SB 11.23.20 – Greed makes people monstrously insensitive and destroyes relationships

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
thank you vidyante brahta rohdara pitra surudas tatha ekas nikdhaka ke dina sadya sarve rayakrtaha here the avanti brahmana is now moving forward after describing how individually there is strife that mentally psychologically there are so many problems because of attachment now moves on to talk about how relationships are corrupted and destroyed because of greed so when people are too attached to wealth then they don’t care even for their loved ones their love for money becomes far greater than their love for wealth their love for love for their loved ones and then they neglect reject torment sometimes psychologically and sometimes even physically assault and physically destroy others even if they are their relatives for the sake of gaining more money history is filled with examples of succession struggles when the father dies and then the children battle for the inheritance so same way there can be conflicts among other relatives also now what holds relationships sacred is not just the mutual love of people for each other that is important but even more important is the vertical relationship the love of individuals for Krishna that is a vertical relationship so when we have that loving relationship with Krishna that ensures that we don’t lose perspective when material temptations allure us because we know that better than the best material pleasures that are available is the spiritual fulfillment in loving relationship with Krishna and to gain that we harmonize everything else so greed otherwise can make a person monstrously insensitive to hurt anyone requires desensitization we cut off our own sensitivity our own feelings to only then can we actually hurt others especially if we are doing it at least to some extent knowingly but to hurt our loved ones that requires a large amount of desensitization so what greed does is it sensitizes us to emotions only that to only those emotions that are related to the objects for which we are greedy and it desensitizes us to everything else including the pain the heartbreak the horror that may be caused to others the Avanti Brahmana has of course been a victim of this kind of betrayal by loved ones but then he has also been a miser who did not care for the needs of others earlier so what goes around comes around in its own way so we may have also been at the brunt of such machinations such heartbreaks from others and we know that actually when we are not immune greed is so terrible that it can infect us also it can make us act in grievous ways so whatever be the reason for the relationship conflicts that we have around us now everybody has relationship conflicts it just comes with the territory of human relationships so whatever be the reason for the conflict if we keep Krishna in the center of our heart then he gives us the strength to maintain inner stability and while meditating on the holy name we remember that here is the opportunity to establish the one relationship that will never let us down the one relationship that will always offer a shelter the one relationship that will give us everlasting happiness and why should we compromise this relationship for anything else especially for a relationship with insentient material possessions that can’t reciprocate and that can at best delete the ego for a brief while before they are lost