SB 11.23.18 – Don’t let money replace Krishna in the altar of our heart

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
thank you so here the avanti brahmana is enlisting 15 undesirable results of the association of money of infatuation with money when one becomes infatuated obsessed captivated by money then many undesirable results come up so stay one may become a thief himsa one may do violence antartam one may lie dambha one may become duplicitous kama krodha smayo madaha kama krodha madha straightforward lust greed lust anger and illusion intoxication pride arrogance smaya is perplexity confused how should i do this should i do that bhedo vairam avishwas bhedo is differences conflicts vairam and then this when the conflicts escalate they become into enmity and avishwas overall there is general distrust towards everyone whenever monetary matters are involved avishwas samspardha samspardha is competition and the rivalry yasnani and yasnani refers to be the breaking of the regularity principles so in this way the avanti brahmana is describing how the infatuation with money erodes our good qualities now we all need money to live and artha is also one of the purusharthas but here we are talking about a unidimensional obsession with money when we make money as our god just as there can be pure devotion to krishna so when we replace krishna and install money on the altar of our heart then that unidimensional obsession with money has disastrous results those disastrous results actually are the root of most of the problems that plague society today ultimately the root problem because of which we are in material existence is that we have installed something else krishna tara in the altar of our heart and when we install money then all these undesirable results come about because money is a fallible god money cannot offer us satisfaction of itself krishna being a living and loving person in fact the all attractive all loving person so when we place him in the altar of our heart as its lord then he reciprocates and just by contemplating on him we get a profound inner enrichment but we get no such thing by contemplating on money contemplating on money simply increases our infatuation with it and it actually weakens and destroys our consideration of other things our recognition of the value of other things and because of a unidimensional obsession with money we end up not being able to focus on anything else in our life and then neglect other things in life we also trample on them in the pursuit of money so as devotees when we are trying to absorb ourselves in our devotional service and when thoughts of money come we should know that actually there is a time and there is a place where we devote a significant amount of our time and energy for consideration of money but if during the time that when we are meant to install krishna on the altar of our heart through mantra meditation if we let money steal away that time too then we are letting money give a chance to displace krishna from the altar of our heart and that can have disastrous consequences but instead if we determinately stay fixed in letting ensuring that krishna stays installed on the altar of our heart then by that we will be able to steadily and strongly not only meditate but also through that meditation through that inner connection with krishna which is enriching and empowering be able to have the clarity and the insight to be able to act properly and be able to deal with our financial anxieties also competently by krishna arumasi he gives intelligence as he promises in the bhagavad-gita so chanting is the time when we ensure that we install krishna on the altar of our heart and we don’t let anything distract us or displace krishna from that position