Addictive desires & desire management Gita 16 12 Youth

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.

Let me try to dive deeper into the verses. So let's move on to the next verse, this is 1611 what we discussed, now let's go to 1612. So Krishna is talking about this chinta and kama that is there.

So what happens to them further, when we talk about addictive desires, that's described in the next section. So asha, pasha, asha is desire, pasha is like a shackle or a noose, something which ties us. So shatair, shatair is what? Hundreds, yes.

So baddhaha, that is bound. So they become bound by their desires, asha, pasha, shatair, baddhaha, kama, krodha, kama is desire, krodha is love, so parayanaha, parayanaha means they are dedicated to, they are devoted to, the shastras say we should be narayan parayanaha, but they are kama krodha parayanaha. So kama krodha parayanaha, kama krodha parayanaha, and that ihante, ihante means the endeavour, kama bhogartham, so the same word kama upabhog had come earlier, so kama bhogartham, for the purpose of fulfilling their desires they endeavour, ihante kama bhogartham, so anyayena, anyaya is what, anyaya, adharma, illegal, immoral, unjust, unfair, tum anyaya kar rahe ho, unfair.

So anyayena, by unfair means, by immoral means, artha, artha is wealth, sanchayana, sanchayana is to accumulate. So they try to use, they use immoral means to gain wealth so that they can fulfil their desires. Anyayena artha sanchayana, anyayena artha sanchayana.

So let's recite three times together. So here Krishna is basically outlining a trajectory that basically everybody has desires, but the desires can become compulsive or addictive, when the desires become compulsive or addictive, so asha, paasht, taivadha, then one starts living only for those desires, basically the desires, they become the centre of life, for a person who is an alcoholic, where I can get the next drink, that is the centre of their life, that is, that becomes that kama, krodha, parayana, we'll talk about why kama and krodha together a little later. There was a, one of my friends from Russia, he showed me an ad, like an anti-alcohol awareness ad, so it showed that a family is watching TV and the man of the family is drinking vodka, and on TV they say the vodka prices have shot up, and the son is a little timidly, fearfully asking the father, will you drink less now? And the father replies, no, you will eat less now.

So, I can say, at one level it's ludicrous, but at another level it's horrible, and what kind of parent will want to feed their own habit of drinking at the cost of feeding their own children? But that's what happens when the desire becomes the centre of their life. Then what happens? If the desire becomes the centre of their life, then they adopt immoral means for basically getting wealth, getting resources to fulfil desires. So, this is broadly the trajectory of, this is the degeneration or degradation.

So, degradation through desires. Now, does that happen to everyone? Not necessarily, but it can happen. When it happens, it's dangerous.

So, let's look at this one by one. How this happens? Everybody has desires, but asha or ashi. So, it's like we have desires.

That's one level. But another level is, the desires have us. Is there a difference between the two? That is, the desire is like, this is my consciousness, and that desire is one thing in my consciousness.

That is, we have desires. But the desires have us. That means the entire consciousness is filled with that desire only.

So, the desire consumes and dominates our consciousness. So, when this happens, it becomes dangerous. Now, in today's world, slavery is condemned.

Almost universally. If anywhere there is, there are some places where illegal slavery is there. But human trafficking happens, sex slavery and things like that.

Horrible things are there. But slavery, it is condemned. It is at least something considered terrible.

Condemned. But this is in terms of physical slavery. Physical slavery means, you know, somebody is tied up with ropes.

Somebody has a… In the past, slavery was done in various ways. Somebody's body was branded by some marks. This person is owned by so and so.

That kind of thing would be reprehensible in today's world. But there is psychological slavery. And far from it being condemned, actually, it is propagated.

Now, how is it propagated? It is… So, what is psychological slavery means? That there are invisible ropes. Those are the ropes of desires. Like an alcoholic may fly from India to America.

But they are free physically to go from India to America. But in the flight, they just… One time I was going by a flight and the person sitting next to me, the air hostess who was going by, each time she would go by, you know. I'll pay you, but I want the drinks right away.

No, sir, the flight has taken off. We don't serve right away. Our service will start after some time.

Sir, I'll pay you more. Give it to me right away. It was like that person was so restless.

So, they are free at a physical level to travel from one country to another. But they are not free at the level of the mind. Their mind is dragged wherever they go.

Their mind is dragged towards the bottle of alcohol. And probably as soon as they get down, first thing they are going to do is, where is the bar in India? So, the place they are going to is no bar for them to go to the bar. There may be India, there may be Mumbai, there may be New York, there may be Tokyo.

So, there is psychological slavery. That means our mind is dragged towards certain objects, certain desires, certain things, certain behaviors. And this is very widely present.

And this psychological slavery, this is what we can call as addiction. So, addiction means the mind is bound. Now, the shackle of desire that Krishna is talking about.

Shackle of desire, it is not like a prisoner's chains. Sometimes if a prisoner is very dangerous, they are not only put behind bars, but behind bars also they are chained. So that they don't attack somebody else, they don't damage anything in prison.

So, prisoner's chains, they make us immobile. So, our shackle of desire is not like that. It is more like a puppeteer's strings.

So, we are controlled, but we are movable, we are mobile. So, we don't realize that we are controlled. If somebody tied us up physically, we would immediately notice it.

But what is happening is, it is almost like there are strings which are pulling us. Go there, watch this, touch this, buy this, eat this. So, because these do not restrict our mobility itself, rather they don't remove our mobility completely, so we don't think that we are bound.

But many times, after we do something, you know, why did I spend so much time, why did I spend so much money? No, we may not have alcoholism or that kind of habit. But you know, we may spend time on social media. Might spend time on watching TV, gossiping, this, that.

We all have certain things which we can think about, where we are wasting time. And after a while, why did I do that? It is almost as if something pulled me over there, I went there and afterwards, what happened? I just couldn't stop. So, it is bad enough to have one desire like that.

But imagine if somebody has 100 desires like that. You know, 100 compulsive desires. One of my friends in California works in a de-addiction center.

And he said, there are people who are addicted to heroin, to cocaine, to cigarettes, to alcohol. So many addictions they have. Now each of these can be fatal.

They are killing themselves in multiple ways. It's tragic. And while to some extent, there is some awareness of, say, the harms of smoking, some awareness of the harms of drugs, but still there is a lot of glamorization.

Of all these things. So, the companies, there are either companies which manufacture them, or there are drug cartels which sell them. And then, it is deadly.

I think a few years ago, there was some movie about drugs in Punjab. What was that? Udta Punjab, I think it was. So, it is a sarcastic name, you know, it was not Doopta Punjab, but the name was Udta Punjab.

So, the idea is that there is this kind of drug addiction, it is disastrous. And we, our desires themselves become like shackles. So, asha, paash, shatayin, vardha.

And then, see, having asha itself, having desires is not a problem. Desires are natural. But then, when they are bound, then what happens? Kama, krodha, parayana.

So, kama and krodha. Krishna brings both of them together many times. Where else does Krishna bring kama and krodha together? Kamesha, krodhesha.

Now, here, one understanding is that when we have desires, and the desires are not fulfilled, that leads to anger. That is true, but it is another way to understand it also. That same principle, that when there is kama, there is desire.

And then, there is rage against boundaries. So, for all of us, whenever we have some desire, there are some boundaries, there could be physical boundaries, there could be financial boundaries, there could be cultural boundaries, which says, no, you cannot do this, you should not do this. So, the krodha is against the boundaries.

Why? Why should I not fulfill this desire? Who are you to tell me that I should fulfill this desire? And now, a person who does not respect boundaries is a person who soon becomes their own worst enemy. Okay, certain boundaries can be restrictive. But the principle of boundaries is vital for any functioning society.

Say, for example, nowadays, say in the past, when people wanted to have physical intimacy, then the traditional boundary was marriage. And in many ways, that was good for the man, it was good for the woman. Because women are likely to become pregnant after that, and they have to bear a child.

So, they need, at that time when they become pregnant, they as well as their child need support and care and protection. So, they need a man who is committed to them. And then, when a man naturally seeks pleasure, but when they do not get that pleasure without committing to a relationship, then that forces them to become responsible.

But now, when that boundary is just rejected as primitive, is rejected as restrictive, regressive, it's my body, it's my choice. Who are you to tell me whether I should do that or not? And actually, the result of that is, it is bad for women, it is bad for men. Even if you put aside from the moral side, from the spiritual side, just from a sociological perspective, what happens by that is, that if men can get sexual pleasure without committing to a responsibility, that's how they will seek sexual pleasure.

And they will not grow up, they will never become responsible. And the perversity of society is that, sometimes, such people are actually glamorized. You know, that, you know, I have enjoyed it so much.

That is, it's one thing to do a bad thing, it's another thing to glamorize the bad thing, isn't it? It's third thing to do, actually treat somebody who is doing a bad thing as the ideal that everybody should have been. So, then that happens. There have always been people, the boundary of dharma, it's not that people have always been following it.

There have been people who have been doing other things. But the problem in Kali Yuga is not that people are doing wrong things. That the wrong things are glamorized.

That is a big problem. See, in the past, it would happen. Like kings would sometimes unite with their maidservants.

They are not supposed to do that, but they would do that. They would take responsibility. They would take care of the progeny from there.

But now what happens is, that the men become more and more irresponsible. And women, what happens? If they become pregnant, then they have to abort the child. And especially the birth control pill.

We talk about big scientific inventions that have changed society. So, the atom bomb is one such invention. The internet is one such invention.

But one invention that has social impact is not realizing the birth control pill. The birth control pill, what it has done is, it has basically freed sex from responsibility. Because abortion, at least, now abortion is also being trivialized.

That, you know, you can just, during your work, during lunch break, you can go and abort. It's like that. It's become very casual.

But still, it is serious. There is some level of awareness. There is life growing in my womb.

But the birth control pill is, you just prevent the whole thing. So, when sex is separated from accountability, from responsibility, the result of this is that, even for women, this is not good. Because then, for them, why would anyone want to have a relationship? Why would one want to have commitment? And then, the end result of this is, that when people eventually do get married, quite often, they have been with so many people, that they are constantly mentally comparing their partner with whoever they were in the past, and they are craving for more.

And then the sanctity of the relationship, the commitment to the relationship is no longer there. And then, sometimes they just end the relationship, and the children of divorced parents, they have a terrible life. So, the idea is that, when the boundary of marriage for sex is not respected.

So, for the karma is lust, and the krodha is against, say, marriage. Then what it leads to do it? It leads to societal degradation. Leave alone any from a spiritual perspective.

Now, I could go further into this, that, you know, nowadays, if you meet people, you know, if you meet some other student in school or college, you may ask, okay, where do your parents stay? But if you go to American schools, especially public schools, there are private schools where people live, where their people go. Public schools, kids, when they meet each other, they don't ask. You know, where do your parents stay? The question they ask is, with whom do you stay, your mother or your father? Basically, it's that mother and father don't stay together.

So, now, my rhyme or act will break down. That's a big complex issue. But the point is that, that particular boundary, it is not very much respected.

And that leads to problems. So, the point I was making is that if somebody doesn't respect boundaries, if somebody doesn't respect boundaries, then it's quite likely they will end up becoming their own enemy. They will end up hurting themselves, doing things that will hurt themselves.

So, but although in the liberalized society people say, you know, we don't care for marriage, we will do whatever we want. But even there, there is a new boundary that has come up. And what is the new boundary? That is consent, isn't it? If the sexual act is not consensual, that's considered serious crime.

So, the point is, in the material world there will always be boundaries. We may reject one boundary, but another boundary comes up. And then many times when people have this kind of consensual sex, there is what they call as the post-sex regret.

Like some boy and a girl come together and the girl doesn't have a good experience and then the girl says, I don't want to demonize girls here, but the girl says, you know, it was forced. How is the boy going to prove it was not forced? How do you actually know it's consensual? Only the two of them are there, you can't ask, sign a form, this is consensual. So, many times people get framed over there.

Now, sometimes the other person may do it intentionally, the other person may not do it intentionally. And many times when people go for partying, you know, when they are partying, they are already, I mean, they are drunk. And when they are drunk, they may say yes to something when they don't want to say yes.

But they said yes, another person took it as a yes. So, consent as a boundary is actually very chaotic. It's like, if the person takes back the consent, and especially nowadays the rules are such that, you know, if you are accused, especially with respect to any kind of sexual assault, a person is considered, in most crimes, you are innocent till you are proven guilty.

But in most sexual assault kind of crimes, the law is going in the direction that, you are considered guilty till you are proven innocent. If you are just accused, the first thing will come, police will come and arrest you. And then somebody has to come and post a bail and take you out, and then after that, everything moves forward.

So, it is very complicated. But the point is, boundaries will always be there. And raging against boundaries.

The practice of specific boundaries, it can be evaluated. But the principle of boundaries, that is a universal, unavoidable fact of life. But, people who come across the parayana, they are centered on fulfilling their desires, and they are centered on rejecting as many boundaries as possible.

So, what are the ways people may reject boundaries? They may reject religious rules. Then, okay, there is a physical boundary. Physical boundary is the body only has a certain amount of capacity to enjoy.

Then, people take drugs. Now, there is this drug called Viagra, which people say that it makes you young again. It makes men especially sexually stimulated.

So, this is like a magic drug. So, they consider, you can do this and you can enjoy. For many people, especially men, sexual impotency is like the worst nightmare.

But then, what happens is, you get Viagra, you get high, but many times, this Viagra is contraindicative for heart issues. That means, it stimulates you physically. But when you are stimulated physically, see, sex is a stressful activity for the body.

So, sometimes people get so excited. Some old people take this, and they get so excited, they want to enjoy sexually, but their body gets so much stressed, that they get a heart attack. So, actually, if you are old, you don't need Viagra.

You need Vairagya. So, come across the Parayana. If somebody is just living for the fulfillment of desires, then, it is a destructive way of living.

And what happens? So, through technology, we can try to push the boundaries. We can try to develop some medicines. We can do this.

We can do that. But ultimately, the body is what it is. And we cannot change it.

So, is it that nature wants us to be, we have desires, and then we have limitations that we can't fulfill our desires? Does nature want us to be frustrated? No. Nature wants us, or the world desires such a way, that we develop higher desires. It is not that, when we say Kama, Kama doesn't always have to be frustrated.

But, it is frustrated when we have lower desires. Like, somebody has a desire to do service, to make a contribution. If we cultivate higher desires, like I said, there is a desire to get, and there is a desire to give.

Now, if I want to get, there will always be limitations. But, if I want to serve, if I want to contribute, then we all can go more and more in that direction. So, if we cultivate higher desires, say for example, we cultivate the desire to chant the holy names, to serve Krishna, to share Krishna's message.

Now, usually the body becomes old and weak. You will see here in Maya Purusha, there are Prabhupadas who are 60, 70, 75, 80, 85 years old. And still they have so much eagerness to serve and glorify Krishna.

Of course, the body's limitation is there, but it is not so much there. As much as if somebody was seeking sensual pleasure. So, we can cultivate higher desires, and those desires can be fulfilled, even if the body goes old.

Ultimately, you will remember Krishna. Even if somebody is paralyzed on the bed, they can still remember Krishna. If they develop love for Krishna, or at least some level of devotion for Krishna, then that remembrance of Krishna itself will give joy.

So, the problem is not kama. The problem is the direction of the kama. The problem is not having desires.

It is misdirected desires. That is the problem. So, we will talk about redirectional desires later.

But, kama, krodha, parayana, when one's life becomes centered on just fulfilling one's desires, then what happens? While fulfilling the desires, what happens? So, what is happening over here is, nyaya is also one meaning of dharma. If there is dharma, if the society is dharmic, then it will be just society. So, when a person is centered on kama, then what happens? They will use unethical means for fulfilling desires.

And, for example, this very common etiquette of addiction. Somebody is an addict, then for them lying, stealing, it just becomes so routine. Because, that is the way I fulfill my desire.

So, in general, addiction is one of the most reliable predictors of criminality. And these people who commit crime, they are not really bad people. They are not evil people.

It is just that desire has taken over their life, and then, I just need to get my next joint. I just need to get my next smoke. And then, I have to get it some way or the other.

Now, in some ways, smoking is more difficult to give up than drugs. But, smoking is not that destructive in terms of the compulsiveness of the addiction. But drugs, it can be very, very compulsive.

And when a person becomes so prone to it, he will just try to break into some shop to rob somebody, or to get some drugs from there. So, it's Anya Yena Prasannacharya. And, now, we can talk about the symptoms of addictions also.

But it doesn't have to go in the direction of addictions. See, again, generally speaking, there is ambition, which is good, and there is greed, which generally is considered a bad. So, ambition and greed are not the same thing.

But, what is the difference? If there is ambition, it is within ethics. Greed goes beyond ethics. Ethics here means dharma.

That means, everybody will have ambition. Arjuna, when he was practicing archery, he wanted to become the best archer. But the way to become the best archer was practice hard.

Practice diligently and become the best archer. But, if somebody says, I want to become the best archer, so what will I do? You know, maybe I will kill the other archers who are better than me. You know.

It is a terrible thing to do. That is what we call as destructive competition. So, it's… Say, in cricket, every batsman wants to bat well and score a lot of runs, maybe hit a lot, hit a sixer.

For that, if you want to hit, why don't you practice? You train yourself, and then you can hit the ball properly. But, if a batsman doesn't want to get out, and the batsman hits the ball, and the ball goes high, and the batsman goes and smashes the head of the cricketer. Then, you know, that is completely, it's anyaayi.

It's against the rules of the game. So, having desires is not a bad thing. But, when the desires take over a person's life, then the person doesn't care for boundaries at all.

And that is not healthy. So, when I started traveling, first time I went, first country I went to was Australia. Traveling abroad, I was speaking.

First country I went to was Australia. Before I was introduced to bhakti, I had a lot of interest in cricket. I didn't watch cricket matches, but I liked to read cricket analysis.

I find that many of the sports writers, they are very gifted. I sometimes think they should be writing about Krishna, they would be writing so much better. And they are writing about so much different.

But anyway, I like to read. So, the Australians, when I went to Australia, I gave some class to Australians, they seem to be very simple, laid back kind of people. After class, they don't even ask questions.

So then, in fact, generally, if somebody asks a question in the middle of the class, we generally say, let's wait till the end, and we'll have questions answered at the end. But the devotees told me over there that, if somebody asks a question, answer the question immediately. I said, why is that? They said, these people practically never ask questions.

And, if somebody asks a question, you don't answer it, and after that, nobody will ask any question. So they said, they are very laid back. I said, you know, Australian cricket team is definitely not laid back.

They are known for sledging, they are quite aggressive, and at least they were one generation, now also they are to some extent. But they said, you know, Australians are laid back in everything except sports. In sports, they are quite aggressive.

So, basically, what happens is, sometimes players, they may cheat. They may want to win. So a few years ago, the Australian cricket team, there was a big scandal, sandpaper gate or something like that they call it, where what happened was, they tried to tamper with the ball so that they could win.

And the big players, the captain, vice captain, they were banned. So what happens is, the Australian slogan was, slogan was, in it to win it. We are going to win.

Okay, that's fine. But winning does not mean that you adopt analytical means. You go against the laws, against the rules of the game.

So, anya ye naat se chaiya. So when this happens, then the whole, the whole atmosphere of the game gets disrupted, when people are working in a company. Then there is destructive competition.

Everybody wants to rise up. But when destructive competition is there, what it means? It's more important than my rising up is, your going down. It's that, it's my happiness, comes from your unhappiness.

That's a terrible situation to be in. I saw an ad of a, of a TV, or what is it? Onida. Onida, okay.

What is it? Neighbours. Neighbours. No, not spread neighbours.

No, not spread neighbours. This was something similar. It was, actually it was more blatant.

It was this, buy this car, and enjoy the envy in your neighbour's eyes. Enjoy the envy, you know. It's such a terrible standard of enjoyment.

It's tomorrow, they will buy a better car, and then they will enjoy the envy in your eyes. So, there is, when it goes beyond ethics, then this is where, there is a destructive competition. Competition is just a fact of life.

Because we live in a competitive world. But destructive competition, it just, it deteriorates, it is harmful to everyone. It leads to social harm, individual harm.

Now, what does this mean for all of us? That, we all can think, that for our own desires, we all have, have rejected or violated some boundaries. Now sometimes, we may lie to someone, because, we are supposed to do something, but we have a desire to do something else. And then, now, we could be candid, and say this is what I want to do, that's why I don't want, I won't be coming.

But, we don't want to be candid, because maybe, that's not a desire we are proud of. So then what we do is, we all will see that, the extent we become kama, krodha, parayana, to that extent, we start doing anyaya. We may not be doing, we may not be getting wealth by illegal means.

But, we do see, that, we all start violating ethical boundaries. Because of desires. Now if you consider, one of the biggest problems in India is corruption.

Now corruption has many different, many different, sociologically we can analyze, if the civil servants are underpaid, or this or that. But, at one major cause of it is greed. So what happens is, when desires are very strong, then, there is anyaya in our society.

And, corruption is such a big, cancer in the Indian body politic. Because of which, so much of the progress, that could have happened in the material level, that is not happening. Now, nobody is saying that, public servants, or government officers have to live like paupers.

Now yes, they earn. Now, but, if they are in a role of service, then there has to be a certain level of, joy that should be coming from the service. If they are in a role of service, and that joy only comes from the money that they are earning.

Then, better don't be in your service, you can go in business and do that. So, when there is, see every role, will bring some boundaries with it. And, a person, needs to accept the boundaries that come with the role.

A person doesn't accept those boundaries, then it's going to be a big problem. So, for all of us, so, I said how is all this relevant, I talked about how it is relevant for our country as well. So, if somebody, karma and krodha.

So, everybody will have karma and krodha. But what happens is, karma is, there is a lot of greed. And the krodha will be, the rules against corruption.

Why are these rules there? I will flout these rules. I will find a way, to break these rules. So, some people, they, especially young people, when they are driving a bike, it's like, some speed demon kind of possesses them.

Just racing off, making heads turn, there is some attention that they get. So, once a young man was driving very rapidly, and the cops pulled him over. He says, didn't you see the, did you see the speed limit sign? He says, I saw the speed limit sign, I just didn't see you.

So, what happens over here is, that such people, they think, that breaking the rules is not the problem. Getting caught while breaking the rules is the problem. So, that kama krodha paraya, that krodha, when it is there, they, there is, if there is any regret, the regret, regret is not for breaking rules.

It is for getting caught while breaking the rules. Like, if you consider, we'll talk about Duryodhana's character in tomorrow's class a little bit more, when we talk about the next Suvas. But, consider Duryodhana, when he tried to, say, poison Bhima, or burn the Pandavas, do you think they regretted that? No.

Did he have any regrets? No. Yeah. He regretted that his plan was not successful.

So, that is the level to which desire takes over a person, and a person does anyaya, and doesn't even think that I've done something wrong. The only wrong thing is that, it didn't work out properly. That is a terrible situation.

So, what do we do as devotees about this? That, see, for all of us, we have kama. Kama is desire. It's natural.

As human living beings, to be conscious is to be desirous. See, if you are conscious, by consciousness we'll see certain things, and we'll desire certain things. And the path of bhakti is not about giving up desires.

It is, what do we mean by kama? It is not that we have to reduce. That's one aspect of it. But much more important is redirect.

Redirect means, a devotee's desire is to serve Krishna, to glorify Krishna, to offer the best to Krishna. So, I may want to become the best student in my class. Why? Not so that everyone will know I am the best student.

So that Krishna can be glorified. Yudhishthira Maharaj, he performed the Rajasuri Yajna, which is basically the idea that the king who is performing the Rajasuri Yajna is the greatest king. It required a lot of effort to do that.

But, now the world may think that, oh, he performed the Rajasuri Yajna so that he is the greatest king. That he has a chandigarh, he wants to prove that I am the greatest king. But for him, what was the purpose? When the Rajasuri Yajna was to be done, the Abhira Purusha was to be declared.

Who is the greatest person? And that time he said the Abhira Purusha is Krishna. In this way, for him, it was glorifying Krishna. So, yes, sometimes desires have to be reduced.

But it's much more important to redirect the desires. Redirect means, we desire for service, not our own gratification. A devotee can desire wealth.

A devotee can desire fame. But, how do I know? Is it just, oh, I am desiring this for service. How do I know that? That actually, if somebody says, I am desiring wealth.

One devotee told me that. Now Prabhupada says that we should all give charity. And, this devotee said, actually, I plan that, you know, I want to become a billionaire.

Not a billionaire, a billionaire. And when I become billionaire, I will give 60% in charity. But, you know, till then, I don't have time to come to the temple also.

Well, the thing is that if, if we are desiring something for Krishna, something, what is the test? When I am actually desiring something for Krishna, then something could be better. Somebody says, I want to become famous. You know, I want to become an Instagrammer with a million followers.

Then if I post something about Krishna, a million people will come to know about it. Okay, that may be true. You can have that desire.

But, if you are desiring something for Krishna, the test is that our desire for Krishna is greater than our desire for that thing. Isn't it? See, it's like, if a husband says to a wife, you know that, you know, I want to build a great house for you. I want to house you in a mansion.

Okay? But for that purpose, you know, I have to go to another country, I have to work there, and we will not meet for the next 10 years. And I won't call you, I don't have time to call you, I don't have time to talk with you, I don't have time to message you. Are you doing that for me or are you doing it for yourself? Isn't it? So, if you are doing something for someone, our desire for that person should be more than our desire for the thing we are doing for that person.

Many times, it may be like parents, like a father, may want to offer the best thing to their children. They say, you know, I want you to, I want to offer you the best toys. But the child may want it, okay, I have this ball, just play with me for some time.

Father will say, no, I want to have your house with a big playground. Then, but then, in trying to get a house with a big playground, father has no time for the child. So, in love, our desire for the person should be more than the desire for the thing we want to offer to that person.

Otherwise, the desire for that thing, when it is like this, then this desire will take us closer to that person. Otherwise, if yes, if no, then the desire will take us, that very desire will take us further from that person. So, the father who says, you know, I want to get a house with a playground for my child.

That very desire may consume that father so much that the father becomes a workaholic. And then, that child grows up without even knowing the father much. The father grows up without knowing the child.

So, the desire may be well-intentioned. But what is that saying? The road to hell is often paved with good intentions. So, good intentions, they are not a substitute for good intelligence.

Now, we need both. So, for us, we can be ambitious in our desire for Krishna. But make sure that our desire for Krishna is stronger.

And how do we know that our desire for Krishna is stronger? That is through the sadhana that we do. There are certain basic practices of that we need to be doing. So, there are certain levels of sadhana I am going to practice, certain level of association I am going to come to.

And then, after that, in the remaining time, I may give fully myself to the work. That's fair enough. So, the important thing for us is we strengthen our desire for Krishna.

And other desires, they fall in their place. And if our desire for Krishna is strong, then we desire to offer something to Krishna. If it works out, it's wonderful.

Even if it doesn't work out, then we feel dissatisfaction in our heart. But because we have been remembering Krishna, we longing to offer it to Krishna, that itself will lead to purification. And even if the desire is not fulfilled, it won't lead to that much dissatisfaction.

So, we will actually be moving closer to Krishna. So, for us, we need to find out which desire, which healthy desire can fill my consciousness. So, some desire, it's like a healthy desire, we need that can fill our consciousness.

So, that means, we all have some idle time. I'm so busy, I don't have any idle time. Well, okay, we don't have, we don't plan in our schedule, okay, 3 o'clock or 4 o'clock, we have idle time.

But there are so many times our mind wanders, it goes here, it goes there. So, what we need to do is that what is an activity with which I can fill my mind in those times? That's nice, but maybe we don't want to engage our mind. Maybe I want to learn singing.

Then, let me have some kirtan ready with me, I can keep hearing the kirtan whenever I have some time. Or somebody may say, no, I want to learn to share Krishna's message, so I want to memorize some shlokas. So, let me keep some shlokas with me.

Or we can hear some talk. What is it that we would like to do for Krishna? What is it that we would like to do? And try to find out that desire and fill our heart with that desire. So, it's like, you know, there are things that feel good for us.

Things that feel good. And there are things that are good for us. So, now, if we are only doing the things that feel good, often those things will be harmful for us.

So, what feels good? I just like to eat food, I like to watch TV. That will be wasting our time. But if we are only doing the things that are good for us, but they don't feel good, then it requires a lot of effort.

You know. There are many things which we know are good for us, but we have finite willpower. We cannot keep pushing ourselves constantly to do things that don't feel good.

But if we can find something to the intersection. So, this is a healthy desire that can fill our consciousness. So, for example, I like music.

And bhakti is good. In bhakti also there is music. So, then I focus on music.

So, we need to find out which healthy desire can fill our consciousness. And then, when we find a healthy desire that can fill our consciousness, then we will be protected from the unhealthy desires filling our consciousness. From the desires that are addictive, we are dragging us down.

So, I will summarize what we discussed today. The broad topic we discussed was today was desire management. We discussed this based on 16th chapter, 12th verse.

11th verse we discussed earlier. So, broadly we discussed first point was degradation through desire. Everybody described in this verse.

Asha, pasha, satair, baddha. So, there is desire, then it becomes a compulsive desire. When it becomes compulsive desire, then what happens is, it becomes the center of our life.

It takes over our life. In that process what happens is, we reject boundaries. Krodha comes against the boundaries.

And then, we end up in immorality. This is how a person becomes degraded. So, we discussed the shackle of desire.

The shackle of desire, how is it not like? It is not like a prisoner's chains. It is like a puppeteer's strings. So, what happens is, because we are able to move, so, we don't feel it is bound.

So, it is, this bondage is not physical. Physical slavery, if somebody tried to enslave us, we fight against it, socially condemn. But this is psychological.

Our mind is bound. And this psychological slavery is actually, there was always sin in society. But Kali Yuga degradation is what? That sin is glamorized.

Wrongdoers are glamorized. And that is what leads to a lot of problems. So then, we discussed about Kama and Krodha going together.

I discussed how the principle of boundaries. So, this is the rage against boundaries. Why should anyone restrict my enjoyment? Who is it to restrict my enjoyment? So, what happens with the rage against boundaries? See, in the past, say, for example, sex, the boundary was marriage.

That is dharma boundary. But when that is rejected, then we discussed how it leads to social degradation, social harm. It's harm for men, they don't become responsive.

It's harm for women, because they can't be in relationship. They have to cheapen themselves and offer their bodies. And it's harmful for children.

Because when marriage is not respected, it's not taken with gravitas, people break apart from marriage and then children may even fracture families. Now, today, consent is the boundary. But what happens is, even consent, it can often be unclear.

And then that can lead to chaos and so much problems. So, boundaries as a principle is inescapable. Everybody will have boundaries.

We discussed how somebody may grow old and they may reject physical boundaries. But then, they try to take Viagra. But again, that has harmful effects on the body.

It's better that we set boundaries and try to develop Vairagya. So, that is voluntary acceptance of boundaries. So, boundaries are inescapable.

And then, after that, we discussed how we all can find that when we have control by desires, we all do things which violate boundaries. So, here I discussed about the difference between greed and ambition. So, ambition is basically with boundaries, with ethics.

Greed is without ethics. And this leads to destructive competition. Win at all costs.

And this is anyai nartha sanchayan. That becomes destructive for society. So, we discussed sports examples and things like that.

So, then the solution, part we discussed is, ambition is not bad. So, what do we do with our desires? Our desires, we reduce, but more important than reducing is, redirect. And the test that we are going to redirect to Krishna, the test is that our desire for a thing, for something, should be lesser than our desire for Krishna.

The relationship is more important than what we want to offer in the relationship. When this is clear, then we will move closer to Krishna through the desire, whether it is fulfilled or not fulfilled. Thank you very much.

Hare Krishna. So, are there any one or two questions to discuss? So, the question was that, in the past, the kings would have their own, the children of the kings would become kings. So, I mentioned that sometimes somebody gets inherited wealth, then they may misuse it.

So, how was that prevented? See, when we talk about karma, that was, what happens if somebody, say, there is a king and a queen. So, when they unite, ideally speaking, when they unite, the soul who comes into their union, that soul also has the qualities of a royal sage. That means, ideally speaking, the varna of the husband and the wife, that is similar, then they will attract a soul of similar qualities.

So, in that sense, from the past karma, a person is born of a similar propensity. And, to some extent, we see that even today. Not entirely.

Say, somebody who is born, I don't want to, again, generalize, that somebody is born in a Gujarati family. Many Gujaratis are naturally good at business. Does that mean all Gujaratis? Not necessarily.

Does that mean that all Gujaratis have a business? Not necessarily. But many of them have good businesses. If you look at North India, the Gorkhas, they have physiques and mentalities, but they are fighters.

They are protectors, fighters. So, even now, we see, to some extent, certain qualities going on in certain communities. The communities could be according to region, communities could be according to some other cultural designation, whatever it is.

So, of course, Mahabharata says that at that time, it was happening that there were marriages, inter-caste marriages were happening. And that's why the varna of the child becomes confusing. So, it is not a necessary predictor that the son, that a child born to a royal family will have royal qualities only, qualities of Kshatriya.

But there is a fair probability of that. And if further there is proper training and proper education, if they are given the proper value system, then definitely those qualities will be developed. So, that's how the system of primogeniture, primogeniture means the eldest son becoming the king.

That, while it was prevalent, but there were safeguards in that system by which the person who would become the king would be a responsible person. Thank you. Any other questions? Yes, where is the mic? Thank you.

How can we see this between two services? Two services? Between two services. Like which we desire for and which we are given. Well, generally there, initially it's good to have a service attitude where we do whatever service we are told to do.

But over a period of time, we should also be observing ourselves and seeing which services we are naturally attracted to, which services we are good at. And for longevity in our service, for stability in our it's good to at least have some of our services aligned with what we like to do. So, in life it is never going to happen that everything that we do will be what we like to do.

But it shouldn't also be that everything that we do is what we dislike. That will be too much. In an emergency, it's okay.

So, we could say that our services spectrum, you know, spectrum is the range of services. There are some services which will give us strength. We look forward to doing them.

And we do them, we feel alive and we feel joy. And there are some services which will require strength to do. Maybe we don't like it, but it will push us to do it.

So, we need to manage it in such a way that we are able to do the services that give us strength. And then we have strength to do the services that we require, that we have to do. So, that way, each of us has to manage that properly.

Where is the mic? In the earlier words which you mentioned, 16.11, you were mentioning about the self-worth that is coming and then that causes the when we identify with artha or kama, so, we naturally get finally insecure because none of them have the fulfilling nature at the end. So, there is another way of getting insecure about the envy part where others are excelling and we cannot see, we want to push others down because we cannot feel the others getting excelled. from where is it coming in and then how to carefully introspect and root out this problem? Is it because we are unable to, means if we are in a situation and in the future maybe we are unable to boast because others also grow and aspire or even grow beyond us? So, it's difficult.

I would say this kind of envy or jealousy No, I feel envy, jealousy are very strong words. They have negative connotation. I prefer the word insecurity.

It's a psychological vulnerability that we all have. And let's say that we can look at it at three different levels to try to deal with it. First is in terms of satisfaction.

What do you mean by satisfaction? That satisfaction comes not just by what we have. You know, this person has more IQ than me. This person has better singing voice than me.

This person has more abilities than me. Satisfaction comes by what we do with what we have. If we are using what we have fully that itself will give us satisfaction.

Somebody may have a great singing voice but instead of using that singing voice say to glorify Krishna. I will become immersed in trying to sing as nicely as possible so that they can glorify Krishna. I will sing as nicely as possible.

They are constantly worried. How many people are appreciating my singing? Then what will happen is even if they have a singing ability they will be dissatisfied. So we need to be aware of what is the actual source of satisfaction.

It is not having more. It is using what we have fully. Now of course if we could get more we could use that also.

But if we are not using fully what we have right now, even if we get more we won't use that fully. So if we ever want to become satisfied we need to learn to use fully what we have. That's the first thing.

Satisfaction comes by primarily by using fully what we have. Otherwise somebody might say somebody is a professional singer and they sing a song and they get a million views on YouTube. Will they be happy? They will look at some other competitor oh their song has got 2 million views and that will burn in their heart.

So satisfaction comes by whether we are using fully what we have. Not worrying so much about what the world recognizes. That's the first point.

The second point is that appreciation. Appreciation means we appreciate what we have. Everybody has some gifts.

So there will be some gifts that are glamorized in society. Some may not be glamorized. But everybody has some gifts for others.

Appreciation of our gifts. So somebody may have an ability that the whole world praises. Maybe I don't have an ability that the world praises.

But that doesn't mean I don't have a role. Each one of us has a role. So instead of thinking suppose after this program there is prasad.

Suppose prasad is there. But suppose there is a special kind of feast where everybody has got a different sweet. One person has got burfi, one has got peda, one has got gulab jamun, one has got malpua, one has got jalebi.

So I have got a sweet in my plate. And if I am looking at what everybody else has, I might be having a jalebi. But that jalebi will taste like chalk to me.

Why? Because I am looking elsewhere. So we need to learn to appreciate what we have. So the first and second points are slightly different.

The first is that I use what I have. But whatever I have, instead of thinking I need to have more and more and more, I use what I have. Second is, I need to learn to appreciate what I have.

So yes, we may not have some gifts that others have, but Krishna doesn't leave anyone completely giftless. We may not have any extraordinary gifts, but even if we have ordinary gifts, we too might have gifts and we can use them. And the last is dedication.

Dedication means that we understand that everybody, all gifts, they come from Krishna and they are meant for Krishna. Or that ultimately this person has this ability, but it's Krishna who has given this ability to this person. And Krishna has given me this ability.

So ultimately what do I want to do? I want to go closer to Krishna. If we are focusing on, if our life and heart is dedicated to Krishna, then we will understand that, okay, this person has that gift, Krishna will attract more people towards him through this person. But that doesn't stop me from being attracted towards Krishna.

So, the more we are dedicated to Krishna, the more we start seeing, okay, this person has this quality, so attractive. In Krishna, Krishna has given this person this quality. So Krishna has this quality in so much fullness.

How much more attractive will Krishna be? So, when we learn to dedicate our life to Krishna, then what happens is rather than seeing that person as a competitor, we start seeing that person as we are in the same team. It's like, you know, if we are in the cricket team and another player is very fast, we can score, everybody scores, we don't have that very aggressive instinct. Okay, but it's in the same team.

Of course, the team will say, that person plays well, I'll make it out of the team. Fortunately, that doesn't happen in Krishna's team. There is no, it's not like that limited like cricket team, there are only 11 players.

In Krishna's team, everybody can be included. So, in that sense, we are in the same team. So, if we are dedicated to Krishna, other's qualities won't actually cause us anxiety and insecurity.

They increase our attraction to Krishna and they increase our appreciation. In this process also, we will be closer to Krishna. So, basically, these three things, dedication, appreciation, satisfaction.

This is basically the mood of a daas, mood of a servant. We dedicate ourselves to Krishna, we appreciate what we have, and then we know that satisfaction comes not just by how much we have, but how much we are losing what we have. So, it's not easy and your jealousy or insecurity will still keep popping up.

But then, if you keep redirecting your mind towards Krishna, refocusing on Krishna and his service, then gradually that will decrease. Thank you. One or two more questions and then I'll stop.

Who all have? Yes, two. Yes, please. Hare Krishna Guruji.

You mentioned one example where the boy was exceeding the speed limit and he broke the traffic rules. So, I was thinking of another example that many of the times, we come across certain norms and rules of the society where in certain time-based circumstances, it seems that that particular norm is completely useless to follow in that situation and maybe I can surpass that. But there is something only on moral grounds or the fear that it does not become my tendency to again and again do that.

It is only the reason that pulls us back. But then there is again the purpose that it sometimes feels that the purpose is strong that I may break that rule. So, how to compare the weightage of the morality ground and that purpose that to take the decision that whether I should go ahead or pull myself back.

You have heard this word Niyamagraha. Niyamagraha, talks about the Uddeshaangata. So, it has two meanings.

There is Niyam Agraha. Niyamagraha means to reject the rule. Agraha is to not accept.

But there is also Niyam Agraha. Not Niyam. So, Niyam Agraha means insist on the rule.

So, both of these are considered extreme. What is it? In between, if you consider these are two extremes of pendulum. In between is we respect the rule but we respect the purpose even more.

And sometimes, fulfilling the purpose requires us to sacrifice the rule. That's fine. See, the rule is like the road.

The purpose is like the direction. So, normally if you want to go in a particular place, the road is the best way to go to that place. But if the road is flooded or the road is broken down this traffic issue is there.

And let me say I will go cross country. But when I am going cross country, I have to be clear that I am going in the right direction. So, if you take care of that then we will, it won't become a habit because we are focusing on the purpose.

And then it is not that in general rules are the best way to get to the purpose. In general. But as I said, times change.

And sometimes rules can obstruct us to get to the purpose. So, we respect the rule knowing that there are basically, whenever you use the word tradition Now, what are traditions? Traditions are essentially experiments that have worked. Why do people keep doing a particular thing again and again and again? Because it's a work for them.

Why do you say people when they meet each other they fold their hands? Now, was there any king who shot people who don't fold their hands? No, that's a polite, respectful way of greeting. And people did that and because they did that, it is a nice way of cordially connecting with each other. Now, we are washing hands.

It has become a tradition. So, traditions are experiments that have worked. Worked means they have served some purpose.

So, we should not be dismissive in rejecting traditions or rules or conventions. But at the same time, just because they have worked, doesn't mean they will always be working. So, we do have to use our intelligence.

Especially, it's good to if it's a major thing we are going to do or some major rule we are going to neglect or reject or we are going to neglect or reject a rule repeatedly, then it's best to consult those who have more experience in that particular field and we talk with senior devotees or people who are specialized in that particular field and then based on that, we make a decision. Okay? Thank you. Last question there.

Yeah. I didn't have any question. I just wanted to express my gratitude towards you.

Actually, from the beginning of my Krishna consciousness, I have always felt guilty about desires which I have felt which I wanted to do it for Krishna which made me feel good about doing those. But I felt guilty thinking that oh, maybe if I indulge in this desire, maybe apparently it will look Krishna consciousness or I want to please Krishna. I will end up you know, it being sense enjoyment or something like that.

So, I have always feared and always tried to artificially reduce those desires and it always made me anxious. It never worked out. So, when you told me to retire, essentially I never had any criteria to judge that okay, even if I want to, it makes me feel good.

How can I always check that I am not doing off-road? So, the way you explained is that your sadhana and how you can make sure that the desire for doing that thing to offer to Krishna is not going in such a way that you are forgetting that you have to that you want Krishna. So, it gave me so much clarity. Thank you.

Okay, happy to get service. Desire management is a subtle thing and we all have to constantly be vigilant. But having certain tools is very helpful.

See, Krishna also says yuktaar aviharasya. Be regulated. So, see, each one of us has to find out you know, is pursuing a desire going to cause me more agitation or pursuing the giving up of the desire going to cause me more agitation.

Because for some people pursuing a desire may distract them from Krishna. For some other people, pursuing the giving up of the desire may distract them from Krishna. Because that causes so much agitation, so much anxiety and then each one of us has to ultimately find out how best with our particular body-mind machine we can serve Krishna.

Thank you, happy to get service.