Once a silly bumblebee flew up to a clear glass jar of honey. “Wonderful!” he exclaimed to himself. “All that honey– now I shall enjoy it.”

Again and again the bee licked the glass, but tasted not a drop of honey. But so much was he in the illusion of being the enjoyer that he finally alighted upon the top of the jar and proclaimed to the other bees buzzing around, “This honey is incomparably delicious!”

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Similarly, materialistic persons sometimes try to become the enjoyers of Krsna-bhakti. They chant and dance with great vigor and recite the poems of Candidas and Vidyapati with showy emotions. But the true taste of pure devotion remains unknown to them. They remain captivated by lust for physical gratification.

Another explanation of this example is that it shows the foolishness of the enemies of Vaisnavism. Ravana, the enemy of Rama, tried to capture Sita, but all he got was an illusiory shadow of Sita.

There was a brahmana named Kalapahadh who converted to Islam; he was a famous breaker of temples and destroyer of Deities. Just as the bee thought that by tasting the glass he had tasted the honey, so this person thought that by breaking the Deity he had broken the God of the Hindus. But this can be compared to the tearing up of a map of India–only a fool thinks, “Now India is finished!”