68 Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead

girls and wanted them to see Lord Krsna eye to eye. He conceived of
cursing them as follows. He said that the attraction for material enjoyment
is due to an increase of the mode of passion. A person in the material
world, when favored by the material opulence of riches, generally be-
comes addicted to three things—intoxication, sex and gambling. Materially
opulent men, being puffed up with the accumulation of wealth, also
become so merciless that they indulge in killing animals by opening
slaughterhouses. And they think that they themselves will never die. Such
foolish persons, forgetting the laws of nature, become overly infatuated
with the body. They forget that the material body, even though very much
advanced in civilization, up to the position of the demigods, will finally
be burned to ashes. And while one is living, whatever the external con-
dition of the body may be, within there is only stool, urine and various
kinds of worms. Thus being engaged in jealousy and violence to other
bodies, materialists cannot understand the ultimate goal of life, and with-
out knowing this goal of life, they generally glide down to a hellish
condition. In their next birth, such foolish persons commit all kinds of
sinful activities on account of this temporary body, and they are even
unable to consider whether this body actually belongs to them. Generally
it is said that the body belongs to the persons who feed the body. One
might therefore consider whether this body belongs to one personally or
to the master to whom one renders service. The master of slaves claims full
right to the bodies of the slaves because the master feeds the slaves. It may
be questioned then whether the body belongs to the father, who is the
seed-giving master of this body, or to the mother, who develops the child’s
body in her womb.

Foolish persons are engaged in committing all sorts of sins due to the
misconception of identifying the material body with the self. But one
should be intelligent enough to understand to whom this body belongs. A
foolish person indulges in killing other animals to maintain the body, but
he does not consider whether this body belongs to him or to his father or .
mother or grandfather. Sometimes a grandfather or a father gives his"
daughter in charity to a person with a view of getting back the daughter’ Ss.
child as a son. The body may also belong to a stronger man who forces
it to work for him. Sometimes the slave’s body is sold to the master on the
basis that the body will belong to the master. And at the end of life, the
body belongs to the fire, because the body is given to the fire and burned
to ashes. Or the body is thrown into the street to be eaten by the dogs
and vultures.

Before committing all kinds of sins to maintain the body, one should
