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TEACHINGS OF QUEEN KUNTĪ
wants to become a devotee, Kṛṣṇa makes him a failure in material life. Therefore people are very much afraid of coming to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. “Oh,” they think, “my material prosperity will be finished.”
Generally, people go to a church or temple to pray to God for material prosperity: “O God, give us our daily bread.” But although they are approaching God for material prosperity—“Give me this, give me that”—they are also considered pious because they approach God, unlike the atheists, who never approach Him. “Why shall I approach God?” the atheist says. “I shall create my own wealth, and by advancement of science I shall be happy.” One who thinks “For my own prosperity I shall depend on my own strength and my own knowledge” is a  duṣkṛtī , a most sinful person, but one who thinks “My prosperity depends on the mercy of God” is pious.
It is a fact that without the sanction of God, nothing can be achieved.  Tāvat tanur idaṁ tanūpekṣitānām.  We have discovered many methods by which to counteract distress, but when freedom from such distress is not sanctioned by God, these methods will fail. For example, a sick man may have very good medicine and a qualified physician, but if we ask the physician, “Can you guarantee the life of this patient?” the doctor will always say, “No, I cannot do so. I try my best. That’s all.” An intelligent doctor knows, “The ultimate sanction is in the hand of God. I am simply an instrument. If God does not want the patient to live, then all my medicines and all my scientific medical knowledge will fail.”
The ultimate sanction, therefore, is Kṛṣṇa. Those who are foolish do not know this, and therefore they are called  mūḍha , rascals. They do not know that although whatever they are doing may be very good, if it is not ultimately sanctioned by God, by Kṛṣṇa, it will all be a failure. On the other hand, a devotee knows, “With whatever intelligence I have I may try to become happy, but without Kṛṣṇa’s sanction I shall never be happy.” This is the distinction between a devotee and a nondevotee.
As mentioned before, Kṛṣṇa says, “One who tries to approach Me to become Kṛṣṇa conscious but at the same time wants to become materially happy is not very intelligent. He is wasting his time.” Our main business is to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. That is the main business of human life. If we waste our time striving for material improvement and forget to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, that will be a great loss. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says,  āmi — vijña, ei mūrkhe ‘viṣaya’ kena dibā  (Cc.  Madhya  22.39): “A rascal may ask some material prosperity from Me in exchange for discharging devotional service. But why shall I give him material prosperity? Rather, whatever he has I shall take away.”