Sources: Srimad Bhagavatam, Manu Samhita
Life is a Gamble
The word gambling comes from the French hasard, or Arabic az zahr – dice or a game of dice. Excessive involvement in any material activity can be compared to gambling.
What is Gambling?
In Krishna consciousness, gambling refers to any game for money or any game in which one can seek to profit from one's opponents. Gambling destroys righteousness.
🎰 Forms of Gambling
🎲
Roulette, dice
🃏
Cards, domino
🎰
Casinos, slot machines
🎫
Lotteries
Consequences of Gambling
In the US alone, up to $24 billion USD is lost annually in legal gambling alone. Many people, having lost hope, end their lives in suicide.
Gambling and Karma
All gambling is based on the principle that you will lose. What you won is someone's lost money and someone's pain. You will have to work off this pain.
"Chanakya Pandit said that a person renounces certainty for the sake of uncertainty and thus loses them both."
Maharaja Parikshit and Kali
Maharaja Parikshit allowed the personality of Kali to live in those places, where gambling is played, where prostitution prevails and slaughterhouses operate, where people want to intoxicate themselves.
Intoxicants
Intoxicants are all substances that are unnecessary for the organism and cause a stimulating or depressing effect. Intoxicants strengthen the influence of the mode of ignorance.
Consequences
- • Loss of health
- • Weakening of mental functions
- • Inability to concentrate
- • Premature aging
Influence of the Modes
- • Goodness: enjoys communication
- • Passion: enjoys the senses
- • Ignorance: enjoys fantasies
🚫 Categories of Intoxicants
Alcohol
💊
Drugs
Tobacco
Coffee, tea
Alcohol
8 mln.
Registered alcoholics in the US
75%
Crimes due to alcohol
60%
Divorces due to alcohol
🍺 About "Moderate" Drinking
The organism produces the necessary amount of alcohol itself. Even a small amount of alcohol consumed regularly "for health" develops addiction. All alcoholics once drank moderately.
Coffee
Stimulating substances like coffee create an illusion for the organism that the body is full of energy. Vaishnavas do not drink coffee because it develops dependence on caffeine. Good mood should depend on spiritual practice, not on chemistry.
🧘 Alternatives
The best way to improve well-being is yoga practice, cycling, walks in nature. They promote the mode of goodness and do not cause addiction.
"Spiritual" Gambling
In the Krishna Consciousness movement, gambling cannot be justified even for noble purposes. Money is Lakshmi and it does not like to fall into the hands of frivolous people. Success visits those who work hard.
"If books are distributed, if there is preaching, money, as much as needed will come. But these funds will be Krishna's money. They will not be tainted by gambling." — Srila Prabhupada
Research: Caffeine and Fertility
Francisco Bolumar, Ph.D. (University of Alicante): For women who smoke and drink many caffeinated beverages, fertility decreased by 60%.
Caffeine can interfere with fertility. Studies show that even 300 mg of caffeine per day (3 cups) triples the risk of infertility (Reuters, 1997).
Tobacco and Sports Sponsorship
Paradoxically, sports are often sponsored by tobacco and alcohol manufacturers. In Lithuania, the basketball league (LKL) sponsors have historically included tobacco manufacturers (e.g., "Philip Morris") and the alcohol industry. This creates the illusion that sports and harmful habits are compatible, although according to World Bank data, the health losses caused by cigarettes far exceed the profit from them.
Self-Check Questions
- Explain the illusory nature of gambling.
- Why do people want gambling?
- What are the social consequences of gambling?
- Explain why devotees do not use intoxicants?
- Why do devotees not drink coffee and eat chocolate?
- Can one drink moderately, for health?