(Srila Prabhupada with his original Bhagavatams, Radha Damodar courtyard, 1965)
"Here in this material world, everyone is trying to possess more— more wealth, more education, more beauty, more family prestige, aristocracy. This is materialism. And spiritualism means just the opposite. Therefore people are not attracted to spiritualism. I have told you that I was thinking when I was dreaming that 'Guru Mahārāja is asking me to come out,' and I was going... Did I say this story? Yes. So I was afraid: 'Oh, I have to give up my family. And I become... I have to become sannyāsī? And I have to go behind my Guru Mahārāja? No, no, it is horrible.' I was thinking. But he forced me to it. He is so kind that he forced me, somehow or other. That is mercy. I can understand now that how much merciful was my Guru Mahārāja that he forced me to take this life.
So therefore it was enquired by Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja... There is a verse in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that... This question was raised by Parīkṣit Mahārāja to Śukadeva Gosvāmī. So 'Your Honor, we see just the opposite thing, that one who is devotee of Lord Viṣṇu, the wife..., the husband of the goddess of fortune, they become gradually poorer.' Because a Vaiṣṇava, generally, they remain humble and poor, brāhmaṇa also. 'Whereas the worshiper of Lord Śiva...' Lord Śiva means..., at least, he voluntarily accepts all poverty. His wife is Durgā-devī, so powerful. Sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktir ekā (Bs. 5.44). She can make a new universe, she is so powerful. But this couple, Lord Śiva and Pārvatī, they have no house even to live. They live under the tree—so poor, no residential house even. 'So when one becomes devotee of Lord Śiva, he gets material opulence. He becomes rich. He gets good wife. He gets all material opulences. And when one becomes the devotee of Viṣṇu, the husband of goddess of fortune, he becomes poor. Why this contradiction? This is contradiction. The worshiper of the Lord of goddess of fortune is becoming poorer, and the worshiper of the vagabond, who has no house even, lives underneath a bael tree—that is also not very good—and his devotee becomes so opulent materially. So why this difference?' These are statement. I have stated several times.
So Śukadeva Gosvāmī said to Parīkṣit that 'This very question was raised by your grandfather, Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, to Lord Kṛṣṇa, and what He replied I'll say.' So in that connection he gave quotation of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa said to Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira... Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, by hint, asked Kṛṣṇa that 'We are Your friend, and why we are put into such tribulations that we have lost our kingdom? We are now living in the forest. Our wife is insulted. Why?' So the reply was that yasyāham anugṛhṇāmi hariṣye tad-dhanaṁ śanaiḥ (SB 10.88.8). Means... Kṛṣṇa said that 'When I make one especially favored, then I take away all his riches to make him niṣkiñcana.' Niṣkiñcana means one becomes almost poverty-stricken. Nobody cares for him. Then he become fully surrendered to Kṛṣṇa."
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, Mayapur, October 6, 1974)
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