Without spiritual strength through Nityānanda's mercy, material anxiety is inevitable; Krishna consciousness brings fearless peace.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Prabhupāda: So today, the appearance day of Nityānanda Prabhu. Nityānanda Prabhu is Baladeva, Baladeva-tattva. vrajendra-nandana yei, śacī-suta haila sei, balarāma haila nitāi "Who was formerly the son of Nanda Mahārāja, He has appeared as the son of Śacīdevi." Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mother's name was Śacīdevi. So Kṛṣṇa... Kṛṣṇa is Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and Balarāma is Nityānanda Prabhu.
Now, vrajendra-nandana yei, śacī-suta haila sei, balarāma haila nitāi So Balarāma... In the Vedic literature it is said, nāyam ātmā bala-hinena labhyaḥ, na bahunā śrutena. So bala means strength. Sometimes some rascal philosophers, they take it that bala means bodily strength.
They propagate this philosophy that "Unless you are bodily stout and strong, you cannot achieve spiritual salvation. You must be very strong and stout and eat meat and fight, and then you'll get next spiritual birth." No. This bala, this strength, is different. This is spiritual strength. The difficulty of the present situation is that actually we are moving on account of spiritual strength, but they have no information of the spiritual strength.
They are thinking of material strength. That is expressed here that, ahaṅkāre matta hoiyā, nitāi-pada pāsariyā, asatyere satya kori māni This is due to ahaṅkāra. Ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate [Bg 3.27]. Those who are vimūḍha, especially rascal...
Mūḍha means rascal, and vi means viśeṣa, viśeṣanam, "particularly." Ahankara-vimudhātmā. The same thing which is spoken in the Bhagavad-gītā, Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says the same thing in a plain Bengali language: ahaṅkāre matta haiyā, nitāi-pada... By the spell of māyā, ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate [Bg 3.27], they are thinking that "We are independent. We can do whatever we like." This is called ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā. Under false pretext, false prestige, everyone is thinking that "We are independent.
We can find out the solution of the problems of life by material adjustment," so on, so on. So that is our material disease. Ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā. Bewildered, they do not understand that the real strength is spiritual strength.
We see daily, see daily that a very strong man, very powerful man, very good brain, very good scientist... So where is the strength? The strength is ātmā. As soon as the ātmā, or the soul, goes out of this body, so intelligent, so strong and so many things, but he is nothing.