Impurity needs to be feared before it can found… Gita 03.37

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna.
Impurity needs to be feared before it can be found. Found before it can be fought. And fought before it can be finished.
Suppose there is a spy who is there within a particular territory and that spy is sneaking out information, stealing wealth and is creating trouble. But if the owner is complacent, thinking nothing is wrong, then they will be slowly but surely plundered. Similarly, our consciousness is like our home where the treasury of our spirituality, of our devotion, of our potential to expand our consciousness and attain eternal life and eternal love are all present.
But impurity is a thief who can steal all this away insidiously, incrementally and eventually destructively. So, how is this impurity to be countered? The Bhagavad Gita says, कामेश क्रोधेष्य रजोगुण समूद्भवः महाशनो महापाप्मा विद्येनमिः वैरिणम् That Mahashano Mahapapma, this is the all-devouring sinful enemy of the world. And now the Bhagavad Gita is spoken on the battlefield, but even on that battlefield Krishna is not saying that actually these enemies are your biggest, the opponents are your biggest enemies.
He’s saying the self-destructive desire within your heart, that is your biggest enemy. And therefore, what needs to be done? You need to fight this enemy. How? By purification, by elevation.
And for that, we could say there are stages. First, impurity needs to be feared before it can be found. We need to recognize that impure desires can deprive us of our potential for eternal happiness and they can drown us in endless suffering.
So it’s something which has to be feared. It’s like if we have some healthy fear of a disease, then we will regularly try to check the symptoms and we will do regular health check-up, and then impurity needs to be feared before it can be found. So if there are some cancer cells in somebody, then if they don’t do regular tests, if they’re not on the lookout, they may not even find it.
So it has to be found, feared before it can be found. Found before it can be fought. So once we find it, it’s not enough.
If somebody knows they’ve got cancer, it’s not that if there’s some swelling, you just stay nonchalant, no, nothing is going to happen to me. Nor do we become passive and accept our fate saying that, oh, now I’m doomed, now I’m going to die. No, if it’s found, once it is found, it has to be fought.
And the same applies to our inner impurities also. We need to, after we find them, I don’t want to have such impure desires. I want to resist them.
I want to fight them. It has to be fought. And fought, once we fear them, then we find them, then we fight them.
And once we fight them, they fought before they can be finished. And then it’s going to be a tough, tough fight. We have to connect ourselves with all pure divine Krishna.
And by filling our hearts with His presence, and by not taking our connection with Him nonchalantly, by taking that connection very seriously, because we know that He is our solace and shelter, then we can elevate ourselves. And thus we can gradually become purified of all impurities. And thereby manifest our potential for lasting love and lasting joy.