The Roads of the Foolish and the Wise 61
does not pray for relief from material miseries.
Rather, he prays to glorify God and inform others
how great He is. He doesn’t pray for his personal
interest, for bread, dress or shelter. The pure devotee,
when he is distressed, says, ‘‘Dear Lord, this is Your
kindness. You have put me into distress just to
rectify me. I should be put in much greater distress,
but out of Your mercy You have minimized this.”
This is the vision of a pure devotee who is not
disturbed.

He who is in Krsna consciousness does not care
for material distress, insult or honor because he is
aloof from all these. He knows well that distress,
honor and insult pertain to the body only and that
he is not the body. Socrates, for instance, who
believed in the immortality of the soul, was con-
demned to death, and upon being asked how he
would like to be buried, replied, “First of all you
may have to catch me.” So one who knows that he
is not the body is not disturbed, for he knows the
soul cannot be caught, tortured, killed or buried. He
who is conversant with the science of Krsna knows
perfectly well that he is not the body, that he is part
and parcel of Krsna, that his real relationship is with
Krsna, and that somehow or other, although he has
been put in the material body, he must remain aloof
from the three qualities of material nature. He is not
concerned with the modes of goodness, passion or
ignorance, but with Krsna. One who understands
this is a jani, a wise man, and he is very much dear
to Krsna. A distressed man, when he is put into opu-
lence, may forget God, but a jnani, who knows the
real position of God, will never forget Him.
