Morality may be relativized but the consequences of immoral indulgence can’t be relativized Gita 03.17

Transcript

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thank you relativization of morality does not relativize relativize the consequences of immorality we live amidst a culture of permissiveness where what was traditionally considered moral or immoral that is now increasingly questioned thus for example marriage which is widely understood to be the foundation of a stable society that is now increasingly questioned and critiqued so much so that sociologists have written books such as war against the family wherein they talk about how the socio-cultural ethos as well as the corporate controlled media work towards making family integration more and more difficult and family integrity less and less sustainable and integration are related to the extent there is integration towards the husband and wife they are well connected to that extent for both of them it is easier to live with integrity they are less likely to fall pro to fall prey to the immoral temptations for extramarital affairs that are otherwise constantly going to tempt people so when there is this derision or at least minimization of family values where relationships are increasingly legitimized where people make it a normal thing to have one night stands and hookups then they may say that this is how the culture is and who are you telling me what is right and what is wrong if it feels right to me I will do it still relativization of morality does not relativize the consequences of immorality so for example so when there is not adequate integration then there is fragmentation the mind gets us alone and then it gets us you have to understand that we are all very vulnerable to the way in which the mind can distort our world view the mind can make us believe that we are actually doing nothing wrong or at least not anything seriously wrong while actually we are being tossed and buffeted down into the deepest ditches of degradation and people get caught in the grip of sensual desires what all can they do sometimes people spend hours and hours just surfing stuff on the net looking for some sensually titillating image and it becomes almost like a daily compulsion for some people and if we compare if we compile or compute cumulatively the amount of time they spend on these things it can be astronomical even if somebody spends an hour or two daily then in a year they are spending almost 300 to 600 hours and quite often you know when we stop working our desires start working overtime when we have some job to do at that time the compulsion of the job prevents us from getting too carried away by our desires no matter how much is the craving I have to get this done this is my job that ensures that we don’t waste too much time but when we are not working say on weekends especially if people are alone or worse if they are with other people who too have nothing higher to do in their lives then individually or collectively they all waste colossal amounts of time they just let their time be prittered in crazy things in things which just don’t really count much in the long run they end up wasting their time in seeking this, enjoying this and sometimes the mind can work in so crazy a way that we lose far more of our time than what we normally wish to lose or that we normally think we are losing because at the back of our mind there is the desire that at the back of the mind there is a desire that I don’t want to fall prey to this or I just want to do this the mental tug of war takes so much time that tug of war the mental energy that it consumes could be used so much for constructive work sometimes when people get compulsively hooked they may in order to fulfill their desires they try to find some partner to hook up with or they go to a brothel whatever it is all these things take time they take money they take most of all mental energy and yes ultimately what does one get at the end of it just a few moments of pleasure after the capacity of the senses to enjoy is exhausted even the most resourceful person can’t do much after that once it’s over it’s over once something is once a particular indulgence has ended then it’s more or less the end of the body’s capacity is ended and then after that one again goes through through again craving again seeking some pleasure again wasting time and in this way people get compulsively trapped so if we do not wish to be trapped like this then we need to be cautious Krishna says those who live for the pleasure of the senses in 3.17 he states that such people waste their lives their lives are filled with sin they live in vain that which goes waste everyone of us can actually make some contribution we can make some difference we can actually if we put our best foot forward or at least a decent foot forward then we can grow in our life we can move forward in doing constructive things we can move forward in enriching ourselves with devotion in enriching ourselves by through the satisfaction of having made some contributions today sensual desire runs so wild so rampant that leave alone stealing people’s spiritual sense it steals away even their material sense that means that not only do people use their capacity for spiritual growth using their some higher intelligence but they lose even their capacity for material stability or material growth because they find that their desires are so crazy that they cannot do their jobs properly they cannot do their family responsibilities properly and thus even if we don’t consider the karmic consequences of indulgence and those consequences are also serious and they are going to hit us in due course but even if we don’t consider the karmic consequences still the consequences in terms of what happens to us the consequences in terms of how we become imprisoned by our desires and how we are robbed of our ability to do anything constructive, materially or spiritually that itself is sobering and thus by recognizing that even if we live in a world of a world that has relativized morality still the consequences of immorality have not been relativized they are still there even if there is less opprobrium or shame that is socially hurled upon people who pander indiscriminately to their desires and even if people’s own sense of conscience has been so numbed that they don’t feel guilt still the very pulling by the desires, the bondage that comes by the desires which prevents us from doing anything worthwhile, which just drags us here and there, almost like a slave and gives us very little pleasure in return, that binding consequence is inescapable and by recognizing that this inescapable consequence is inevitable if we come under the clutches of the desires we can guard ourselves using our intelligence using our spiritual knowledge, using our spiritual practices to attract the mercy of the lord to keep ourselves engaged in him through inner remembrance and through outer service we can get all these can protect us but we should feel the need for protection and so devotion can offer us protection but it is often philosophy that helps us recognize our need for protection and this combination of philosophical study and devotional service we can protect ourselves even amidst this dangerous material world in this dark phase of Kali