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False Pride

Śrīla Bhakti Vinod Ṭhākur vividly illustrates the delusion of attachment to the material body.

The following song is from Śrī Kalyāṇa-kalpa-taru (1.11).

rūpera gaurava kena bhāi ?
anitya e kalevarakabhu nāhi sthiratara
śamana āile kichhu nāi
e aṅga śītala habeā̐khi spanda-hīna rabe
chitāra āgune habe chhāi [1]

O brother! Why are you proud of your body? The body is temporary. It never lasts forever. When Death arrives, the body is nothing. It becomes cold, its eyes become motionless, and it is reduced to ashes in a funeral pyre.

ye mukha-saundarya heradarpaṇete nirantara
śva-śivāra ha-ibe bhojana
ye vastre ādara kara’yebā ābharaṇa para’
kothā saba rahibe takhana ? [2]

This body, whose face and beauty you constantly look at in the mirror, will become food for dogs and jackals. Where will you keep the garments you adorn this body with and the ornaments you decorate it with then?

dārā suta bandhu sabeśmaśāne tomāre labe
dagdha kari’ gṛhete āsibe
tumi kā’ra ke tomāraebe bujhi’ dekha sāra
deha-nāśa avaśya ghaṭibe [3]

Your wife, children, and friends will take you to the crematorium, burn you, and then return home. To whom do you belong? Who belongs to you? Now understand  this and see the truth. The body will certainly be destroyed.

sunitya-sambala chāohari-guṇa sadā gāo
hari-nāma japaha sadāi
kutarka chhāḍiyā manakara kṛṣṇa ārādhana
vinodera āśraya tāhāi [4]

You should desire true, eternal fortune, constantly sing the Lord’s glories, and always chant the Lord’s Name. O mind! Give up your misconceptions and worship Kṛṣṇa. He is Vinod’s sole shelter.

Related verses

yeṣāṁ sa eṣa bhagavān dayayed anantaḥ
sarvātmanāśrita-pado yadi nirvyalīkam
te dustarām atitaranti cha deva-māyāṁ
naiṣāṁ mamāham iti dhīḥ śva‑śṛgāla-bhakṣye
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 2.7.42)

‘If those whom the Lord blesses take shelter of His feet in all respects without duplicity, then they transcend the Lord’s insurmountable māyā. Such souls have no conception of a jackal or dog’s food (the body) to be ‘me’ or ‘mine’.

kim etair ātmanas tuchchhaiḥ saha dehena naśvaraiḥ
anarthair artha-saṅkāśair nityānanda-rasodadheḥ
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 7.7.45)
[Prahlād Mahārāj instructs his classmates:] “What is the use of all of these insignificant things (children, wives, residences, wealth, treasuries, animals, ministers, servants, relatives, and so on), which are perishable like the body and only apparently valuable, to a soul immersed in the ocean of eternal, ecstatic rasa?”

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