Gita 18.31 Confusing between long-term purposes and short-term pleasures characterizes intelligence in passion

Transcript

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thank you Krishna is continuing here his analysis of the components of action in terms of the three modes of material nature and in this particular verse he speaks about action in goodness sorry, he talks about intelligence in the mode of passion the previous verse was about goodness and the next verse will be about intelligence and ignorance hmm so dharma and adharma dharma is the activity that is harmonious that which is in harmony with our nature it is in harmony with it sustains our self existence it keeps us harmonized with the overall nature of reality adharmam cha adharmam cha that activity is just harmonious karyam cha karyam eva cha accordingly what is to be done and what is not to be done ayathavat prajanati ayathavat is as it is ayathavat is not as it is prajanati, one who does not one who does not know things as they are that is buddhi sa partha rajase this ayathavat prajanati not know properly this is a intermediate stage between intelligence and goodness and intelligence and ignorance when intelligence is goodness one understands properly what is to be done and what is not to be done karya karya bhaya bhaya vandham moksham chaya vitti buddhi sa partha sattviki so that is intelligence which understands properly what is to be done and what is not to be done that is intelligence in the mood of goodness and then there is intelligence in ignorance which is adharmam dharmam itiya manyate tamasavrta sarvarthaam viparitaamshya buddhi sa partha tamasinam so when one thinks of adharma to be dharma and in this way one understands sarvarthaam viparitaamshya one understands things in a way that is opposite to the way they actually are so we could say comprehension, incomprehension and inverse comprehension so to understand, to fail to understand and to understand the opposite of what it is if you are at crossroads if you understand this red signal means stop then we will stop because it is a red signal now if we don’t understand this is a red signal I don’t know, then we get confused am I meant to move, am I meant to stop, am I meant to slow down, what am I meant to do you don’t understand but suppose we think red signal means oh the road is clear and I should travel then that is inverse understanding that is understanding which is the opposite of the real understanding so in the mode of ignorance one gets this inverse understanding in the mode of passion one simply fails to understand ayatavad prajanate one does not understand things as they are so what happens in the mode of passion is that we are all driven by our dominant worldly desires we all have desires and as long as we are not yet completely purified we will have material desires but in the mode of passion these worldly desires become dominant they boss us around and the pull of the desires is so overwhelming that it distorts our vision normally if we consider a pull suppose somebody is tied by a rope and say there is an animal which is say a dog is being led by a leash then at that time that dog will find it very difficult to walk forward without if the dog is pulled forcefully by the leash the dog will not be able to move in another direction so desires are like a leash which pull us in a particular direction but the desires themselves are subtle and their pull is also subtle krishna says that a pull is real we are bound by there are hundreds of desires which are like shackles so they are like leashes that will pull us but the way they pull us is by at a subtle level and this subtle level involves sometimes even the distortion of our vision that means when we are driving along a road suppose the road ahead has some traffic and we have to pay attention to that but say on the side of the road there is a poster for a very attractive movie going on and we get captivated by that or say we are driving on a car on a road but along with that we have our phone on which the score of a cricket match or a soccer match is coming up that match is being streamed live and we can see the match also and we are also driving now suppose some sudden development happens in that sports match say in a cricket match a key batsman from our favorite team gets out unexpectedly without scoring much and that can very well mean the disaster for our favorite team so then that will captivate our attention so much will agitate us so much how could this person get out maybe the batsman is not out maybe it was a no ball, maybe they will drop the catch maybe it was a wrong decision our attention will get so consumed by that particular event which we are seeing on the TV on the phone screen that we will get distracted now on one side we know when we are driving we should focus on the driving and not look here there and everywhere but on other side we feel strongly pulled in the direction of the screen and in this way these two forces pulling us in two opposite directions what to do, what not to do that becomes unclear because our desires our attachment to sports distorts our sense of perspective distorts our understanding of priorities Srila Prabhupada states that intelligence means to see things with a proper perspective so when we have decided that we are we want to be Tito Taylors, we are not going to drink but then there is a friend or a relative they start inviting us, come for this party no no, I will not come no no, come they start pushing us now we know that if we go for that party then we will we are most likely going to drink over there because then the peer pressure will be too much over there we are thinking should we go or should we not go we are not able to decide at that time and we get there and then we are not able to decide again should I drink or should I not drink maybe I will drink once and then afterwards I will never drink again just because I don’t want to displease these people I don’t want to be an odd person out so when our sense of values is not firm then we get pushed around by whatever appears valuable or whatever is presented to us as valuable so in general in the tension between short term pleasures and long term purposes the mode of passion creates confusion and usually in that confusion unless we can establish some higher connection very quickly that confusion will lead to our giving up the lower action or giving up the higher purpose and succumbing to the immediate pleasure but the tension that is there in terms of being pulled very forcefully in a direction other than the healthy direction that kind of tension which arises from confusion and perception when we are not able to see things properly that is characteristic of intelligence