(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 16 October 2014, Sydney, Australia, Srimad Bhagavatam 7.4.43)
Mokṣonmukhī sukṛti (Caitanya Caritamrta Madhya 22.45 Purport) is pious activity that leads to liberation. So we have pious activities like renunciation, austerity and knowledge. These kinds of pious activities liberate us from material entanglement. If one engages a lot in these things, then in the next life, you are sort of easily aloof from so many things – not so entangled, not so attracted. Because of previous piety, because in the last life we have performed these austerities, we have cultivated detachment and we have cultivated knowledge, therefore we see deeper. Knowledge basically means to see deeper than the surface.
Just like, I just mentioned to someone this morning. Whenever your mind is attracted to something, just look for one thing – the price tag! What is the price tag because everything has a price tag!
Like, there is a beauty queen, the most beautiful girl in the world. A fair, beautiful maiden and she loves you. Aww… you son of a gun! You are a lucky fellow, right? But… look at the price tag. If she is the most beautiful girl in the world, she can get a dozen guys and she is going to be quite demanding! An ordinary house will not do. It will have to be a mansion at least. You may have to get a degree and a second job at the same time to work for all that, you son of a gun. You see the point? So when we look at the price tag then it does not look as good as it looked at first sight. So knowledge helps us to look deeper at things. What are the consequences of things? Nothing comes alone. Everything has consequences. Everything!
That is the reason why those in knowledge are attracted to renunciation because they say, “Why bother with all these complications? The enjoyable part is attractive but look at the price we have to pay, all the consequences… No, that is not worth it, so we better forget it.”
Thus, the renunciant is born. Save the headache and the hair… That is why those whose hair has gone grey begin to develop a little more interest in renunciation because they have tried it. They have tried it all and they paid the price. Then they think, “Well, it is okay, no thanks.” So like that, knowledge can come from practical experience in life and knowledge comes from scripture.