936 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 4, Ch. 22

see that materialistic persons come to us and offer their obeisances to take
blessings, which means they want more and more material opulences. If
such material opulences are checked, such persons are no longer interested
in offering obeisances to the devotees. Such materialistic persons are
always concerned about their economic development. They offer obeisances
to saintly persons or the Supreme Lord and give something in charity for
preaching work with a view that they will be rewarded with further
economic development.

However, when one is sincere in his devotional service, the Lord
obliges the devotee to give up his material development and completely
surrender unto Him. Because the Lord does not give blessings of material
opulence to His devotee, people are afraid of worshiping Lord Visnu
because they see that the Vaisnavas, who are worshipers of Lord Visnu,
are poor in superficial material opulences. Such materialistic persons,
however, get immense opportunity for economic development by worship-
ing Lord Siva, for Lord Siva is the husband of the goddess Durga, and
Durga is the proprietor of this universe. By the grace of Lord Siva, a
devotee gets the opportunity to be blessed by the goddess Durga. Ravana,
for example, was a great worshiper and devotee of Lord Siva, and in return
he got all the blessings of goddess Durga, so much so that his whole
kingdom was constructed of golden buildings. In Brazil, in this present
age, huge quantities of gold have been found, and from historical references
in the Puranas, we can guess safely that this was Ravana’s kingdom.This
kingdom was, however, destroyed by Lord Ramacandra.

By studying such incidents, we can understand the full meaning of
isa-vidhvamsitasisam. The Lord does not bestow material blessings upon
the devotees, for they may be entrapped again in this material world by
continuous birth, death, old age, and disease. Due to materialistic opu-
lences, persons like Ravana become puffed up for sense gratification.
Ravana even dared kidnap Sita, who was both the wife of Lord Ramacandra
and the goddess of fortune, thinking that he would be able to enjoy the
pleasure potency of the Lord. But actually, by such action, Ravana became
vidhvamsita or ruined. At the present moment human civilization is too
much attached to economic development and sense gratification and is
therefore nearing the path of ruination.

TEXT 37
aa atey aay aeTTT a
aetanatroratasarany |
