Verse 2.9.241

Bengali text, Devanagari and Unicode transliteration of verse 2.9.241:

বিষয-মদান্ধ সব কিছুই না জানে বিদ্যা-মদে, ধন-মদে বৈষ্ণব না চিনে ॥ ২৪১ ॥

विषय-मदान्ध सब किछुइ ना जाने विद्या-मदे, धन-मदे वैष्णव ना चिने ॥ २४१ ॥

viṣaya-madāndha saba kichui nā jāne vidyā-made, dhana-made vaiṣṇava nā cine || 241 ||

visaya-madandha saba kichui na jane vidya-made, dhana-made vaisnava na cine (241)

English translation:

(241) People blinded with pride over material enjoyment do not know anything. They cannot recognize a Vaiṣṇava due to pride born of education and wealth.

Commentary: Gauḍīya-bhāṣya by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura:

Through material knowledge one cannot understand the teachings of the Vedas. Those who employ the four Vedas—Ṛg, Sāma, Yajur, and Atharva—the literatures in pursuance of the Vedas, the Āyur-veda, the Dhanur-veda, and the six corollaries headed by śikṣā in the pursuit of their worldly enjoyment are certainly partial to the cultivation of material knowledge under the shelter of ajña-rūḍhi, the conventional meaning of words according to unenlightened persons. And those who as servants of spiritual knowledge are freed from the clutches of material knowledge and who follow vidvad-rūḍhi, they are not covered by the pride of knowledge. People whose hearts are full of anxieties for achieving mystic perfections like aṇimā are like paupers who are proud of their pennies.

One can achieve sensual happiness in exchange of wealth, but the senses are temporary and unable to fully reciprocate. That is why Vaiṣṇavas who are engaged in devotional service do not become blinded with pride due to education, wealth, beauty, fame, and good birth and do not engage in the search for material sense gratification. But those conditioned souls who are misguided, unfortunate, poverty-stricken, harassed by the three modes of nature, whose hearts are disturbed by māyā, who proudly identify themselves with material designations, and who are blinded by the pride of material possessions cannot understand the exalted glories of the Vaiṣṇavas. Such people think that since the devotees of Viṣṇu are not blinded like themselves by pride based on material objects, they are foolish. Since they think in this way, they do not respect Vaiṣṇavas but rather consider them inferior. Although there is no possibility of fault in their pure spiritual propensities, since they are intoxicated by the pride of material designations and ignorance, they are full of faults. Actually those pathetic persons have no fault, the only fault is that their intelligence is impure.