SB 11.23.19 – Let money be a tool to Krishna, not Krishna a tool to money

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
thank you yarthamulamatandranam tasmadanarthamarthakhyam chreyo arthiduratastejit davanti brahmana is continuing an expression of lamentation of his past infatuation with wealth and is telling that these two verses 18 and 19 are linked so in 18 he has given a list of the various harmful results that come from unidimensional obsession with wealth and in this 1580 what happens because of this so all these where do they come from the the root of all these anarthas is so artha means wealth artha also means meaning what is the artha of this so artha can mean meaning and artha can also mean wealth so anartha is that which is meaningless or that which is having no value that is worthless that is having no monetary value so anartha is that which seems to be very valuable but which actually has no value so they seem to be having meaning but they don’t have meaning so although it is an artha we think of it is to be very meaningful artha kim but a person who is so this is a verse which uses poetic repetition of the word artha so artha has come as an artha in the first line artha has come in the second line as artha mula artha has come twice in the third line as an artha in anartham and artha kim and artha is also coming here as arthi shreyo arthi so shreyo arthi duratas tajet the person who desires welfare one’s own welfare duratas keeps this far away shreyo arthi duratas tajet keeps it far away krishna also uses the word durenaya varamkarams he tells arjuna keep the work that will cause bondage far away so the greatest danger in a war is to mistake the enemy to be the friend and to embrace the enemy so when that happens when we trust and and say embrace the enemy then we let our guards down and the enemy can cause the greatest wounds to us similarly when we don’t take care of our own intellectual defenses we let down our intellectual guard then we mistake greed to be our friend and that’s how that which is anartha we think of that as artha so money has value money is one of the purusharthas that it is called as there also the word is artha dharma artha kaamakshi but lobha greed infatuation with money is anartha so then one starts embracing this anartha this infatuation with wealth this greed as one’s friend then one disconnects one then we disconnect ourselves from krishna because the mind infatuated with wealth cannot really think of anything else even if there’s thinking of krishna the thinking of krishna becomes utilitarian we think krishna not as the goal of our meditation but as a as a tool to financial improvement and when as prabhupada would say that dharma artha kaama when people are pursuing this then if they feel that they can get artha without dharma then dharma becomes dispensable so similarly infatuation with wealth reduces god to a a dispensable tool not an indispensable shelter and this mistake is what is often at the root of our inability to concentrate in our devotional meditations if we think that whether i think about krishna or not whether i chant attentively or not how does it make much difference it doesn’t make any real difference what makes difference is whether i do my job well or not and whether i get my paycheck or not yes that does make a difference definitely but even whether we are fixing the mind on krishna and are increasing our attraction to krishna or not that also makes a huge difference at the end of our life that’s what is going to make the only difference in how much money we attained our bank account is not going to go with us so if we find it difficult to fix the mind on krishna then we have to examine our underlying attitude and evaluate whether we are treating krishna as a dispensable tool as a that means yes my goal in this life is to earn money and if fixing the mind on if devotion to krishna can help me to earn the money then i’ll do it but if devotion to krishna is taking too much time and too much energy then anyway it’s optional i can always do it later and even if i don’t do it it doesn’t matter so we need a thorough philosophical re-education of ourselves so that we remember that wealth no matter how powerful and essential it seems now it is ultimately temporary and the benefit that it can offer us whatever they may be they they are far outweighed by the miseries that come when we become infatuated with it so by remembering that our devotion to krishna our money is a tool to krishna not that krishna is a tool to money but remember getting our priorities straight we will get the required determination to fix the mind on krishna