When waves of desire come suddenly do they have some rational cause?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So when waves of desire come, is there some reasoning because of which those desires come? So basically desires come from two ways.
One is outer perception and the other is inner recollection. That means I as a soul am here and I see some desirable object and then the desire starts coming. That is from outer perception.
And sometimes there is no outer perception, but in the past we have indulged in something and it is inner recollection. Oh that was so nice. I want to go and enjoy that.
So either way the desire may come up. Now to some extent the outer perception is in our control. Of course it is not entirely in our control because what objects we will see in the world is not in our control.
But one thing is seeing, the other is dwelling. I just see something and move on. But if I keep thinking about it that’s what I saw, that’s what I saw.
Krishna says the problem is He doesn’t say He says seeing the objects is not the problem contemplating on the objects is the problem. So to some extent if we know this is the particular but this is the kind of object which will agitate me then I have to be careful. Say for example, the person is a recovering alcoholic and this is their home and this is their office and along the way there is a bar which they have frequented quite often.
Then every time they pass by that bar maybe I should go and drink. Maybe I should go and drink. So then what do they need to do? If it’s a constantly troubling desire and if they really want to avoid it, they may say I’ll take some other way.
Maybe it’s a little longer but I’ll take some other way. Or I’ll make sure that when I’m driving and I’m not looking out maybe I’m hearing something maybe an audio book or whatever I’ll just close that side of the window so that I don’t see, put a curtain over there some perception we just have to shut down. So if we can find out some specific stimulus that is causing the desire we can try as much as possible to cut ourselves off cut that stimulus off from us.
That’s one thing. The other is sometimes it may just come from inner recollection. Now why the inner recollection comes, it’s quite difficult to say.
If there’s a pond and suddenly ripples come in the pond. One reason could be somebody has thrown a stone. Parashila Prabhupada also says sometimes fermentation may happen at the bottom of the pond and because of that some bubbles come up and they ripple.
So if a stone is thrown, that’s like external perception which causes internal agitation. But sometimes it’s recollection comes. It’s like fermentation was happening inside and it came out.
So as far as the recollection is concerned we can’t do much. Now why does that happen? Why does that recollection come? Sometimes we could say that it’s just because of our past karma. Astrology to some extent tells that in certain phases of one’s life, one will be more vulnerable.
Some people say that in this period, don’t purchase anything. Because this time you’ll be too much influenced by desire. So be careful.
So like that. So we can find out sometimes the past karma, sometimes problems come in our life. Similarly, sometimes the past karma, desires may also come in our life.
Problems may come externally, sometimes desires may come internally. So then when they come, what can we do? We need to do two things. Try to fill our mind with the positive.
We can’t not think of something. For example, if I know this phone has fallen in some sticky substance I know if I touch it my hand will become messy. So I can say I will not touch this.
But if I say I will not think of alcohol. But in not thinking of alcohol I thought of alcohol. So we can’t not think of something.
But what we can do is we can have something positive to think about. So if we fill our life with positive activities, purposeful, responsible activities, materially or devotionally attractive activities then even if that recollection gets stimulated it won’t get too much mental room. It will stay there for some time and go away after that.
Because we don’t give it room. So we can’t empty our mind of desires but we can crowd desires out of our mind. Desires can cannot be consciousness cannot be driven out but they can be crowded out.
This fill if I decide I want to create vacuum in this glass I want to remove all the air from this glass. It’s very difficult. But if I just fill the glass with, but my purpose is to remove the air from the glass.
Just fill it with water and the air will go away. So like that when we fill our mind with positive things constructive things then the negative goes away. And not just fill it with positive see when the recollections come what is also important is how much emotion is invested in the recollections.
Sometimes you remember something from childhood I went there I did that it’s fine. Memory comes and goes. There is factual memory and there is emotional memory.
Factual memory, what is the capital of Turkey? There is no emotion invested in it. But if say if I want to say what is the capital of India and that is the place where I stay. There is emotional invested in it.
So our devotional memories they shouldn’t just be factual memories. They also have to be emotional memories. That means within bhakti we have to find we have to create those memories which are emotionally rich.
Sweet interactions with devotees memorable kirtans very insightful classes pilgrimage to the holy places these become emotionally energetic memories and then sensual memories start coming up and they replace I will think about this ok there is some pleasure over there but I have such richer pleasure over here. I will focus on this and that way we can resist those memories. So usually it’s very difficult if we can find the cause it’s good but if we can’t find the cause there is no need to worry too much we can focus on the solution solution is we have to fill our mind with Krishna.