66 TEACHINGS OF QUEEN KUNTI
wants to become a devotee, Krsna makes him a failure in material life.
Therefore people are very much afraid of coming to Krsna conscious-
ness. ‘‘Oh,”’ they think, ‘‘my material prosperity will be finished.”

Generally, people go to a church or temple to pray to God for material
prosperity: ‘‘O God, give us our daily bread.’ But although they are ap-
proaching God for material prosperity —‘‘Give me this, give me that” —
they are also considered pious because they approach God, unlike the
atheists, who never approach Him. ‘‘Why shall I approach God?” the
atheist says. ‘‘I shall create my own wealth, and by advancement of
science I shall be happy.’’ One who thinks ‘‘For my own prosperity I shall
depend on my own strength and my own knowledge”’ is a duskrti, a most
sinful person, but one who thinks ‘‘My prosperity depends on the mercy
of God”’ is pious.

It is a fact that without the sanction of God, nothing can be achieved.
Tavat tanur idam tanupeksitanam. We have discovered many methods by
which to counteract distress, but when freedom from such distress is not
sanctioned by God, these methods will fail. For example, a sick man may
have very good medicine and a qualified physician, but if we ask the
physician, ‘‘Can you guarantee the life of this patient?’’ the doctor will
always say, ‘‘No, I cannot do so. I try my best. That’s all.”’ An intelligent
doctor knows, ‘‘The ultimate sanction is in the hand of God. I am simply
an instrument. If God does not want the patient to live, then all my
medicines and all my scientific medical knowledge will fail.”

The ultimate sanction, therefore, is Krsna. Those who are foolish do
not know this, and therefore they are called mudha, rascals. They do not
know that although whatever they are doing may be very good, if it is not
ultimately sanctioned by God, by Krsna, it will all be a failure. On the
other hand, a devotee knows, ‘‘With whatever intelligence I have I may
try to become happy, but without Krsna’s sanction I shall never be
happy.’” This is the distinction between a devotee and a nondevotee.

As mentioned before, Krsna says, ‘‘One who tries to approach Me to
become Krsna conscious but at the same time wants to become ma-
terially happy is not very intelligent. He is wasting his time.’’ Our main
business is to become Krsna conscious. That is the main business of
human life. If we waste our time striving for material improvement and
forget to chant Hare Krsna, that will be a great loss. Therefore Krsna
says, dmi—vijfia, ei mtirkhe ‘visaya’ kena diba (Cc. Madhya 22.39): ‘A
rascal may ask some material prosperity from Me in exchange for dis-
charging devotional service. But why shall I give him material
prosperity? Rather, whatever he has I shall take away.”’
