Understanding our unprecedented vulnerability to temptation

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
and duty appreciating the necessity of spirituality in a culture of sensuality when we see a situation in the world where there is incessant sensual propaganda wherein people are lured from a hundred even thousand even million directions especially now with television internet and mobiles all being used as channels for broadcasting temptations for fueling desires and that too triggering desires in the most soundly scientifically strategically researched ways by understanding human psychology to know what it is that will trigger people’s desires the most such a situation is extremely dangerous for people’s not just their spirituality but even their morality ultimately all of us have some amount of willpower just as a rock no matter how strong it is can become eroded when repeatedly exposed to temptation to water it can get gradually eroded similarly our determination which may be like rock will get eroded when it is repeatedly exposed to temptations of course unlike a rock which just exists passively our determination our conviction our willpower can also be re-cemented through regular appropriate contemplation through regular appropriate devotional thought and thus we can move towards better appreciation of our present situation both in terms of our danger our vulnerability and our opportunity so let’s first understand more our vulnerability to temptation in our present age temptations have always been present throughout history in fact this world is often considered in the Gita worldview to be an arena of illusion illusion often allures through temptations so of course what do we do when we feel tempted there is really not that much that we can do because we can either move away from that temptation or we can try to move our consciousness away from that temptation if physical movement is not possible in that situation but in today’s world the sheer attack of temptation both in its volume its explicitness in its variety in its repetitiveness all this just chips away relentlessly very remorselessly at the edifice of the human will so for example consider spending people have always had some kind of temptation to spend whatever money they had for whatever they wanted but the sheer opportunities for spending that present themselves now are so great just by clicking a few buttons even if people don’t have any money with them even if they are not carrying any money with them just by clicking a few buttons here or there they can actually do so much they can practically empty their entire bank accounts at times so we need to recognize that we are all in an especially vulnerable situation and this vulnerability is something which we can’t reach away the vulnerability is we could say incredible because it’s just that we as human beings it’s unlikely that any part of recorded history at least not recorded by modern historical terms and not even by in history recorded by Vedic terms has there been the kind of sensual temptation that will enable us to tackle the sheer propaganda that is overwhelming us at present now when the consciousness flows in one direction we need to make it we need to stop that flow and make it flow in the other direction when our consciousness is being dragged by temptation towards indulgence we need to ensure that our consciousness moves in another direction and that movement is something which we will ourselves have to conscientiously work on to the extent we work at self protection to that extent we have some possibility of safety so our vulnerability is far greater if we compare this situation with the war situation if a soldier is going to be attacked from the opposite side from the soldiers who are in front the soldier can be prepared to fight but if the soldiers can attack from a hundred…opposites can attack from a hundred different directions hundred different sides then the soldiers vulnerability increases a lot so like that our vulnerability today is far more than what it has been in the past and so we all need to do whatever it takes to protect ourselves perhaps the thing most important for our protection is our own conviction and our own absorption we all have experienced that if we are engaged and absorbed in something then whatever is circumstantial doesn’t matter so much to us and this applies even to worldly enjoyments for that matter when people go to watch a cricket match in India the crowds are so so much and often the stadiums are not at all comfortable because of crowding, because of heating because of lack of facilities and yet because people are so eager to watch the matches that they are ready to endure all this so this is an example of how circumstantial can be transcended through absorption and if we are working on an important project deadline then that project deadline can also protect us not protect necessarily in a positive sense but we may often have impulses I want to eat this, I want to watch this but if it is a matter of we may lose our job if we don’t meet a particular deadline then we may just forget everything else and just get busy in the work of course this can also happen this kind of absorption can also happen through inspiration if we suddenly get an idea and we find that the project is moving forward very fast as our ideas are flowing then again we may neglect our eating neglect our sleeping and neglect and have no time for any distractions surfing on social, looking at social media, surfing on the net whatever else it may be so for us if we recognize that absorption constructive engagement is something which enables us to resist circumstantial distractions so by that principle we can also try to infuse our entire life not just particular phases of that life our entire life with a higher purpose it is spiritual wisdom that brings about that purpose in our life and to the extent we internalize spiritual wisdom to that extent we will find ourselves becoming calmer becoming more focused becoming more capable of resisting temptations the process of bhakti yoga wherein we infuse our work with a devotional intention is one of the most potent ways by which we can raise our consciousness upwards to the spiritual level and thus we can move towards Krishna we can move towards spiritual purification by which we become more capable of resisting temptations so we rather than focusing on the intention to resist temptation we can focus on the intention to persist in devotion no matter what happens to persist in devotion to intensify our devotion to diversify our devotion so persist in devotion means that whether we feel like it or not we continue the devotion intensify our devotion means that we do it not just mechanically but we do it volitionally we try to bring our emotions bring our intelligence and basically invest our consciousness in whatever we are doing in devotional mood thus increasing our absorption in it and beyond that we can also diversify our devotion that means we can actually understand how devotion works how it is that we all can progress in seeing Krishna in various directions in various dimensions not just in the temple, not just in the holy name but even through our vocations even through our abilities Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita 7.8 I am ability in man so if we see the abilities that we have as gifts from Krishna that too can help us to acquire a more spiritual vision and thereby spiritualize even the activities where we are engaging in our vocation so by recognizing our socio-cultural vulnerability and by recognizing our devotional opportunity we can act with greater alertness and greater productiveness