Material desires (Letters)

Expressions researched:
"material desires" |"material desire"

1967 Correspondence

Letter to Mr. Taber -- New York 9 June, 1967: So in our pure stage when we understand that we are eternal servants of Krishna there is no more distress. Therefore the devotee prays: "My Lord, when shall I be freed from all material desires and be completely engaged in your transcendental loving service. At the present moment I am forlorn and nobody is my master. When shall I have You as my Supreme Master; then shall I joyfully wander over the whole universe knowing that You are my master." Please therefore try to be in Krishna Consciousness and there will be no distress. Gradually as you realize this, you will experience it also; but the process is the same, both at the beginning and at the end.

1968 Correspondence

Letter to Satsvarupa -- Montreal 3 July, 1968: Materialist person perform all pious activities or devotional activities for some material gain, and as soon as there is any hindrance in the path of material gain, they at once become demon. Therefore bhakti means without any material desires. That is the sign of pure devotee. He has no motive to satisfy his material desires by devotional service.

Letter to Jadurani -- Montreal 9 July, 1968: Brahma is great devotee in the sense that he wants to serve Krishna the best with some material power. That means that he has a tendency to enjoy some material opulence. So Krishna has made him the number 1 living creature within this universe. But a great devotee does not want even the position of a Brahma. He would prefer to become an insignificant living creature like an ant or spider in the house of a great devotee, then to become Brahma, who has got the inclination of becoming powerful in the material world. The great devotees are always liberated from all material desires, big or small. That is the sign of great devotees.

Letter to Janaki -- Seattle 13 October, 1968: We do not mind whether he is Englishman or Indian or any man; our duty is to impress Krishna Consciousness as far as possible. Answering your puzzle, it may be said that a pure devotee is he who loves Krishna, without any material desire. People are generally engaged in karma. Karma means work and get the result and enjoy life. And jnana, jnana means speculating process to understand the Absolute Truth. So one who does not indulge in speculating habit, neither tries to gain something by his work, but simply engages himself in the service of the Lord, he is called a pure devotee.

Letter to Upendra -- Los Angeles 13 November, 1968: You ask about the desire for fame. Fame is a material desire, but to desire fame in Krishna Consciousness is not bad. If you think that people may know me as a great devotee of Krishna, that they may acknowledge me a nice devotee of Krishna, that is not at all bad. But even one is highly elevated in Krishna Consciousness he should not think himself a great devotee, he should think himself always humble.

Letter to Satsvarupa -- Los Angeles 18 November, 1968: The yogis are not devotees. They are more or less after some material perfection. But generally one who sees Narayana, he becomes a devotee. And sometimes such devotee before entering the Supreme Abode of Krishna or Narayana, they want to see some of the wonders of this material world. Just like I have come to your country, and I have no interest for sight seeing, but my main business is preaching Krishna Consciousness, but still, when I go to a new place, sometimes devotees take me to some important sight seeing place. Similarly, a yogi after becoming a devotee sometimes go to other planets also and Narayana fulfills such material desires. In other words, a devotee even if he wants to fulfill some material desires, he is given the chance by the Lord, but a pure devotee in higher status does not desire like that. They do not care for any siddhis.

1969 Correspondence

Letter to Mukunda -- New Vrindaban 10 June, 1969: Religion means the bona fide process by which we understand God and the first class religion is that which teaches people to develop love for God. To know or accept the authority of God is one thing, but to love God is another. Generally, people are interested in material comforts and they make God as the supplying agent. This kind of devotion is not purified. It is contaminated by material desires, but when one is elevated to the position of giving everything to God out of love and affection, that is the first class position.

Letter to Martin Malles -- Los Angeles 22 July, 1969: To do actual Hatha Yoga one must not live in the city, but he must go to a sacred spot, and completely freed from all attachments and all material desires and disturbances, he must concentrate his mind upon the Lord within his heart. This process is not completed in just six months time, but it extends over many, many lifetimes.

1970 Correspondence

Letter to Unknown -- Los Angeles 12 April, 1970: The spirit souls or living beings, are by nature eternal. This condition of life for the living beings are by nature eternal. This condition of life for the living beings, namely to go through repeated births and deaths, is unnatural for him. Therefore the whole Vedic knowledge is devised to regulate the life of the living entities not in the animal form of life, but in the human form of life, so that he can fulfill his material desires, but at the same time he becomes elevated to his original spiritual position. This process of evolution from the lowest aquatic life up to the stage of brahminical culture is delineated in the whole Vedas. This is called knowledge, and when one is liberated from the material contamination, the same knowledge further advanced becomes transcendental knowledge.

Letter to Vrndavana Candra -- Los Angeles 19 July, 1970: Yes Krsna fulfills everyone's desires fully. He can full our desires either materially or spiritually. Material desires to be the supreme enjoyer or god are not natural desires, however. Such desire is maya. Maya means what is not. Our constitutional position is not that of the supreme enjoyer so such desire is unnatural and false. Krsna fulfills the ultimate spiritual desire of everyone also. According to one's constitutional position he enjoys a fully perfect relationship of love with Krsna.

1972 Correspondence

Letter to Sankarasana -- Bombay 31 December, 1972: You have got some desire to become a famous preacher and famous Vaisnava singer and also jagad-guru. This is a spiritual desire, so it is not like any material desire and it is all right to desire for Krsna in this way. but great Vaisnava or famous Vaisnava means that you have no sex desire. Whether you can be like that? First of all you be like that, without any sex desire, then you think famous Vaisnava. Vaisnava means he has no material desire, what to speak of sex desire. All material desires become zero, even he has no desire for jnana, karma, like that.

1973 Correspondence

Letter to Lynne Ludwig -- Los Angeles 30 April, 1973: Krishna tells Arjuna, His disciple, that "It is lust only . . . which is the all-devouring, sinful enemy of this world." In the Vedic language, their word for materialistic "love" as we call it at present day; "kama" lust for material desire, not love. The word for love, actually love we find in Vedas is "prema", meaning one's love of God, only. Outside God, there is no possibility of loving.

1974 Correspondence

Letter to Ravendra Gupta -- Vrindaban 12 February, 1974: You should know that the value of accepting a bona fide spiritual master is more than we can calculate. It is not a mere formality. Of course everyone is encouraged to chant Hare Krishna, but until one gives up sinful activities and becomes determined to serve Krishna through His representative then the firm fixing up of devotional service will not take hold, and there is every chance that one will fall prey to all sorts of material desires and have to come back again in the next life—and one cannot guarantee that he will be born in the form of life he may desire.

Letter to Ravendra Gupta -- Vrindaban 12 February, 1974: So go on faithfully with you chanting and pray to Krishna to give you strength for advancing in His service. It is a fact, however that we must become free of all material desire before going back to Godhead, and this can only be achieved by following the instructions of a bona fide spiritual master.

Letter to Bhavatarini -- Bombay 4 May, 1974: If the guru is a representative of the Supreme Lord in disciplic succession and the student is sincere, only then he can get him out of the clutches of the material energy to become situated in spiritual happiness above all material desires, in Krsna Consciousness.

Letter to Alfred Ford -- Los Angeles 16 July, 1974: Unfortunately some unscrupulous men take advantage of this renounced order dress and being filled up with all material desires they commit so many wrongful things, and the people in general take note of it and gradually the honor for the sannyasi is dwindling. Exactly like a person having received some counterfeit money is always afraid of being cheated, but this does not mean there is no good money. So unscrupulous men on account of this age of Kali yuga are taking advantage of sannyasi dress and are exploiting the people. So there is very awkward, and even a genuine sannyasi is sometimes in trouble. In the sastras therefore it is stated that unless one is perfectly detached from material things he should not be allowed to accept sannyasa order.

1976 Correspondence

Letter to Jayatirtha -- Mayapur 20 January, 1976: The Gurukula must be based on the principle of renunciation; vairagya vidya nija bhakti yogam [Cc. Madhya 6.254]. Bhakti is based on the principle of the renunciation of material desires beginning from the earliest age.

Letter to Dixit -- Vrindaban 18 September, 1976: I have constructed this temple and all my other temples so that at least some educated retired men shall live here without any material desires, but at the present moment people are so educated that even up to the point of death they cannot give up the enjoyable items, namely money and women. Caitanya Mahaprabhu therefore recommends niskincanasya bhagavata bhajano 'numukhasva.

1977 Correspondence

Letter to Jayananda -- Bombay 5 May, 1977: I so hope at the time of your death you were remembering Krsna and as such, you have been promoted to the eternal association of Krsna. If not, if you had any tinge of material desire, you have gone to the celestial kingdom to live with the demigods for many thousands of years and enjoy the most opulent life of material existence. From there you can promote yourself to the spiritual world. But even if one fails to promote himself to the spiritual world, at that time he comes down again on the surface of this globe and takes birth in a big family like a yogis' or a brahmanas' or an aristocratic family, where there is again chance of reviving Krsna Consciousness. But as you were hearing Krsna-kirtana, I am sure that you were directly promoted to Krsna-loka.

Letter to Inquirer -- Boston: The spirit souls or living beings are by nature eternal. This condition of life for the living beings, namely, to go through repeated births and deaths, is unnatural for them. Therefore the entire Vedic knowledge is designed to regulate the life of the living entity, not in the animal form of life, but in the human form of life, so that he can fulfill his material desires but at the same time become elevated to his original spiritual position. This process of evolution from the lowest aquatic life up to the stage of brahminical culture is deliniated in the Vedas. This is called knowledge, and when one is liberated from the material contamination, the same knowledge, further advanced, becomes transcendental knowledge.