Srila Prabhupada Says – [Regarding how material life is pleasing one’s senses and spiritual life means pleasing Krishna]
Bob: Let me ask you about something else; then maybe I'll come back to this. I find that I think of myself too much, and this way I can't think of God so much. I think of myself in too many places. How can I forget about myself so I can concentrate on other, more important things?
Srila Prabhupada: As they [the devotees] have done.
Bob: [Laughs.] You are saying to me that my path—I think what you're saying is that my path to purity is to become a devotee.
Srila Prabhupada: Do you hesitate?
Bob: Well, I...
Srila Prabhupada: Is it very difficult to become a devotee?
Bob: For myself—it is. I—I don't feel so much the desire. First the devotees tell me that they have given up material life. These four regulative principles, they have explained to me, mean giving up material life, and that I see. And in place of this they have...
Srila Prabhupada: What do you mean by material life? [Bob is silent] I am sitting on this bed. Is it material or spiritual?
Bob: Material.
Srila Prabhupada: Then how have we given up material life?
Bob: I think how I interpreted it was "a desire for our material gains..."
Srila Prabhupada: What is material?
Bob: Working towards material gains and not giving up all materials.
Srila Prabhupada: Material life means—when you desire to gratify your senses, that is material life. And when you desire to serve God, that is spiritual life. That is the difference between material life and spiritual life. Now we are trying to serve our senses. But instead of serving the senses, when we serve God, that is spiritual life. What is the difference between our activities and others, activities? We are using everything—table, chair, bed, tape recorder, typewriter—so what is the difference? The difference is that we are using everything for Krishna.
Bob: The devotees have said that the sensual pleasures they have given up are replaced with spiritual kinds of pleasures, but—see—I haven't felt this.
Srila Prabhupada: Spiritual pleasures come when you desire to please Krishna. That is spiritual pleasure. For example, a mother is more pleased by feeding her son. She's not eating, but when she sees that her son is eating very nicely, then she becomes pleased.
Bob: Hmm-m. Spiritual pleasure, then, is pleasing God.
Srila Prabhupada: Spiritual pleasure means the pleasure of Krishna.
Bob: Pleasing Krishna.
Srila Prabhupada: Yes. Material pleasure means the Pleasure of the senses. That's all. This is the difference. When you simply try to please Krishna, that is spiritual pleasure.
Bob: I had viewed this as—my thought of pleasing God was to—
Srila Prabhupada: Don't manufacture your ways of Pleasing God. Don't manufacture. Suppose I want to please you. Then I shall ask you, "How can I serve you?" Not that I manufacture some service. That is not pleasing. Suppose I want a glass of water. If you concoct the idea, "Swamiji will be more pleased if I give him a glass of milk, hot milk," that will not please me. If you want to please me, then you should ask me, "How can I Please you?" And if you do what I order, that will please me.
Bob: And pleasing Krishna, then, is being a devotee of Krishna.
Srila Prabhupada: A devotee is one who is always pleasing Krishna. He has no other business. That is a devotee.
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