SB 7.9.23 The illusion of power sets us up for the agony of powerlessness

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you.
Srimad Bhagavatam 7.9.23 Dhrishtam aya dhigal bhokilatis nipanam aayushriyo vibhavai kshatiyan janayam ye asmat pithukopitah sa vimjulmi pruh vispurjite nilvitasatute nirasthah So, Prahlad Maharaj is telling over here that I have seen with my own eyes Dhrishtam aya so he says two things I have seen the power of my father Hiranyakashipu and his powerlessness in front of your power so akhilatis nipanam ye asmat pithukopitah sa visrumbhijet pruh so he says that there were these demigods who are akhilatis nipanam who are the overseers the lords of various planetary systems yet when you laughed in anger or raised your eyebrows in disapproval these demigods trembled and the kind of aayushriyo vibhavai kshatiyan the kind of wealth, influence and longevity that you had got ordinary people aspire for it but then nilvitaha vispurjite nilvitasatute nirasthah so you have completely vanquished him within a moment so actually the material world constantly parades before us examples of people who have become extraordinarily successful at a material level it may be cricketers or sports stars who are at the peak of their form may be business magnates at the top of their career politicians making decisions that shape the fates of thousands, even millions of people and it’s natural that when we see another human being like ourselves having so much power influence, fame we also feel that this is what I would also like to have however all these stories of success end in failure because material nature always has the last laugh Lord Narasimhadev may not come to personally kill these people and these people may not be demoniac entirely like Renne Kashyapu but material power only increases the illusion that we are in charge and to the extent we have that illusion that we are in charge to the extent we suffer when that illusion is exposed when we see that we are not in charge when a person gets there are people who are controlling the nations and then in old age they get Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s they can’t control their own hands or they can’t remember even their own names and what to speak of the next life even in this life often they are reduced to just existence of vegetable practically speaking and these such examples are often not shown so prominently in the media so when we see the complete picture of material nature we see that actually to the extent one tries to gain control to that extent one suffers when one loses control this doesn’t necessarily mean that as devotees we shouldn’t try to do something wonderful for Krishna’s service in this world but it should be clear that if our sense of happiness self-identity, self-worth self-achievement, self-fulfillment is coming from the mainly from the worldly things that we are doing and not so much from our Krishna connection then we are also going to open ourselves to frustration in the future so we do various activities in devotional service and they are all important but chanting is the time, chanting, praying, meditating the time we spend directly with Krishna is the time when we show him that ultimately Krishna his worldly things don’t matter to me you alone are most important for me other things don’t matter as much as you by any standard and even they are for your service but they are for your service they are not important in themselves you are more important for me than those things and we all have experienced maybe some relative friend or some acquaintance fall from material power to powerlessness and we may also experience it sometimes in our own lives so by meditating on this we can check our mind’s infatuation with material success and get it to focus on the spiritual success of remembering Krishna thank you