Photo: Irresistibly attracted by the fragrance of the lotus, the bee will die within it.
"From the Śānti-Śataka of Bilvamaṅgala Ṭhākura:
ajānan dāhārtiṁ viśati śalabho dīpa-dahanaṁ
na mīno’pi jñātvā vṛta-baḍiśam aśnāti piśitam |
vijānanto’py etān vayam iha vipaj-jāla-jaṭilān
na muñcāmaḥ kāmān ahaha gahano moha-mahimā ||
“A moth knows nothing of the pain of burning to death, so he enters the flame of a lamp. A fish also is unaware that his death waits inside the piece of meat he is eating, so he swallows the hook. But we know that the objects of our enjoyment are filled with great troubles. If we engage in sense enjoyment, we must wander for countless births through the miserable wombs of sub-human creatures and suffer the torments of hell. Still, we don’t give them up. Alas, how frightening is the power of illusion!”
When a deer hears the sound of a hunter’s flute, he becomes fascinated by it and is eager to hear more. Being ignorant, he runs toward the hunter and falls to his death in the hunter’s trap.
Those who catch elephants take one of their domesticated elephants to the forest. When a forest elephant desires to touch the domesticated one, he goes close to her and is captured, which is like being dead.
When a moth sees the beauty of a flame, she gets excited and flies into it.
Enticed by the fragrance of a lotus, the bee plunges inside the lotus bud. At sunset, the petals close. When the lotus blooms the next morning the bee is seen to be dead.
Allured by the flavor of a piece of food on a fish-hook, the fish swallows it and falls immediately into the mouth of death.
Each of these creatures destroys its life by indulging in one particular sense object.
On the other hand, humans simultaneously enjoy all five sense objects to the fullest extent. Is there any doubt they will die from such poison?
... Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya says, biṣaya garalamaya, tāte māna sukhacaya. Even though sense enjoyment is painful to a sādhaka, it is actually thought to be pleasurable by a person attached to sense objects.
Poison is present within poisonous serpents, but they feel no distress from it. Rather, the poison is a source of pleasure and nourishment; if it were not present, they would be powerless and would suffer. But when they bite other creatures, the creatures experience the burning pain of the serpents’ venom.
In the same way, people attached to sense enjoyment experience no suffering from their poison; rather, they would be miserable without it.
... As a result of the association of great souls and the receipt of their mercy, a taste of Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s mādhurya can be experienced even in the hearts and minds of ordinary people and they will lose interest in anything other than Kṛṣṇa.
Therefore, associating with the servants of Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the best means to become free from the desire for mundane sense objects and to taste the transcendent rasa of Govinda’s form, taste and other things related to Him."
(Rādhā Kuṇḍa Mahānta Paṇḍita Śrī Ananta Dāsa Bābājī Mahārāja)
