11th canto 23rd chapter verse 17 davanti brahmana is continuing his lamentation over the destruction that money has brought in his life and he generalizes from his experience and he makes inferences about the nature of money especially the unidimensional obsession and infatuation with money so in this verse he says that arthasya sadhana and siddhi normally we use the word sadhana and siddhi for the practice stage and the perfection stage sadhana sadhana sadhaka and siddha so that applies to everything when we are trying to obtain wealth and siddhi when we have obtained wealth then utkarshe rakshane utkarshe is after we have obtained we want to obtain it more then there is utkarsha that is increasing rakshane is maintaining what we have protecting it in the mind in the process of losing it because of expenditure then and sometimes it may just get destroyed lost because of bad investments or because of some other misfortunes disasters accidents and even when there is enjoyment so that means actually this list covers the entire gamut of activities that we may do with money this list of seven is representative of everything that we may be able to do with money whatever we do with money if money has become our our god then what happens aayasas first of all there is excruciating labor to try to get money then after that trasas there is there is tormenting fear then there is chinta there is general background fear because of money and chinta is further aggravated because of certain circumstances so then brahma ondranam brahma is confusion money leads to so much indecision and delusion about what is to be done and what is not to be done so vidura tells vitharashtra that you have been infatuated by the hope from the pandavas kingdom but when you didn’t have it you are craving for it when you have it you are worried that you may lose it and now that you have lost it you are lamenting that you lost it when did it actually make you happy so sadhane sindhe same way when we are trying to focus our mind on krishna bhoga ishwarika saktanam now wealth and sense gratification these are the two primary distractions from fixing the mind on krishna and to deal with these distractions we have to strongly convince ourselves by serious philosophical contemplation how infatuation with money will simply lead to misery we need money and we will do whatever is required and by krishna’s arrangement whatever challenges we financially we will be able to deal with them but if we let money become our default object of thought then all that we will get by that is as it is said over here we will get labor we will get fear we will get anxiety we will get delusion in contrast if we make krishna the object of our thought then actually we will get relief from all these things and we will with that relief and rejuvenation that comes from meditation and krishna be able to deal with whatever problems we face in our material life and we will deal with them more effectively so let krishna as we try to practice mantra meditation we try it’s not just a ritual that we get over with so that we can go to other objects of thought no mantra meditation is our very means by which we train our mind to make krishna the default object of our thought and that’s why we may think that for letting the mind wander to other things financial worries is not sinful yes it may not be sinful so if we if we let it go to sexual fantasies especially in sexual fantasy that may be sinful that is sinful often this may not be sinful but still it is a distraction and that distraction over a period of time will become a constant escape way it will become an alternative default object of thought which will take away our motivation to make krishna our object default object of thought so by meditating on the on how wonderful krishna as the default object of thought is and on how damaging how dreadful money as a default object of thought can be we can get the willpower to fix our mind and our heart on krishna