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Material happiness means sense gratification. This is material happiness. Everyone is materialistic, or materially advanced, means he has got better facility for satisfying the senses. That is material life

Expressions researched:
"Material happiness means sense gratification. This is material happiness. Everyone is materialistic, or materially advanced, means he has got better facility for satisfying the senses. That is material life"

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Material happiness means sense gratification. This is material happiness. Everyone is materialistic, or materially advanced, means he has got better facility for satisfying the senses. That is material life. And spiritual life means he does not satisfy his own senses, but he satisfies the senses of God. That is spiritual life.

Lecture on BG 13.2 -- Melbourne, April 4, 1972:

Dogs and cats, they have no idea that the dog is not this body. It is a soul also. It has taken a dog's body. Cat is also a soul, but by his karma, by his destiny, by his past work, he has to accept this body. A tree, that is also a soul, but by his past karma or action, he has taken this body of the tree. So we should understand from the authority, as Kṛṣṇa says, that idaṁ śarīraṁ kṣetram: "It is a field. It is a concession or..." Field is exactly the term. "Field of work," as we say generally, in the field of activities." So it is field. And I have given a chance to occupy this field and act accordingly. Try to understand. I have got a different type of field, and I have to work on it and reap the result out of it and suffer pains and pleasure. That is already settled up. As soon as I have got a particular type of body, my pains and pleasures are already settled up, already settled up. You cannot make any improvement or degradation.

Therefore śāstra says that, Vedic literature says that

sukham aindriyakaṁ daityā
deha-yogena dehinām
sarvatra labhyate daivād
yathā duḥkham ayatnataḥ

These are very important instructions. Prahlāda Mahārāja says... He was instructing his class friends. He was a five years old boy. And he said, "My dear friends, that the material happiness..." Material happiness means sense gratification. This is material happiness. Everyone is materialistic, or materially advanced, means he has got better facility for satisfying the senses. That is material life. And spiritual life means he does not satisfy his own senses, but he satisfies the senses of God. That is spiritual life.

Just try to understand. Senses, as I have already explained... God is also living entity. He is the chief living entity, chief intelligent man or god, whatever you say, and we are subordinate. Now, material life means... God... And what is our relationship? God is the supreme father; we are all children. So as in the family—the father is one, the children are many, say ten—if the children are very obedient to the father, then that family is very nice, is very nice. If every children is obedient to the father, then father is happy and they are also happy. The father is also very open to satisfy the children. Father knows what is the needs of the children. He automatically supplies. And if the children become disobedient, the father is not satisfied. He may do as duty, to give them some food, but he is not satisfied. The same relationship with our relationship with God.

You know, those who are Christians. You pray in the church, "O Father." So God is actually the father. In the Bhagavad-gītā also, it is said, "Father." Ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā (BG 14.4). Pitā means father. Ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā. So actually, God supplies everything through the material agent. That's all. Just as God supplies, the father supplies the money in the hands of the mother and mother expends for the children, similarly, God is the supreme father of the whole living entities, and the material nature is the agent of the Supreme Lord, and she produces food for you.

You may have tractors, you may have very good arrangement for producing food, machinery, but still, if the land or earth does not produce food, your, this tractor or all other arrangements will be failure. So after all, we should know the supply of things are in the hands of the material nature. And material nature works under the direction of God. That is stated in Bhagavad-gītā, mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). Prakṛti means this material nature.

You don't think material nature is blind. Material nature has got her intelligence, and she is taking intelligence from the Supreme Lord. And according to that she is supplying food or grains and everything, because you get everything from the earth. Either you take metal or this wood or water or food grains, whatever you are taking, using, you are exploiting the resources of material nature, but material nature is the agent of God. Material nature is an energy of God. So if God does not wish to supply you, however you may bring tractor and anything.

Page Title:Material happiness means sense gratification. This is material happiness. Everyone is materialistic, or materially advanced, means he has got better facility for satisfying the senses. That is material life
Compiler:Krsnadas
Created:12 of Oct, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=1, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:1