Gita 16.08 From atheism to hedonism is a natural slide

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
thank you here when Krishna speaks he is describing the mindset of the ungodly previously he has described their activities that they are unclean they are impure now he is taking that a step forward and he is going towards internals our actions arise from our conceptions so the previous verse ended with the word अशौचम् ना पिछाचारो न सत्यम् तेशु विद्यते that it’s interesting Krishna doesn’t say they don’t speak the truth Krishna says truth is not found in them it’s a much truth does not exist in them विद्यते विद्यते is a much more fundamental word than something like अब्रवीत speak so there is the foundation of truth in terms of a proper understanding of what needs to be done and what should not be done that foundation of truth itself is absent in them so that was अशौचम् ना पिछाचारो न सत्यम् तेशु विद्यते and now Krishna begins this verse by अशौचम् ना पिछाचारो न सत्यम् अपरतिष्ठम् ते that you cannot expect truth from them not only they say that so now it is what is the truth that is absent in them that truth which is absent is even the conception that there is any truth at all in today’s world we have the dictatorship of relativism where everybody claims that whatever feels good to them whatever makes sense to them that is their reality there are no there is no ultimate truth there is no ultimate reality but the idea of the idea of relativizing all morality falls flat on its face because all morality just can’t be relativized after all we do consider certain actions to be wrong universally child sexual abuse is considered wrong grievously wrong so what makes something wrong we have to have some objective basis for deciding that and yes different people may have different conceptions of morality different countries may have different cultures may have different laws and you know variation does not justify relativization and absolute does absoluteness does not necessitate harm uniformity absoluteness in principle does not necessitate universal universality or uniformity in application and variety in application does not necessitate relativity in principle we can have for example 3-5 as being told impossible to a starting math student and 3-5 as a basic mathematical calculation for advanced mathematics student so this is a variety in application what is told as possible and not possible varies from level but that does not mean that there is harmony there is total relativity and this dictatorship or relativism actually is a license for wholesale corruption of society and the rejection of all values there has to be a foundation a building may be structured whichever way it wants to be we can have all kinds of odd shapes in its superstructure but we can’t have any and every odd shape in its foundation the it is only the foundation has to be designed in a particular way by there doesn’t have to be necessarily the same foundation for all buildings but there has to be a purpose which is common which needs to be served by the foundation and that purpose is that we actually the foundation we actually ensure that the foundation is able to sustain the superstructure so similarly the world has to have a foundation otherwise it would just not exist God is not God’s existence is not a possibility it is a precondition for the existence of anything else that is a feature of the very definition of God in 10.39 Krishna says that nothing would exist without Him when we come to the idea of the foundation of God foundation of existence then eventually we come to God God can be conceived as a particular cultural image different cultural traditions may have different conceptions of how God looks but beyond such relative conceptions is the reality that God is an absolute is a is a real is the reality of God that is the conceptions may vary but there is a reality beyond the conceptions and it is that reality which we aspire to attain it is that reality which we seek to connect with it is that reality on which we are meant to base our life and when that reality is not accepted when that reality is rejected then what happens we have to accept something as the reality for functioning in our life and functionally Kama Kama can refer to sex and sexual gratification or it can refer generally to self-centered desire all of it is that becomes the purpose of life Kama what purpose can there be to life apart from Kama apart from gratifying one’s senses so if one doesn’t work to gratify one’s senses then what does one do one craves and becomes a slave so we accept the pleasures of this world the sensual pleasures that are glamorized by the world as the reality and we keep chasing after them without considering contemplating their ultimate unreality they are just temporary they are going to be lost that nothing in this world is going to persevere and those who do not accept the almighty for them their senses become almighty and then they they don’t want to become servants of the lord then they become slaves because of their senses so the degeneration from atheism to materialism and eventually hedonism is what is being outlined in this verse if we consider contemporary history we will see that much of this is seen we have had thinkers like Fred Ignatius saying that god is dead and then we have had about half a century after that a few decades after that we have thinkers like Sigmund Freud saying that sex is people’s defining reality so from aneeshwaram tukimanyat kaamahitukam is is just a logical fallout not just logical but it’s an inevitable fallout we are all driven by our desires and most of our desires are our lower desires so we are driven by our lower desires and unless there is some understanding of a higher regulating principle in the world without that understanding we will simply be driven by our lower desires and gratifying those desires we will conceive that as life’s ultimate purpose which is what happens to the demoniac as is described