Srila Gurudeva: Sastra has said that if a person dies and is born in the womb of a serpent, hog, or pig, will he enjoy in this species or not? Yes. Why? Because he will be able to enjoy very delicious foods and all the other things that we enjoy in this human body. All these things will also be enjoyed in the bodies of hogs, pigs, and dogs? Is there any difference? No. Actually there is more facility to taste all these things in that birth. So in this human life we should try only to develop our Krsna consciousness because in any birth, as hogs, pigs, dogs, or any birth we can taste all these things more than we could in a human body.
So don’t go towards enjoying all these things. Try to enjoy krsna-bhakti and Krsna’s service. Our whole energy should be given to this. Also for ladies, if a human male can be a brahmacari, why can you not be a brahmacari? If our whole parampara are like brahmacaris, why can you not be brahmacari? Why not? Try to be very strong. Hanuman, Bhisma Pitamaha, Sukadeva Gosvami, Narada Gosvami, and our entire Guru-parampara, Rupa Gosvami, Sanatana Gosvami, Jiva Gosvami, all are like this. All were bona-fide brahmacaris, or if they were not brahmacaris they left their homes and after that, they were more than brahmacari. They entered the renounced order.
And those who were not sannyasi, really they were all more than sannyasi. So, you’ll have to limit your maha-prasadam. Do not eat such delicious preparations. Some days, only eat very little, like Caitanya Mahaprabhu used to take maha-prasadam. He was not over-eating, not taking such tasteful preparations. Anyhow he would take only enough to maintain His life. Try to obey Gurudeva. What does he want? I know that a bona-fide Guru will never tell you, “Go and collect. Don’t chant and remember and don’t read and don’t do all these devotional activities. Only go and make money, make money and give it all to me.”
He will not tell you to do this. So, especially I will not tell you to do this. Money will come or not, no harm. So, you should be like that. I want that you should all be bona-fide and qualified Vaisnavas. If by some good fortune your wives have given you up, oh, you are so lucky. Also if your husband has left you,
oh, very good. Thank Krsna so much for this. You should try to always do bhajana. You can take prasadam, but be careful. If you are taking so much Jagannatha prasadam daily and Govinda prasadam from Jaipura, having a full stomach, eating so many delicious things, oh, these things will not save you.
Caitanya Mahaprabhu has shown us that all the delicious prasadam He would receive, He would give to others. He would distribute it and only used to take very, very simple prasadam. So you should try to follow all these things, always engaging your mind and heart and all your senses in Krsna consciousness.
[Spoken by Srila Gurudeva on February 2nd, 1998, Malaysia, published as part of the Bhakta Bandhav Anthology, Volume 25]