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THE SCIENCE OF SELF-REALIZATION
eating? God is supplying. The elephant eats hundreds of pounds of food. Who is supplying? Are you making arrangements for the elephant? There are millions of elephants. Who is supplying?
So the process of acknowledging that God is supplying is better than thinking, “God is dead. Why should we go to church and pray to God for bread?” In the  Bhagavad-gītā  it is said, “Four kinds of people come to Kṛṣṇa: the distressed, those who are in need of money, the wise, and the inquisitive.” One who is inquisitive, one who is wise, one who is distressed, and one who is in need of money—these four classes of men approach God. “My dear God, I am very hungry. Give me my daily bread.” That’s nice. Those who approach God in this way are recommended as  sukṛtinaḥ .  Sukṛtī  means “pious.” They are pious. Although they are asking for money, for food, they are considered pious because they are approaching God. And others are just the opposite. They are  duṣkṛtinaḥ , impious.  Kṛtī  means “very meritorious,” but the word  duṣkṛtī  indicates that their energy is being misused to create havoc. Just like the man who invented atomic weapons. He has a brain, but it has been misused. He has created something which is dreadful. Create something which will insure that man will no longer have to die. What is the use of creating something so that millions of people will immediately die? They will die today or tomorrow or after a hundred years. So what have the scientists done? Create something so that man will not die immediately, so that there will be no more disease, so that there will be no more old age. Then you will have done something. But the  duṣkṛtinas  never go to God. They never try to understand God. Therefore their energy is misdirected.
The gross materialists who ignore their relationship with God are described in the  Bhagavad-gītā  as  mūḍhas .  Mūḍha  means “ass,” “donkey.” Those who are working very, very hard to earn money are compared to the donkey. They will eat the same four  capātīs  [whole wheat breadpatties] daily, but they are unnecessarily working to earn thousands of dollars. And others are described as  narādhama .  Narādhama  means “the lowest of mankind.” The human form of life is meant for God realization. It is the right of man to try to realize God. One who understands Brahman, God, is a  brāhmaṇa , not others. So that is the duty of this human form of life. In every human society there is some system which is called “religion” and by which one may try to understand God. It doesn’t matter whether it is the Christian religion, the Muhammadan religion, or the Hindu religion. It doesn’t matter. The system is to understand God and our relationship with Him. That’s all. This is the duty of the human beings, and if this duty is ignored in human society, then it is