Prabhupada 0896 - When we are Selling Book, that is Krsna Consciousness
730417 - Lecture SB 01.08.25 - Los Angeles
Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya BG 4.9. If you become advanced in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then the result will be, after giving up this body... Kṛṣṇa says, tyaktvā deham, after giving up this body, punar janma naiti, you don't take birth again in this material world. That is wanted. Suppose I am very comfortable at the present moment. My body is kept in a very comfortable position, but there is death, and there is another birth. So after giving up this body, if I get the body of a cat and dog, then what is the meaning of this comfortable position? Because death is sure, and janmāntaṁ tataḥ dehāntaram. Dehāntaram means you have to accept another body. If you do not know what kind of body you are going to get... You can know it. That is stated in the śāstra, that if you have got such and such mentality, you get such and such body. So in a comfortable position, if I keep myself in the dog's mentality, then I am going to get my next life as dog. Then what is the value of this comfortable position? I may be in comfortable position for twenty years, fifty years, or utmost, one hundred years. And after that comfortable position, when I give up this body, if, due to my mentality, I become a cat and dog and mouse, then what is the benefit of this comfortable position?
These people do not know that. They think, especially in this age that: "I am now in comfortable position. I have got enough money. I have got enough estate. I have got enough comforts, enough food. So as soon as the body's finished so I am not going to take birth again. So long I am living, let me enjoy life." This is the modern philosophy, hedonism. But that is not the fact. Kuntī is therefore anxious: apunar bhava-darśanam (|SB 1.8.25. Apunar bhava, not to repeat. If you see always Kṛṣṇa, that is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Kṛṣṇa consciousness means always thinking of Kṛṣṇa. Your consciousness should be absorbed in Kṛṣṇa thought.
Therefore we give different varieties of engagement, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We should not divert our energy. Now when we are selling book, that is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We are selling book. But if we think that the selling book may be diverted into selling jewelry, that is not very good idea. That is not very good idea. Then we become again jeweler. Punar mūṣika bhava. Again become mouse. We should be very much careful. Our Kṛṣṇa consciousness cannot be diverted. Then you are gone to hell. Even there is danger, even there is suffering in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we should tolerate. That is the instruction of... We should welcome such danger. And pray to Kṛṣṇa. What is that prayer? Tat te 'nukampāṁ su-samīkṣamāṇaḥ SB 10.14.8. "My dear Lord, it is Your great mercy that I am put into this dangerous position." That is the viewpoint of devotee. He doesn't take danger as danger. He takes: "It is Kṛṣṇa's mercy." What kind of mercy? Now bhuñjāna evātma-kṛtaṁ vipākam. "Due to my past activities, I was to suffer so much. But You are mitigating that suffering, giving me little suffering."