A pious man lives long. Impious man dies very soon. Even one who is pure devotee, he can prolong his duration of life more than what is destined for him. Everyone has got a destination that, "This . . . this person will live for so many years, this person will live for so many years." But a pure devotee, as a yogī can increase the duration of his life, similarly, a pure devotee, although he does not artificially try to increase the duration of life, by God's grace his duration of life is increased.
He is . . . a pure devotee is no longer within the rules and regulation of material nature. Brahma-bhūyāya kalpate. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate (BG 14.26). Māṁ ca 'vyabhicāreṇa bhakti-yogena yaḥ sevate. Anyone who engages himself in pure devotional service, avyabhicāreṇa, he is no longer under the rules and regulation of this material nature. Brahma-bhūyāya kalpate.
So the sages address the king that, "Kindly hear our instruction and your duration of life will be increased." Not only duration of life—śrī-bala-kīrtīnāṁ. Śrī means beauty. Unless you are healthy, there will be no beauty of your body. So duration of life increased means he is healthy and, therefore, he should look bright and beautiful. Śrī-bala, strength, and kīrtīnāṁ. And if one is actually advanced in spiritual life or if one is actually religious, then his fame also increases. He doesn't require to advertise himself, but if he is pious, if he is devotee, automatically his fame will be expanded.
Just like there is one very nice example, Śrī Mādhavendra Purī. Mādhavendra Purī was going to . . . from this Vṛndāvana. Mādhavendra Purī. Perhaps you do not know the story of Mādhavendra Purī. Mādhavendra Purī was a great devotee in this Gauḍīya-sampradāya, and in this Govardhana there was Gopāla, I mean to say, covered by dirty and jungles and trees. So the Gopāla . . . when Mādhavendra Purī was in Vṛndāvana, the Gopāla in dream expressed Himself, "Mādhavendra Purī, I am very much suffocated. I am covered by this dirt and jungles. Please re-excavate Me from this condition and install Me in the temple."
So Mādhavendra Purī, with the help of villagers, he excavated the earth and found this Gopāla mūrti. And this Gopāla mūrti was installed by the help of the villagers very luxuriantly. For so many days there was festival. That is the way of installing Deity. At least for seven days there must be festival.
So after some days, Mādhavendra Purī was informed in dream that, "Since I was long within the earth, My body is very much heated. So you kindly bring some sandalwood from Jagannātha Purī and smear all over the body the pulp of sandalwood, then I shall be happy."
So Mādhavendra Purī was very old man at that time, and it is order of Gopālajī, so he started for Jagannātha Purī. On the way there is a Gopīnātha temple in Orissa, on the border of Orissa and Bengal in the district of Dant . . . dantarn, that is called Dantan. So he stayed there overnight and he saw that the Gopāla . . . na . . . Gopīnāthajī was offered kṣīra, seven pots of kṣīra. So Mādhavendra Purī thought within himself, "If I could taste little kṣīra, then I would also make such kṣīra to offer my Gopāla in Vṛndāvana."
Then again he thought that, "Oh, I am so stupid that before offering to the Deity I am thinking of eating it." He thought himself to be very much culprit, and he immediately left the temple, "No, I shall not. I am committing offense." It is an offense. Therefore, when you bring bhoga for the Deity, it should be covered so that we greedy men may not see it and try to taste it. You see? Kaniṣṭha-adhikārīs, they sometimes do that. Sometimes they take away something before offering to the Deity. These are great offenses.
So Mādhavendra Purī thought it that he was a great offender; he should not live in this temple, he should go outside. So he went outside, and underneath a tree he was chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, just to pass over the night, then they then proceed toward Jagannātha Purī. So at night the Deity, Gopīnātha, was asking the pūjārī, the priest, that "I have kept one pot of kṣīra behind My back garment," pitavastra. Pitavastra. "You take this pot of kṣīra, condensed milk, to Mādhavendra Purī—he is sitting underneath a tree—and offer him."
So the pūjārī wake up, and actually when he opened the door of the Deity room, he found that pot of kṣīra. So he could understand that "This Mādhavendra Purī is not an ordinary devotee, he . . . he is a great devotee; otherwise how the Lord has stolen this pot for him?" (laughter) Since then, that Gopīnātha is famous as Kṣīra-corā Gopīnātha: Kṣīra-corā Gopīnātha, the Gopīnātha who stole the kṣīra for His devotee. So He is known as thief, Kṣīra-corā. He is famous as a great thief. Still people go to see Him, how nice this thief is.
That is the difference between Kṛṣṇa and ourself. When we are thief, we are beaten by shoes. And when Kṛṣṇa is thief, He is worshiped by devotees. Just like Kṛṣṇa is worshiped as Raṇacora, who left the war field. When a man leaves the war field, he is called coward. But Kṛṣṇa, everyone knows for pastimes He left the war field. It was in the Gujarat province. Kṛṣṇa as the Raṇacora who left the war field. That is cowardice, still He is worshiped. That is absolutism.
Kṛṣṇa in any condition, He is Kṛṣṇa. Either as Kṣīra-corā Gopīnātha, or as a taunter to the gopīs, or any way in the material world which is abominable, but when Kṛṣṇa does it, because He is absolute, it is good. That is absolutism. You cannot accuse Kṛṣṇa that, "Oh, You have done like this." Whatever He has done, it is right. So just last evening one boy was criticizing Kṛṣṇa, that "Why Kṛṣṇa makes this distinction stri-śūdra, vaiśya as pāpa-yoni?" So this is godlessness, that we dare to criticize Kṛṣṇa. We should not criticize Kṛṣṇa. But those who are unaware of Kṛṣṇa's position, they do, we have to inform them rightly, what is the right thing.
So actually Kṛṣṇa says that even the stri-śūdra-vaiśya, they are also elevated to the highest position if they take the shelter of the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa. Māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya ye 'pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ (BG 9.32). The pāpa-yoni, the pious man or impious man, that is consideration of this material world. So long we are in this material world, there must be "This is good" and "This is bad." Although there is nothing good in this material world—everything is bad—but we have concocted some formulas that "This is good" and "This is bad."
Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja says, dvaite bhadrābhadra sakali samāna (CC Antya 4.176). In the material world, bhadra-abhadra, anything bhadra and abhadra, good and bad, they are simply mental concoction. There cannot be anything good. Just like a man suffering from some disease, lying on the bed, a friend goes and ask him, "My dear friend, how you are feeling today?" He can say: "Yes, I am feeling today all right." What is that all right? He is lying on the bed and he is taking medicine, and so many discomfitures are there, and still he says, "I am all right."
So in the material world, this prosperity, so-called prosperity, is not prosperity, because the next life I do not know what is going to happen. And the next life is there. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). Therefore learned man, he sees always that, "My happiness . . . what is the value of this happiness? I'll have to die, I'll have to accept old age, I'll have to suffer from disease. And as soon as I die, again I will have to enter into the womb of a particular mother to take birth again." So where is the happiness? In the womb of the mother to live for ten months in a very awkward position—we have forgotten—that is not very happiness.