Reaching Life’s Perfection . 281

religious. They say, ‘‘I am a Hindu,”’ “‘I am a Christian,”’ ‘‘I am a Jew,”’
‘Tam Muhammadan,”’ ‘‘I am this, I am that, and therefore I cannot
change my religion. I cannot accept Krsna.” This is called religiosity,
dharma. With such a materialistic, sectarian idea of religion, they will rot
in this material world, stuck to rituals and faith. They are under the im-
pression that if they follow their religious principles, they will get ma-
terial prosperity. Of course, if one sticks to any kind of religious faith, he
will get facilities for material life.

Why do people want this material prosperity? For sense gratification.
They are thinking, ‘‘I shall have a very nice wife. I shall have very good
children. I shall have a very good post. I shall become president. I shall
become prime minister.’’ This is sense gratification. And when one is
frustrated and has seen that to be rich or to attain the presidency cannot
give him happiness, after squeezing out all the taste of sex life, when he
is completely frustrated, then perhaps he takes to LSD and tries to be-
come one with the void. But this nonsense cannot give happiness. Here is
happiness: one must approach Krsna. Otherwise, it will end in LSD-
confusion and roaming in impersonal void concepts. People are frus-
trated. They must be frustrated if they do not have genuine spiritual life,
because a person is spiritual by nature.

How can anyone be happy without Krsna? Suppose one is thrown into
the ocean. How can he be happy there? That is not for us. One may be a
very good swimmer, but how long will he be able to swim? He eventually
becomes tired and drowns. Similarly, we are spiritual by nature. How can
we be happy in this material world? It is not possible. But men are trying
to remain here, making so many temporary adjustments for survival.
This patchwork is not happiness. If one really wants happiness, here is
the process: one must attain love of Godhead. Unless one can love
Krsna, unless one finishes with love for cats, dogs, country, nation, and
society and instead concentrates his love on Krsna, there is no question
of happiness. Ripa Goswami has given a very nice example in this
regard: there are many drugs which saturate one with ideas or hallucina-
tions. But Ripa Goswami says that unless one tastes that final drug of
love of Godhead, krsna-prema, he will have to be captivated by medita-
tion, impersonal monism, and so many other distractions.

Caitanya Mahaprabhu describes that to attain unalloyed love of Krsna,
one has to execute devotional service, or Krsna consciousness. One has
to engage oneself exclusively in serving Krsna. The highest perfectional
stage of unalloyed devotion is to be free from all material desires, all
mental speculation, and all fruitive activities. The basic principle of
