276 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-gita it is said, ‘‘Four kinds of people come to
Krsna: 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 dis-
tressed, and one who is in need of money—these four classes of men ap-
proach 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
sukrtinah. Sukrtimeans ‘‘pious.’’ They are pious. Although they are ask-
ing for money, for food, they are considered pious because they are ap-
proaching God. And others are just the opposite. They are duskrtinah,
impious. Krti means ‘‘very meritorious,”’ but the word duskrtiindicates
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 in-
sure 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 duskrtinas 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 de-
scribed in the Bhagavad-gitd as muidhas. Mudha means “‘ass,”’ ‘‘donkey.”’
Those who are working very, very hard to earn money are compared to
the donkey. They will eat the same four capdatis [whole wheat bread-
patties] daily, but they are unnecessarily working to earn thousands of
dollars. And others are described as narddhama. Narddhama means “‘the
lowest of mankind.’’ The human form of life is meant for God realiza-
tion. It is the right of man to try to realize God. One who understands
Brahman, God, is a brdhmana, 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 under-
stand 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
