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According to law of karma, you have given one hundred dollars to a poor man to help him. This means that the poor man has to pay you four hundred dollars in your next life, with interest and compound interest

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"according to law of karma, you have given one hundred dollars to a poor man to help him. This means that the poor man has to pay you four hundred dollars in your next life, with interest and compound interest"

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Suppose you have given to a poor man one hundred dollars to help. Now, the, according to law of karma, you have given one hundred dollars to a poor man to help him. This means that the poor man has to pay you four hundred dollars in your next life, with interest and compound interest. And you will have to take that four hundred dollars. And suppose you are preparing yourself to conquer over the next life, but by contributing this one hundred dollars you are now bound up to take payment of four hundred dollars; therefore you have to take your birth.
Lecture on BG 2.58-59 -- New York, April 27, 1966:

So we have to practice. We have to practice it in our everything. Because for so long we are in this material body, we have got so many material demands. We cannot stop the activities of the body. That is not possible. By force, if I stop all the activities of my body, that is not possible. That is not possible. The bodily activities will go on, but the bodily activities will be so performed that I'll not be bound up by the reaction. And that is called devotional service. That is called

vāsudeve bhagavati
bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ
janayaty āśu vairāgyaṁ
jñānaṁ ca yad ahaitukam
(SB 1.2.7)

Just, for example, that we are eating. Eating is necessary. So long my body is there, eating is necessary. So in the Bhagavad-gītā it says,

yajñārthāt karmaṇo 'nyatra
loko 'yaṁ karma-bandhanaḥ
yajña-śiṣṭāśinaḥ santo
mucyante sarva-kilbiṣaiḥ
(BG 3.9)

that one who performs sacrifice... Sacrifice means to please the Supreme Lord. That is the sacrifice, meaning of sacrifice. Otherwise sacrifice has no meaning. Sacrifice means... Suppose you have got one thousand dollars in your pocket. Now you sacrifice it. You spend it for some good cause. "Oh, this man has sacrificed one hundred dollars." But that sort of sacrifice is also cause of your bondage. Now, suppose you have given to a poor man one hundred dollars to help. Now, the, according to law of karma, you have given one hundred dollars to a poor man to help him. This means that the poor man has to pay you four hundred dollars in your next life, with interest and compound interest. And you will have to take that four hundred dollars. And suppose you are preparing yourself to conquer over the next life, but by contributing this one hundred dollars you are now bound up to take payment of four hundred dollars; therefore you have to take your birth. These are subtle laws. If we are to believe the Vedic literature, the law of karma, these are stated there. We may take it or not take it. That is a different thing. Just like if you deposit in the bank one hundred dollars. So if you forget, twenty years after you will have to take two hundred dollars. The bank will pay you, either you like to take it or not take it. Just like we have this law in this ordinary life, similarly, anything, good action or bad action, we have to suffer or enjoy the result. That is called reaction. But sacrifice for the cause of the Supreme Lord, that has no reaction. This is also bright side. There are so many wrong side also.

So Bhagavad-gītā says that yajña-śiṣṭāśinaḥ santo mucyante sarva-kilbiṣaiḥ. Sarva-kilbiṣaiḥ. Sarva-kilbiṣaiḥ. Kilbiṣa means sinful reaction, sinful reaction, "Tit for tat," good reaction or bad reaction. But one who eats after offering to the Supreme Lord, he is not under the regulation of reaction. Whatever we eat... Even we eat, that, we have got to repay for that. Now, the Sanskrit word, the flesh... Flesh, Sanskrit word, is called māṁsa. Māṁsa. The māṁsa means..., mām means "me," and sa means "he." "So I am eating some animal; so in my next life that animal will eat me." That is called māṁsa. So now, apart from animal... Don't think that those who are vegetarian, they are free from all these reaction. No. They are also. They are also. The law is that one has to repay which he is taking the help from other living entities. That is the law of karma. So either you eat vegetables or either you eat flesh, you have to repay that. But yajña-śiṣṭāśinaḥ santo mucyante sarva-kilbiṣaiḥ. The Bhagavad-gītā says that if you eat the remnants after offering sacrifice to the Lord, then you, not only you are free from all reaction, but you do not eat anything sinful. That is the direction of Bhagavad-gītā.

So in every aspect of our life... This is also one of the insignificant example of our activities of our life. If we act, dovetailing our actions with the Supreme Lord, then we are free from reaction. Otherwise we are bound up by the reaction. That is the law. So in order to get myself free from all reaction of my activities... Because so long I am... Because I am living entity, I have to act. Either I act spiritually, either act materially, I have to act. My activities will not stop. It is foolishness to say that "I will stop my activities." No. That cannot be. Your activities will go on. If you don't act spiritually, then you have to act materially. And if you are fully engaged in spiritual activity, then there is no chance of material activity. Because after all, you are actor, one, if you are engaged in something. Just like in our ordinary life, if we do something at a particular moment, we cannot do other things; similarly, we have to engage ourselves fully in the spiritual life. Then our material activities will be stopped altogether, and then there will be no reaction. In spite of our acting... Just like the soldier. In spite of his killing hundreds and thousands of people, he is not to be hanged; he is to be rewarded. This is the technique.

So Lord says,

viṣayā vinivartante
nirāhārasya dehinaḥ
rasa-varjaṁ raso 'py asya
paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate
(BG 9.59)

Now negation. Negation. "All right. I shall not do this, which will produce reaction." That, I mean to say, forceful negation will not stand. "I shall not do this." Or, for example, take the small incident of our life, eating. Now, because eating has reaction, because whatever I am eating I have to repay for that... Either you eat vegetable or flesh, that doesn't matter. "Then let me... I shall not eat." Oh, that cannot be. How you cannot eat? You cannot do it. If you have to live, then you have to eat. So here the Lord says, viṣayā vinivartante nirāhārasya dehinaḥ. Just like a person is diseased. He is advised by the doctor that "You shall not take such and such things." So he is starving or he is fasting. Suppose in the typhoid fever the doctor has advised him not to take any solid food. So under the instruction of the doctor, he is not taking any solid food. But suppose his brother is eating some bread. Oh, he likes that "If I could eat." But that means within himself... He is, by force, by the instruction of the physician, he is forced not to eat. But within himself he has got the tendency for eating. But out of fear that "If I eat, there will be very bad reaction of taking solid food," therefore, by force, he is not eating. Similarly, there are so many things which you are refrain from doing by force. No. That sort of abstinence will not make you progressive in spiritual life, by force. No. By force I cannot... Because you are independent. Every individual being has got his little portion of independence. So anything cannot be done by forcing you. No. Even you cannot force even a child. He has got his independence. He'll revolt if you force him. So here it is said that viṣayā vinivartante. One may be refraining from enjoying materially by somehow or other, by force... Nirāhārasya dehinaḥ, rasa-varjaṁ raso 'py asya paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate. But one who is spiritually advanced, he is not forced. He is voluntarily giving up. That is the difference. Voluntarily giving up. How? Why voluntarily giving up? Now, paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate (BG 9.59). He has found something sublime, so sublime that he doesn't care for material enjoyment. He is not forced. He voluntarily gives up. That is the criterion of spiritual life. There is no force. Just like there is a nice verse given by Yamunācārya. Yamunācārya, he was a great emperor, but later on, he became a great devotee of the Lord under the disciplic succession. Now, he has got very nice verses written by him. One of the verses is stated like this:

yad-avadhi mama cetaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravinde
nava-nava-rasa-dhāmany udyataṁ rantum āsīt
tad-avadhi bata nārī-saṅgame smaryamāne
bhavati mukha-vikāraḥ suṣṭhu niṣṭhīvanaṁ ca

He says, the experience of his life... So he was a king. He enjoyed his life like anything. Now, after he became a great devotee, spiritually engaged, he expresses that experience in this way, that yad-avadhi mama cetaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravinde: "Since I have engaged my heart and soul in the supreme devotional service of the Lord, since then..." What is the result? Yad-avadhi mama cetaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravinde nava-nava-rasa-dhāmany udyataṁ rantum āsīt: "I am getting every moment a new type of transcendental pleasure. Since then..." Bata nārī-saṅgame. This is materially. Nārī-saṅga means sex life, combination of man and woman, nārī-saṅgame. He says that "Since then, that whenever I think of sex life..." Because he has experienced. He was a family man, he was a king. He said that "Whenever I think of, not to act, but whenever I think of sex life, oh, I say, now, 'Tu!' " (as if spitting) So paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate. Why this life has come to him? Because he has seen something. He has experienced something which is transcendental pleasure. And in comparison to the transcendental pleasure, this material pleasure is just like spitting. You see? Very insignificant.

Page Title:According to law of karma, you have given one hundred dollars to a poor man to help him. This means that the poor man has to pay you four hundred dollars in your next life, with interest and compound interest
Compiler:Krsnadas
Created:14 of Oct, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=1, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:1