I am thinking, "Now I have got good home, good wife, nice children, nice bank balance. So I am safe now."

No Sir, You are Not Safe

The illusion of safety

I am thinking, "Now I have got good home, good wife, nice children, nice bank balance. So I am safe now." No, sir, you are not safe. Dehapatya-kalatradishv atma-sainyeshu [Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.1.4]. This world is struggle for existence. You should not think that because you have got nice wife, children, and nice nationality, or everything nice [that you are in secure position]. Still, you are not safe. This is to be understood. Yes. Just like Napoleon in your country, he had many soldiers. He was fighting. He was conquering all over. And because he had very, very good military strength, he was thinking he was safe. But he was also defeated, and he had to die also, leaving all the opulences he created. So nobody's safe. You must always remember that. So here it is said, dehapatya-kalatradishv atma-sainyeshv asatsv api [SB 2.1.4]. Although I know that this national strength, or this material strength, the bank balance strength and good wife and everything is there, they'll not be able to save me. This is the intelligence. They'll not be able to save me because when death will come, nobody will be helpful to me. I'll have to go. I cannot say, "Now I have got my children, I have got so much duty, I have got this to do, this to do, this to do." No. Now your time is over. Your so-called arrangement for material happiness is now over. Now you must get out. Is it not?

So the fools, the rascals, they cannot see it. A intelligent man will see that "What they'll do for me? I will be also annihilated, and they will be also annihilated. I cannot save them, neither they cannot save me." This is intelligence. But those who are not intelligent, for them it is said, tesham pramatto nidhanam. Pramatta, because we are mad, we are thinking that these things will save me. Therefore mad. Madman cannot see. Just like a madman lies down on the street. He does not see, "Immediately, I may be killed by the motorcar, driving." But he's thinking he's safe. He is thinking, "I have ordered. Nobody can come here." A madman. We have seen in India, a madman lies down on the street. That is not in your country? But he thinks that he's safe. He's not safe. Similarly, because we are mad, by the influence of maya, we are not safe. We are unsafe because at any moment, we have to die, and we have to accept a body. That also we do not understand, the modern civilization.

That is the first beginning of spiritual understanding, that "I am not this body, I am the soul. Within the body, I am living, and after giving up this body, I'll have to accept another body." This is the beginning of knowledge. One who does not understand these plain, primary principles of knowledge, he's animal. He's animal. It is not my manufactured word.

It is stated in the shastra, yasyatma-buddhih kunape tri-dhatuke [SB 10.84.13]. Kunape means a bag. This body is a bag. What is is made of? Now, it is made of flesh, bone, marrow, and nerves, and stool, urine, and so many things, blood. So I am not this blood. I am not this urine, I am not this stool. This is the composition of the body. But one is thinking, "I am this body. I am stool. I am urine. I am blood. I am flesh. I am this and that." ... And thinking also that "These, my soldiers, these, my wife, children, and friends and nationals, they will save me." Yasyatma-buddhih kunape tri-dhatuke sva-dhih kalatradishu bhauma ijya-dhih [SB 10.84.13]. And the land where he has taken birth... Just like everyone is thinking, "I am Frenchman," "I am Englishman," "I am Indian," "I am this," "I am that." So "This is my land. I must decorate this land, this Paris City, very nicely. I shall bring something from Egypt and put it here. Then..." [laughter] These nonsense things are going on. Even big, big men like Napoleon and others. And what to speak of others.

A little more advanced than these fools and rascals, they are religious. What is that religion? "Let us go to the holy place." The Christians are going to the Jordan, and the Hindus are going to the Ganges or Yamuna. They think, "If I take my bath in this river, Jordan, or in this Ganges or in this Yamuna, then I become immediately perfect religious." So they go to take bath in the water. Yat-tirtha-buddhih salile. Tirtha means place of sanctuary. Real tirtha is to find out a Krishna conscious person. That is the business. Yat-tirtha-buddhih salile na karhicij janeshv abhijñeshu. Janeshu. Tirtha means in the holy places many saintly persons live. So if one goes to the holy place, they must find out a holy man who is living there, and take lesson from him. And that is purification. Not that I go and take bath in the water, and I become purified.

So these classes of men, who are doing like this, thinking that "I am this body, and this birthplace is my worshipable land, yat-tirtha, and my wife and children, they are my protectors"–in this way, everyone is thinking– "and whatever sinful activities I am doing, I shall take one bath in the Ganges or Yamuna or Jordan. Then I'll be purified" — the people who are thinking, the shastra says, "You are no better than the ass and the cow." This is the certificate. Sa eva go-kharah [SB 10.84.13]. This class of thinking is simply for the animals.

So we should not think like animals. We should think like human beings. That is required. That thinking is "How to awaken my dormant love for God." That is required. That is human activity.