Krishna gives devotees intelligence and therefore we need to take shelter of those devotees that have taken shelter of Krishna. Then we also we become more and more ourselves become devotees of Krishna. So, after those twenty four years in the grhastha ashram, Nimai Pandit took sanyassa. His wife was only 16 years old. She was daily chanting, she was chanting her rounds and after she finished one round, she would take a grain of rice and put it in a bowl and as she would chant another round, that’s finished another grain on rice and as many rounds as she chanted that’s how many grains of rice she would eat for that day! She was probably, you would say she was on the skinny side right?! (crowd laughter!) By the mercy of the Lord she wasn’t! Krishna also maintains His devotees.
Because devotees are not just maintaining on rice they also maintain on prema and their love for Krishna, and Krishna simply by His mercy also maintains,…through somehow or other she was maintained. She was so transcendental. Her spiritual life was not like, and now I’m only going to eat a few grains of rice today (crowd laughter!) because I’m very austere devotee, we are fasting and we are taking great pleasure in fasting, only dried rice in very small quantities, no thank you, no dal with my rice. Is it, is it dry enough? Take this rice back it’s too wet, not exactly like that rather, these, these kind of devotees are so absorbed in love of God. These bodily things are …. they are not in the forefront of their mind.
This is what happens gradually. That, it is said that if one has a million Euros, then one stops worrying about 5 Euro problems, if you have, then 5 Euro problem is not so much of a big thing any more. In our present economy of course 5 Euros means a lot right? But if we have millions right? Then what’s 5 Euros? In the same way when we have Krishna and when we have deep love for Krishna……………. who is attracted for love for the material things? What does it mean love for money? Love for football? Love for, you know, anything in this material world…..it has no more meaning! It is all, all gone. But because we have forgotten Krishna, therefore all these things became very big.
(HH KKS 31/07/2005)