So there is a story of the prostitute, Laksahira. There was a prostitute whose charges was one lakh of pieces of diamond. It doesn’t matter, a big diamond or small diamond. That was her charges.
So one man was suffering from leprosy and he was being assisted, he was being assisted by his wife, very faithful wife. So still, he was morose. The wife asked the husband, “Why you are morose? I am giving you so much service. You are leper, you cannot move. I can take you… I take you on a basket and carry you. Still, you feel unhappy?” So he admitted, “Yes.” “Oh, what is the cause?” “Now, I want to go to the prostitute, Laksahira.” Just see. He is leper, a poor man, and he is aspiring to go to a prostitute who charges 100,000 of pieces of diamond. So anyway, she was a faithful wife. She wanted to satisfy her husband. Some way or other, she arranged. Then, when the leper was at the house of the prostitute, the prostitute gave him very nice dishes of food but everything in two dishes, everything, one in the golden pot, another in iron pot. So while he was eating, so he inquired the prostitute, “Why you have given me in two pots?”
“Now, because I wanted to know whether you will feel different taste in different pots.” So he said, “No, I don’t find any difference of taste. The soup in the golden pot and the soup in the iron pot, the taste is the same.” “Then why you have come here?” This is foolishness. The whole world is going on like that. They are simply trying to taste the same thing in different pot. That’s all. They are not detestful that “No more, sir. I have tasted enough.” That is not fact. That is called vairagya-vidya, no more tasting: “It is all the same, either I take in this pot or that pot.”
Therefore it is said that sukham aindriyakam, the sense pleasure, it doesn’t matter whether you enjoy as a dog or as a human being or a demigod or as European or American or Indian. The taste is the same. This is very important. You cannot have a better taste. Better taste is only Krishna consciousness. Param dristva nivartate. So if you do not increase your taste for Krishna consciousness, then you will try to taste in this pot and that pot. That is the law. That will be, continue business and continue disease, to taste in this pot and that pot: “It may be very tasteful in this pot, may be tasteful…” The whole world is going on. All these rascals, they go to different countries for tasting sex life. They go to Paris… [break] …kam daitya, sarvatra labhyate daivad yatha duhkham. Just like duhkham. Duhkha means unhappiness. So suppose a millionaire is suffering from typhoid and a poor man is suffering from typhoid. Does mean that the millionaire will have less distress than the poor man? When you have got typhoid fever, either you are rich man or poor man, the sufferings of typhoid fever is the same. It does not mean that “This man is very rich man, he is not suffering from typhoid,” No. As unhappiness is the same in different pot, similarly, the happiness also is the same in different pot. This is knowledge. So why should I waste my time to taste happiness and distress in different pots? The different pots means these different body.
So this is not our business. Our business is to revive our original consciousness, Krishna consciousness. It doesn’t matter in which pot I am at the present moment. Ahaituky apratihata. You can taste Krishna consciousness without any hesitation, without any check, without any hindrance. You can have. Simply you have to see inside to our consciousness and rectify the consciousness.
Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.6.3
by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Vá¹›ndavana, December 4, 1975
