Sharanagati

In certain cases devotees are not ready to call money “money”, they call money “lakshmi”. They call that this is “fortune”. Many times we think that money is blessings. Money is our god. We collect it, we keep it in our hearts, we worship it in so many ways. But “lakshmi” is a good expression, because Lakshmi’s nature is chanchala. “Chanchala” means “not staying in one place”. Coming and going, isn’t it? I think we all know this feature of Lakshmi Devi – sometimes coming, but more times going. So people are very much ready to serve Lakshmi Devi, to have her company. But do not forget, there is only one permanent place for Lakshmi Devi – this is the lotus feet of Lord Vishnu. She is giving a massage there. So without the Lord, you cannot enjoy the company of the energy. Because Lakshmi is an energy of Krishna, so you cannot enjoy the energy without the Lord. And we think that we are intelligent: “All right! I will worship the Lord, Vishnu; then I will enjoy the energy – Lakshmi.” Bad luck, my dears! Because Lakshmi Devi, you know, she has this woman nature – she is jealous. If somebody is approaching her Lord and taking her Lord’s attention, she becomes jealous. She will not stay, she will not go to that person, but she will withdraw: “No, these bramins, these vaishnavas compete with me!? I do not go to them!” Therefore usually vaishnavas are poor. Lakshmi Devi is not visiting them often.

Some devotees might think: “O, my devotion is all right, because Lakshmi is coming, finances are all right.” Once I heard that Shrila Bhakti Promod Puri Maharaj mentioned in this respect, that if somebody thought: “My mission, or my devotional life is going nice because we have enough resources, blessings are coming as we have money” – so one opinion wants to connect finances with divine blessings – but then Puri Maharaj said: “This is only karmic reactions coming to them.” This is the vision of a pure vaishnava. We cannot buy Krishna. We cannot buy guru. Still we have to treat this energy nice. As sunshine, and air, and water are coming free – almost free – this support from God, this success also comes ultimately from the divine source. And therefore we should treat this energy also nice. As we should not misuse any other energy of God coming to us, we should not misuse this resource either.