74, Elevation to Krsna Consciousness

are always sworn to unclean work, attracted by the
impermanent. Their belief is that to gratify the
senses unto the end of life is the prime necessity of
human civilization. Thus, there is no measurement
for their anxiety.” (Bg. 16.10-11)

The leaders, like the boatmen, are all illusioned.
They mislead us into taking some temporary benefit,
but how long can their plans and schemes go on? If
they persist until they die of heart failure or are
killed by assassins, then another just like them takes
their place. Even the so-called philosophers of
modern society are captivated by material name and
fame, and so they do not lead the general populace
in the proper direction. Thus the anchor of life re-
mains deeply fixed in the waters of nescience for the
purpose of sense gratification, and thus our so-called
civilization rots in a stagnant pool. Because we are
not moving, we are always in the same port of
problematic life. All schemes are only useless scraps
of paper in the face of war, famine, earthquakes and
other disasters. All these disasters are warnings from
Mother Durga, and by them she confirms her eternal
superiority over the illusioned planmakers. The
different weights on the anchor which keep us
grounded in material life are our attachments to the
material body due to our ignorance of spiritual facts,
our attachment to kinsmen due to bodily relations,
our attachment to our land of birth and our material
possessions, our attachment to material science and
our attachment to religious forms and rituals without
knowing their true purpose—all these anchor the
boat of the human body in the material universe.
