Giving up materialistic desires

So if true happiness is attained from God, why you are asking Him for the world? That means sorrow. It’s the opposite of what we desire. Up to what point should we not beg God for worldly things? Up to mukti, liberation. Both worldly pleasures (bhukti) and liberation (mukti) have been compared to witches. Remove them from your heart. Give up these two desires.  There is a big rivalry between worldly pleasures (bhukti) and devotion (bhakti). Devotion is like the sun and worldly pleasures are like darkness.

Worldly enjoyment is like darkness. Both can’t stay together. We will have to give up worldly desires. Instead, we should just keep Krishn's name, form, virtues, leelas, abode, and Saints in our heart. Then our hearts will become purified. This is number one.

When your heart becomes pure, then the Guru will Divinize your mind through his swaroop shakti. When your mind becomes Divine, then God will be under your control. When God comes under the control of our bhakti, and because liberation is under the control of God, then this means liberation will happen automatically. You will receive liberation without asking. A devotee doesn’t ask for liberation.  Instead, he always asks for God’s service, not worldly pleasures or liberation. At that very moment a soul receives the Divine vision of Krishn, maya is completely eliminated, thus material sufferings are totally gone.  After a soul becomes God realized, he receives Divine happiness forever.

We have only two problems: To avoid suffering and to experience happiness. This is our ultimate aim.  We don’t have to do anything for this. Just become like an innocent child once again. You were an innocent child when you left your mother’s womb, weren’t you? Were you crafty or not?  Nothing of the sort! When you got a little older, you still weren’t. One day, a mother told her son, “Look, the neighbor lady will come shortly, so tell her, ‘Mommy isn’t at home’.” He said, “Yes.  I’ll tell her.” The neighbor lady came and said, “Son, where is your mother?” He said, “Mommy said that when you come to tell you that Mommy isn’t at home.” The mother was hiding and listening to this, “This foolish child is so big and he is telling her, ‘Mommy said so!’ ” The neighbor understood and left. The mother came out and gave the child a big slap. She said, “Stupid! You have grown so big. You shouldn’t have said ‘Mommy said this’.” Now the child thinks, “Why is it like this? Why did my mother hit me? My mother told me to say it like that. Now she is telling me I should have said only that part.”  Like this a mother starts teaching deceit and craftiness to her child. After this we also start to cheat and lie to our mother. Now mother says, “Did you tell me a lie” “Mommy! You alone are my teacher. You taught me. Now I am lying to you to fulfill my self-interest.”

However much worldly craftiness you have learned from people and books, give it up. Don’t bring it into God’s area.  In that area become an innocent child. Valmiki’s Guru said, “Keep on repeating, ‘Mara mara’ until I come back. Don’t apply your intellect.” Valmiki didn’t even ask, “When will you come back?” Accept whatever your Guru says. Don’t say or think anything beyond that and don’t apply your intellect. Just following the Guru's instructions is service. In this way, develop an innocent child-like mind. The scriptures say to give up your scholarly knowing, become like an innocent child, and cry and call out to God. That is all – there is nothing more to do.

 “Give me Divine love! Give me alms of your Divine love!” Just ask for one thing. Don’t ask for anything else. If you apply your intellect and ask, then just see how intelligent Hiranyakashipu was! He made such a great big list when he asked for a boon from Brahma.  He asked that he shouldn’t die during the day or night, he shouldn’t die on the earth or in the sky, he shouldn’t die at the hands of a human being or an animal. It was such a long list.  Brahma said, “Alright, I gave you everything you requested.” Now when the question arose as to how Hiranyakashipu could be killed, Brahma’s mind froze. God said to Brahma, “You give such boons to people. You should think a little first!” He scolded Brahma. In the end, God came and adjusted things in such a way that it wasn’t day or night, it was dusk.  Hiranyakashipu wasn’t on the earth or in the sky; God killed him on His thigh. He wasn’t killed by a human or animal; God became Narsingh (half-man, half-lion).

Hirankashyapu asked for the boon so skillfully, yet he still was killed. So our mind is such that if you show a diamond ring and a toffee to a child he will choose the toffee and leave the ring. The state of our intellect is like this.

Furthermore, Kripaluji Maharaj says we are like a worm.  Once King Parikshit asked Shukdeo Paramahans, “Maharaj! In this world, people are abused so much by their mother, father, brother, wife, and husband, even so, they submit to and follow them.” Shukdev only said, “Yes, it's like this."  The next day they both went out and in the jungle there was some dried stool at one place on the ground and a worm was rolling around in that.  Shukdev Paramhans had taken a rose flower with him. He put the flower 10 feet away and said, “This poor worm must be suffering in this stool.  It must have a foul smell. Pick it up and put it on the flower.”  King Parikshit thought, “How strange!  What a strange order Guruji is giving! But an order is an order.” He picked up the worm and put it in the flower. Immediately the worm did an about turn and went back to the stool.  Shukdev Paramhans said, “Did you see that?”  "What?"  “Why didn’t that worm stay on the flower? Why did it go there?  Because it is attached to the stool.” Similarly human beings are so attached to their mother, father, son, wife, husband, wealth, reputation, and worldly entertainments that even though God descends, a soul meets a Saint, the Saint teaches him and he understands, but still that soul goes back into the world.

In India, my speeches are coming on TV in the mornings and evenings twice a day. Millions of people are listening. Then why are there only a thousand people here? There is lots of praise, many phone calls, many letters coming to me every day. “Today I understand what is the Hindu religion!” People talk big like this.  But worldly attachment is so strong that some devotees have come here today who I haven’t seen for 15 years.  Where are you coming from?  “From our home.”  Why did you come after so long? “I thought I should Grace my Guruji. I have come to give him my darshan.” They stayed for four days.  What were they doing for so long? They will say, “What were we doing? Earning money, loving our wife, husband, father and son – what else would we be doing?” Then what devotion did you do? What did you understand? Aren’t you worried about death?

Do you have it in writing that your time of death is fixed for some future date? “I won’t die for 25 more years!” A poet wrote that a businessman planned to make ten dollars out of his one dollar. He was planning how to increase his wealth. Death came and said, “Now give your life back to me!” So one became ten, now suffer the punishment. “Can I do a little devotion now?” No! You don't have even a second more. Now you will have to suffer. The time for devotion is finished. Why didn’t you do devotion before this?   Until now, your excuse was, “It’s like this and it was like that, my wife, son, husband, brother…” Really?  You have done this in uncountable births. You will attain God realization only through devotion. You wasted your human birth.  You feel you are performing a great miracle. What miracle? “I have collected a hundred million for my son. I built ten mansions.” Then God says, “Look! All these mansions and your bank balance will remain here. On top of that you will be punished for the wrong actions you did to earn this money."

Your only need was to satisfy your hunger. You couldn’t take one month out of your life to do devotion? What answer will you give before God? “I didn’t know that I had to realize God.” Would you say that? What will you say?