Donate your money or waste it.
The result of devotional service.
Donate your money or waste it.
The fact of life is that money comes in one hand and soon after it leaves from the other. Money does not stay with us for long. So you have a choice of either wasting it on material possessions or spend it wisely in the service of Lord Krishna.
It is important to realize that everything, including your money, belongs to Lord Krishna. You are just a caretaker for a very short time. You can spend it in the service of Lord Krishna by donating to his temples or devotees who are engaged in his service. Lord Krishna says:
“One who performs his duty without attachment, surrendering the results unto the supreme God, is not affected by sinful action, as the lotus leaf is untouched by water.” (Bhagavad-Gita 5.10)
Here Lord Krishna recommends that one should work for him. This means that we should offer the results of our sacrifice (job) to him (some of it at least). If we just enjoy the fruits of our sacrifice (job) results by ourselves, we are living in sin.
When should you donate?
Well, whenever you receive the fruits (Earnings) of your sacrifices (job), you should offer the results (money) to Lord Krishna.
Are you going to take your Material Possessions with you?
At death you will leave behind everything you own, the money in the bank, the nice cars, the big houses, the gold jewelry and so on, and you will get another body according to your work. Every tiny bit of service to Lord Krishna will count towards determining your next body (human or animal) and it’s conditions of life (rich, poor, healthy, diseased etc.). If you have spent your life in serving Lord Krishna, then at the end you will go back to him. If you have not served him, then you will have to go through all the pains of life again, again, again, and again until in one of your future incarnations you finally realize that life is meant only for serving Lord Krishna and not for self-gratification. A materialist life is a wasted life. You then engage in the service of Lord Krishna and at death you are liberated from material existence.
“The steadily devoted soul attains unadulterated peace because he offers the result of all activities to me; whereas a person who is not in union with the divine, who is greedy for the fruits of his labor, becomes entangled.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-Gita 5.12)
Donating money gives one the opportunity to become free from material attachments and thus material life. Those who do not donate simply waste the money on material possessions and become attached to a materialist life and become bonded to material life for many lifetimes.
It is not that you should give up everything in the service of Lord Krishna and live in a hut. One can live in a Taj Mahal and drive a Mercedes, and not live in sin. Provided the same was given to Lord Krishna too, via donations of equal value to his temples or devotees engaged in his service.
A foolish person works hard all his life, accumulating a big bank balance, properties, jewelry, fast cars, and other material possessions. Then he quits his body to take another, leaving behind everything. Because he spent the money on himself and did not offer the results of his work (money) to God, he lived in sin and his next body will be that of a beggar.
A wise person spends his hard earned money on himself and gives a portion of it in charity. Thus when he quits his body, he will be able to enjoy his wealth in his next body too. He will be born in a rich family.
Do you ever wonder why some are born in rich families and some in poor families? Well now you know why.
The result of devotional service.
The result of devotional service, offering charity, eating meat and lust.
“The living entity in the material world carries his different conceptions of life from one body to another as the air carries aromas.” (Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita 15.8)
“As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change.”(Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita 2.13
“When one dies in the mode of passion, he takes birth among those engaged in fruitive activities; and when he dies in the mode of ignorance, he takes birth in the animal kingdom.”(Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita 14.15)
“When one dies in the mode of goodness, he attains to the pure higher planets.”(Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita 14.14)
Top section: On the left, a boy is dancing before the Deities of Radha-Krsna. The result of such devotional consciousness is shown on the right, where he is dancing with Krishna as a playmate in the Lord’s spiritual abode. Second section: On the left a man is offering charity; on the right he has taken the body of a demigod and is enjoying heavenly delights. Third section: A man is eating meat and other abominable foods; in his next life he is seen in the body of a hog who eats anything and everything. Bottom section: A man is approaching a women with lust. This bestial consciousness carries him to a dog’s body.
The individual soul transfers from one body to another, the present body and activities are the background of the next body. At the time of death, the consciousness our body has created during this life will carry us on to the next type of body.
If the consciousness we have created in this life is like that of a cat or dog, the next body will be that of a cat or dog.
If our consciousness is godly, the soul will be transferred to Krsnaloka in the spiritual world and will associate with Lord Krishna. (Reference ‘Courtesy of Bhagavad-Gita.ws’)
Hare Krishna
