BG 2 58 2 63 STHITAPRAJNA’S SENSE CONTROL Hg Chaitanya Charan Prabhuji

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

Prabhupāda is reciting the Bhagavad-gītā as it is given in the Bhagavad-gītā. He is reciting the Bhagavad-gītā as it is given in the Bhagavad-gītā. He is reciting the Bhagavad-gītā as it is given in the Bhagavad-gītā.

They need to be aware that they are in a war. So for a spiritual warrior, it's like people say that they should be strong enough to fight a war. Then, what is required? They should be invested enough.

But they need to be aware. They need to be aware enough. So, to tell you how to be an archer, when a person does not fight a war, we are still to focus a lot on a person being aware.

And aware means, he suffers aware that they are in a war. The characteristic is not outer pleasure and less to inner pleasure. Right.

So, today we will try to discuss about the speech and the defense. And in the last session tomorrow we will discuss about the offense. So how a warrior who is fighting, what is their spirit? That is also seen through the speech.

So, let's see what Krishna says about the speech. He describes, So, that question was answered in one verse in the Tripita. What is the defining characteristic? Now, that question is answered from the basis of the spirit.

And it depends, That will be answered in the Tripita. So, essentially, when Krishna talks about the speech, he talks about the inner disposition. But, if a single person is preparing, let's look at this verse.

We will go back to what I have required. So, we have heard Sarvatra celebrates everything that happens in the world. But Sarvatra, not this sweetness.

So, that in this world, whatever happens, there are sweetness, inner affection. So, what is not to attach to the things that happen in the world? Not of this sweetness. So, of this sweetness.

And then, what is this? That is, sometimes good will happen, sometimes bad will happen. That is the meaning of the verse. So, neither attachment nor attachment.

When good happens, the person will praise it too much. When bad happens, the person will criticize it or resent it too much. Pasya pratyatati srita.

Okay, for Swamis, very good. You have to say it, you have to say it. Kasyapragya Pradishtina Ya Sarvatra Nishtina Kartatrapya Subhashivam Naminandakina Dveshti Kasyapragya Pradishtina So, how does this happen? We were going to discuss this diagram of our mood shifting, the world is very big and God, Krishna, Swami Kriya is very small.

The world becomes small and Krishna becomes big. But in the world, there are always dualities. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Let's see the third verse Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Is it better now? Hare Krishna Hare Krishna So, there is always duality.

There will always be ups and downs For some people, in the office there they go way up, in the town they go way down. And this is what makes them very emotionally unstable. If they go to an office, if they go to work at a particular place, and they get a loss, then it's their fault anyway.

So I love this job. So the next job is over there. The next thing is that your boss needs a lot of feedback.

If they get a feedback, then they feel like vomiting from the front. So the idea is, oh, this is such a terrible job, I hate this job, why did I ever take this job? Nowadays, it's even about relationships. Now these people have a loving kind of relationship.

I love you, I can't live without you. I hate you, I can't live with you. It's just so unseemly.

This is the effect of love. Now, when the world becomes smaller for us, naturally, if the world becomes smaller, then what is the effect of it? I don't know. So just like there is weather in terms of the environment, there is what environmental weather is there.

Similarly, there is our emotional weather. So our emotional is somebody will be ill, somebody will die, and there's no need to get any bit affected by this. It is not, this verse is not saying that people should not feel ill.

You should not feel ill. That is not what the point is being made. Because naturally, if somebody raises their eyes, we feel happy.

Somebody criticizes us, we don't feel like that. That's just natural. But we don't get too affected by it.

Okay, well, somebody told me it's nice. It's better for spiritual work. It's very good for spiritual work.

How is it that we say that? Not pleasing, but not criticizing. It's because we think about it. And that is what we call, what does we call you? Taking.

Taking. Yes, taking for what? Yes, it's speaking for creating a diversity. Isn't it? It's like, this is the order, and says enemy attacks from here.

Enemy attacks from there. So the defence force says, defence force here, defence force here, defence force here, defence force here, defence force here. So enemy attacks from here.

Say, this defence force comes here, this defence force comes here. And there's no difficulty. So decoys are completely small attack on one side.

Isn't it? So your decoys are standard strategies. They're not considered cheating. They're just being cunning, being intimidating, being shrewd.

So decoys are used to try to deceive the opponents. So that they don't know, the enemy is not very sure from where we are going to attack. And I wish, okay, I think that's my point.

They're sure that we're coming here. But they don't sometimes know from where it is. And that's why we, that means, can't think of the person they may see.

So if I'm pious, we can consider it. So if we are, there is a 5-4 pressure. And we are all on a journey.

And along this journey, there is a 5-2 game. So if we just go straight, we'll get the 5-4s. Now here there is a 5-4 game, 5-2 game.

That means there is a 5-2 in front of you. And if you go there, the 5-2 will not come up to us. Or, say here, okay, Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Hare Krishna, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

Okay? So now here, there is a 5-2 loss. What does that mean? That, say here, somebody is coming, and they are stealing 5 rupees from our pocket. Now, 5 rupees is still a loss.

But say, if we start chasing that 5 rupees, then what happens is, we get the 5 rupees, but in the process, we are using the time that we could use to get to the 5-4 game. So this 5-2 game and 5-2 loss, both of these are like diversions. Because they are decoys.

So at the material level, we may get gain, we may get loss. But if we get too caught in it, then we can't focus on spiritual growth. We can't focus on spiritual growth.

And that's how we miss the opportunity to go closer to Krishna. We miss the opportunity to actually gain in our spirituality. So that's why it's very important that we focus on which battle is more important.

And which battle is less important. There are many battles to fight. But, say, sometimes in cricket, there is this thing called sledging.

Because sledging, sledging means, the Australian team was very infamous for sledging. They have a big paper, the closing papers, they tease the batsman, mock the batsman, speak some bad words to the batsman. And then the batsman gets angry with you.

And then the ball rolls, the batsman may hit the putt, go for a big shot. Maybe the batsman gets one sixer. But again the batsman has to go for a big shot.

And in that rush of words, in that anger, the batsman plays a foolish shot and gets out. So, now, okay, the batsman may want to establish one's dominance on the fielding team. That is fair enough.

But the dominance can be established just by smashing the ball for a sixer. Or the dominance can be established by just exhausting the ball. In one sense, in cricket, the bowler has to do much more work than the batsman.

The bowler has to run all the way down and hit it up and bring the ball. And the batsman can just avoid the ball, which is one of the most idealistic things. So, the batsman could very well exhaust the ball.

Isn't it? Or just play the ball defensively. And once the fielder, once the bowler is exhausted, once the fielder is exhausted, and the fielder has to stand all the way, then the batsman can attack him also. So, there are different strategies.

So, sometimes what happens is, in winning a small battle, we may end up losing the ball. So, for us, material gains are like small wins. Material losses are like small losses.

But in getting caught in these small wins and small losses, we end up actually losing the big war. Not only losing the big war, we forget even that we are fighting the big war. So, naturally you say, you come here for a spiritual retreat.

Now, maybe the accommodations that you are staying over here, for some of you, the accommodations may be good. For some of you, the accommodation may not be so good. Hopefully, for everybody, it is basically good.

But, say, if you are staying over here, you wanted to sleep near the window. And somebody else, like if you have a bad flight, you wanted the rear-view seat. And you want the middle seat.

Now, okay, the middle seat will be that way. Sometimes people from both sides can move. They are always getting to you.

In the middle seat, you can look at all the scenery. So, the middle seat is better. But, okay, you have a flight for 2 hours, 6 hours, 9 hours, 20 hours.

But, if you are going on a flight, you have some important job interview, whether it is for an assignment, important services there. You say, if because we do a tough process, we get so heated, we quarrel with other passengers, and then when we get down, there is such a bad mood that we can't do our job. Okay, if you are from Caesar's side, it is not that big a deal.

So, the idea is that we can avoid being affected by ups and downs, only when we have some bigger picture. That when Krishna is saying over here that ना विनंदति ना द्रोष्टि, don't praise the good, don't resent the bad. So, that is because, and this time, we are fighting a much bigger picture.

We are fighting a much bigger war. Say, I think, cricket is a very common game for us. suppose, say, a team needs 300-400 riyals to win.

And say, a batsman who scores a half century. Normally, if you score a half century, yeah, you celebrate. But, if somebody scores a half century, celebrating widely and they won the match.

Or, they score a century, that's a good thing. But, if winning the match is still far away, then if the batsman is serious and responsible, he is able to acknowledge. But after that, a lot more work still to be done.

Isn't it? So, that's not a small achievement. But, there is a far bigger thing to be done. I can't afford to get so excited that I forget the bigger thing.

So, the idea is that material ups and downs, they are small gains or losses. And, spiritual growth, spiritual advancement, that is like a big gain. So, when we focus on the big gain, either we are fixated on this, or we are fixated on that.

So, we have to choose what we are focused on. So, you don't want to say focus on this, we want to be much more focused on material and spiritual growth. So, in any field, the idea is, we are still in doubt about how, we have to become seriously aware that I am fighting a war.

But, when there is a war, in a war, there can be many matches. There is battle 1, battle 2, battle 5, battle 10. So, what does that mean? Many people say, India Pakistan match is there.

Maybe, there is India's star batsman against Pakistan's star bowler. Or, there could be, maybe India has a very good spitball batsman. And, India has a very good spitball.

Those are, they call it lineups or matchups within the match. So, yes, now, one batsman, maybe, one batsman will hit the head of the star bowler for very aggressive, just smashing for many sixes, many one-meters. That's good.

But, that doesn't mean, I am going to win the match. You know, that in a war, many matches may be fought. And, some battles, when you go to the front, you win the match.

So, it's like, the biggest battle in the world, the biggest battle, is to keep the biggest battle, the biggest battle. The biggest battle, is to keep the biggest battle, the biggest battle. Otherwise, the tendency is, to make the small battle very big.

Like, in the World Cup, it happened that India, defeated all other countries. But then, in the final, Australia lost. So, why we lost, there were various reasons for that.

But, the fact is, that we won all the other battles. But, when the biggest battle came up, either we got overwhelmed, or they were in better form, or whatever. You can win all the battles, but lose the biggest battle.

That's unfortunate. That's heartbreaking. So, Australia lost quite a few matches before.

They all over the world, they were defeated. But, in the final stages, they battled very well. They played very well.

So, in one sense, we don't just want to win each battle. We want to know, which battle is the bigger battle. And focus on the bigger battles.

So, this, equanimity of speech, and equanimity of emotion. Equanimity is telling us, that is indicating that, that is indicating that, a person is not getting caught in small battles. So, sometimes, if you are trying to serve Krishna, that means, you are trying to give a class.

And sometimes, after a class, some students ask very difficult questions. And, you may get answers about that, you may not get answers about that. You become very discouraged by that.

So, you think, oh, I didn't do this battle. But then, if, in learning, how to get the answers to those questions, we grow. Maybe, we were confident before, we become a little more mature, a little more serious about preparing.

Then, maybe, we didn't win that battle, but we become better prepared for the war in the future. Otherwise, say, one day, we go and we run to answer some questions, we feel so embarrassed. You know, people must have laughed at me, I am a fool of myself.

I never give a class anyway. Yeah, if you couldn't answer the question, that's a bad thing. But it's only the end of the world.

You don't take one class and do very well. Learn a little more. So, we don't want to let the small battles become too big a battle.

So, that way, this equality indicates that we know which battle is the big battle. So, after this, we may now focus on the 250 day dread talk about that if there is a war going on, we should be able to defend ourselves. In a war, there are two aspects.

Don't let the enemy come in. And then, we push back the enemy if the enemy is coming. We don't go away.

We go into the enemy directly. Now, in the modern history, the country that has won the most wars and won the wars from the most unlikely of situations is Israel. Israel is this tiny state very, very small surrounded by many Arab countries from various places.

So, in 1967, there were five countries which attacked Israel's Arab countries. And in six days, Israel not only defeated all five countries, but actually took a huge amount of land from them. And before that, Israel's size was one third.

But, after that, their size became three times. So, it is considered one of the most humiliating defeat for the Arab countries. It's like, you attack and instead of winning, you end up losing.

You go into the enemy directly and if you go into the enemy directly, you expect that the enemy directly will defend and will defeat you. But, Israel not only pushes them back, but actually steals a lot of land, strategic land from them. So, in any war, first, if the enemy is coming in, we stop them from coming in.

And then, when we push back, so that the enemy is brought back, we change the strategic direction very quickly. So, first, we focus on the defensive part. And then, we talk about the attack.

So, how does this happen? So, Krishna talks about this in 258 very first of all. It's an unknown verse and he's explaining the meaning. And then, we talk about it.

यता सम्हरते चायं यता means when or as सम्हरते is to take in, to draw in, चायं this certain word कूर्म अंगान्व सर्वशः कूर्म is what else? उंगान्व inside its body, सर्वशः all its limbs. So, उंगान्व the dog withdraws its limbs into its shell. The shell is very hard and protective.

So, there even if an elephant comes and stands on the shell unless the elephant is very big or very small, actually, the shell is very strong and can protect. So, कूर्म अंगान्व सर्वशः Similarly, इंद्रिया इंद्रिया थे इंद्रिया So, in the senses out there there is a vulnerability to be attacked by the sense objects. The sense objects will attractivate us and we will get lost in it.

So, what we need to do is withdraw the senses. तस्या प्रत्या प्रतिष्चिता So, when we withdraw the senses from the sense objects, that is the vice versa. So, let's recite this together three times.

यता संगान्वेशायम् उर्वो अंगान्विषा सर्वशः इंद्रिया इंद्रिया इंद्रिया इंद्रिया इंद्रिया इंद्रिया स्या प्रत्या So, essentially what happens for us is while we are functioning we can't live in the world with closed eyes. And we can't close our eyes we can't close our nose we can't close our ears we have a passive mind. So, basically we cannot have that we just shut off the sense objects.

what is the attack over here? We discussed attack happens when something inside us makes us do something that we don't want to do. Like the battle, the inner war that is there is between our values versus our desires. So, now if our values are stronger the values are greater than our desires then we win.

That means say if I want to study philosophy I want to do my academics study this is important for me I want to have a degree that is important for me and at that time a desire comes up this cricket match is going on this new movie has come about this TV series is going on that desire comes up. Now, if the ideal is strong then we say I don't want to do this but when the desire becomes strong then this one is eternal I have messed up what do I mean the desire arises from outside and inside basically if you can consider this is a sense and this is a sense object so sometimes this object comes to the sense that means we are just going along our way but the sense object comes in our path say we are going from our college to our hostel and along the way we see a theatre or there is a bar and some students go over there so they go out searching for it so sometimes the sense object comes to the senses and then the desire gets filled so here what happens is behind this section behind our senses is the mind and this goes lower further and here desire starts growing so this is the concept of outside in approach the others the inside out approach the inside out approach means that first the desire rises over me and then because the desire rises in real our senses go to the sense object so sometimes an alcoholic passes by a bar and then I would drink sometimes the alcoholic gets the desire where is the bar in the city and I go to the bar so this is the inside out kind of desire now which is more common outside in or inside out actually our two options which is the question asked the safest answer is both so we can say actually speaking our desires are the result of two kinds so one is more of a superficial desire and the other is more of a deep rooted desire superficial desire means because I saw something so I got the desire say eat anywhere please hungry whatever food is there I am ok to take that but then when we go and sit for prasad and we say there is some delicious food so I also like to have it that is more it is not that we had the desire within because the object came up so the desire won't be there inside but the inside of desire is say I am going to eat you know I will ask someone to cook it or we make some arrangement for it so what happens is there is an inside out desire so now when I am using the example of desire it is not all desires are equally bad we talk about it is not that I will rip out the skin from my head and always touch it so we use the word scratch also metaphorically now I am scratching my head this is what they are saying so the idea is so it is not that anytime we indulge in a desire that is going to be compensated now of course if you are giving a class and you start scratching your nose that is not a pretty sight it just looks very unpleasant but beyond that it is not going to get compensated so it is not that every desire if we indulge in it it is going to become addicted so it is basically when there is some disease already when there is some deep dissatisfaction with a person and then that desire becomes the way for the person to escape from that then that person becomes addicted i will talk about this a little more in our session tomorrow when we talk about how Krishna consciousness can help us to deliver desires but at this point let's let's talk about this principle that there are superficial desires and deep rooted desire superficial desire means oh there is a jalebi i will have to eat it and tomorrow there is no jalebi there is no desire but a deep rooted desire is my favorite food there i want it so if you see there are two different approaches there is much traditional wisdom also and like you have proverbs in the vedic tradition also there is a proverb called idea idea is the historical record so we have two distinct things one out of sight out of sight is out of mind but then there is an opposite thing separation makes the heart grow fonder when you don't have something that means heart grows fonder so desires are not monolithic monolithic means they are not all of one kind there are different kinds of desires so initially right now when we are talking about defense we are primarily talking about the superficial desires so it's like those are the desires which come from outside in remember when I was talking about outside in and inside out is that it's primarily the enemy attacking from outside the inside out is the spies from inside in they are sabotaging the spies from inside they just destroy our defenses so these superficial desires these are like the aggressors the aggressors are the invaders where are the deep rooted desires they are like the spies or the traitors they are insiders and from inside they destroy so now if the aggressors are coming from outside we can just use the machine gun and kill all of them but the spy in our own party we can't just use the machine gun and destroy because if we kill one spy we may kill 100 of our own soldiers so a categorically different strategy will be required for dealing with the aggressors and for dealing with the spies so for dealing with the aggressors what do we do? see every country needs to have some borders this is the border this is where you can stay this is where I will stay now you could say a country can have maximum security by having control over everything the country has no borders because it controls everything it controls everything now that's practically not possible maybe for some country it is possible but generally throughout human history we have been very aware that one king or one queen or one entity could rule everything so now America may have some control beyond its borders also it may have some influences in this part of the world that part of the world but its level of control to the military bases is not as much as it is in America itself so America has some military bases in the Middle East and from there they try to protect their interests but if someday somebody is attacked over there that's serious but if somebody comes to America and attacks like when the twin towers will attack that will attack even the military so the idea is that every country needs to have borders and then the borders they give a reference point for fighting what am I going to fight over what is the point of fighting the point of fighting is you are not allowed to come beyond this point so just as a country has borders a consciousness our consciousness is also like a guarantee a consciousness needs to have boundaries so to the extent we have boundaries yesterday I already talked about the concept of boundaries remember I talked about anger and different people everybody is angry but we all have certain amount of boundaries no matter how angry I get this is what I am holding even criminals may have some boundaries for example in prison I have been in prison in many parts of Brazil for being a child sexual abuser prisoners look like such a person but inside the prison the prisoners will actually attack and kill the child sexual abuser sex is there in everyone sexual abuse is there in everyone and maybe there are people who may also be rapists even they have some sense of decency they know how to attack children small children 5 year old 10 year old 6 year old 7 year old sexually violent small children so child sexual abusers are something which can hardcore criminalize the problem so the point here is that everybody has some boundaries and the idea of a boundary is what inside the boundary the behavior inside the boundary is acceptable so the behavior is acceptable the behavior outside is unacceptable so so right now I am giving a class and everyone of you is perfectly confident that the person sitting next to you is not going to suddenly enter into a spiritual camp like this then they already have a certain level of spiritual interest which also means they have a certain level of self discipline and you would expect that even the class would not accept behavior which is acceptable but this kind of behavior is not acceptable now sometimes in a classroom somebody may throw some shit from one person to another somebody hits somebody with a pencil there are some small these are not the best behavior some of it is not desirable which is acceptable but some things are unacceptable if its unacceptable then the professor would just say ok get out of the class so If you add only wheat, it depends, generally you have the intoxicant in it but are all the intoxicants limited only to a particular list of substances? If the intoxicant is a principle, then according to the psychologist sugar is the biggest intoxicant. So are you going to say no sugar? Well, no, that's a very much part of our tradition.

You add no sugar. So what happens is sometimes it may not be practical. So, the category can be simple.

Okay, I will not look at any obscene images. That's a category. But then what happens is the images going along are moving on the road and there are so many images that come in advertisements which may be categorized as obscene.

Then we don't want to look at them. We can't hold our eyes and look at them. So sometimes it may not be possible to say no to the entire category.

But whenever it's possible, this is very simple. An entire category, I'm going to say no. So for us, any food like meat is one food set of foods.

Now if we say we take a lot of meat, but then actually what we do also is we move food in the opposite direction. We actually end up having a higher standard. What that means is we may see a lot of food which we see here or there, but we say, okay, I'm not going to eat this.

So, unoffered food, we don't eat it. That's a category. Now, is a category always possible to follow? Generally, yes.

If you are a vegetarian, you can follow that. But the category is that it uses a black and white boundary very clearly. But in everything, a black and white boundary may not be possible to have.

So the second is accountability. Now accountability means that accountability can be to some others or it can be to self. So for example, if somebody is struggling with diabetes and they try to give up sugar, but they find it very difficult.

Then, if they have some diet consultant, some doctor or some friend, the diet friend may tell them, every week you keep a track of what all you eat and you submit a report on that. Now what happens is, if somebody, okay, I started eating one gulab jamun, I ate twenty gulab jamuns. Now if I do that, does this remind me that I ate twenty gulab jamuns? And then, if you tell someone else that you ate twenty gulab jamuns, it's a bit embarrassing.

So what happens is, just the fact that I have told someone else, and that creates a deterrent. So if you have someone else, you are going to tell him what you did. So alcoholism is a very important, accountability part.

So whenever somebody has a relapse, or somebody has the urge to relapse, at the end they try to call their partner and talk with him. So we need some kind of accountability. Now why is the internet so easily available? Some people say, some social critics are saying that our technology has become too strong for our morality.

Bad, bad. And now in 15 minutes, we can see more obscene imagery than what even the wealthiest person in the world could see in 50 years. Because in the past, you had to get physical books.

How many physical books can you get? And how many can you keep? Like a person can have a whole library full of, full of obscene images. And more than that, it's so easily accessible. So it's very difficult.

If somebody is accountable, it's difficult. It's understandable. That doesn't mean it's acceptable.

That doesn't mean it's certainly desirable. But it's true, it's a difficult situation. So then, having some software installed on our device, and maybe somebody else checks what kind of science we have visited, that is some kind of accountability.

That can be helpful. Now, if you have accountability with others, the positive is that it becomes like a strong deterrent. Deterrence means something which prevents us from where we belong.

A strong deterrent. But the negative is, it is difficult to find. It is difficult to find the right person for this.

If you know someone who is too heavy, and you know someone who is too soft. If somebody is too heavy, one mistake and that person just piles on us so heavily, we start feeling like, he may have lost his IP. We feel completely discouraged.

And if a person is too light, then what happens is, we just keep collecting the same thing. So it's not so easy to find. Now the other is, we can do it with ourselves.

The positive is that, so how do we do it with ourselves? Maybe, we give some time for introspection. We do journaling on a daily basis. And by that, we write down.

Some people think that journaling is writing down all the evidence that we need. That takes time to consume. And it's not reproductive.

But what we can do is, we can put this in a journal. We can say, this is the person who is too light. If I have a negative shock level, then I record all the evidence.

Either I did something that is too high, or this is what I did wrong. Did I speak for one minute and didn't stop? Did I wait for 10 minutes? Did I stop? Why did I stop? Is it because I myself felt wrong when I stopped? Or is it because the third person came and I didn't want the third person to see? How I am dealing with this person? So, try to record it ourselves. You know what happens? It's like, yesterday I said, sometimes we don't even realize that we are losing the enemy.

Because we don't even realize who we are in the war. And say, if there is no well-defined boundary, or if you don't check the boundary, then you may find, hey, this was in our territory. But the enemy has come and taken 10 miles of land away.

So, accountability is required. So, say, some young people, they are born with money. They have a lot of money.

Maybe from their parents. The parents give them a credit card. You can do what you want with it.

Now, if someone is like that, you ask them, where do you spend your money? So, you don't know where you spend your money. And if you don't know where they spend the money, there is no way to find out why you spend the money. Isn't it? So, basically, first there has to be accounting.

And then there can be accountability. Accounting means, okay, spend this money here, spend this money there, spend this money there. Then why did you spend so much money on this? Could you have got this from a cheaper account? Okay.

So, when there is accounting, then there will be accountability. So, a journal helps us to do some accounting. So, it's like, what we could say is, we could do accounting of our time, how much time we have spent over there.

All of us, we feel, I don't have time. And still, all of us have less time, and we have also things to do. But if there is no time to do it, if we try to do it, we can't.

So, accounting. So, now, the positive of this is that it's relatively easy. Easy to do.

We don't need any other person. We can just decide every day, I'm going to spend 5 minutes, I'm going to write down, which were the incidents when I got angry, which were the incidents when I overreacted, or if we are being over-sensitive, or spending too much time on social media. So, then we can decide, how much time did I spend, how much time was it necessary, when did it become unnecessary, when was it almost unnecessary, but it was completely undesirable.

So, when I read that news, when I read that news, that might just be a waste of time. From where, it might go to areas where it's not just distracting, but also confusing. So, we can keep accounting of that.

But the negative of that is, it's also easy to avoid. Like that, one of my friends is struggling with, he had a heart attack, after that he had to, have a pill, he's eating, but after taking that, you have to keep track of how much calories you eat. So, he said that, whenever I would eat too much, I would just not enter my journal, and I would say, I forgot to do that.

So, what I have to do, I have to enter my journal, so that's the problem with accountability to oneself, we can just dodge it very easily. Now, the third way, you can have vulnerability, is through space. Because, we create some distance.

Say for example, if an alcoholic, is trying to recover from alcoholism, and a phone, is right next to a bar, then, what is going to happen? There is no bar, for them to go to the bar. Everyone has moments of weakness. And in the moments of weakness, then when the urge comes up, if the opportunity is very easily available, the person will immediately touch.

So, if a person is really sick, or serious about recovering from alcoholism, they may have to reload. And you know, I have to constantly write to the bar. Now a days, not everyone is ready, and patients, and there is everyone in the hospital, everyone in the hospital.

So, they may decide to do that. So, the idea is, first of all, alcoholism is, we just can't have the control to some extent. So, if we are studying our work, and our tendency is just to pick up the phone, and put up one message, and put up ten messages, and then we use all the time.

And then we decide, and I know, you know, so our mind is always there, with all kinds of messages. But, we have to, with the phone right next to us, we just pick up one message. We have to walk to the next room, and then look at the messages.

It's way too much, I don't have time for all this. That's why we have a friend of mine, what he does is, because now a days, we have a lady Shastra also on devices. So, he says, whenever it is Shastra writing time, he reboots his phone, and he talks to her.

So, there, under the Vedas, he turns on, and he reads from the Vedas Shastra. And if I move there one hour, now, if in between, I go under the WhatsApp message, I look at the messages. Then, what he has to do is, turn off the phone, again turn it on, for the safety of the environment, and then, you turn on the app.

So, there you go. So, this is related with time. So, space and time.

So, time could mean that, so, space basically means what? Diagrammatically, this is the sense, and this is the sense object. So, here there is very little space. But if we arrange in such a way, that the sense object is far away, there is some substantial space over here.

So, how do we create that space, that is for us to decide, based on our political situation. We can try to create that space, so that, take an example, if in our food center, we have a library. And most libraries, you know, we eat food.

Some libraries might be allowed, but normally, libraries are not the place to eat. Because food can be distracted. Normally, the manager wants some snacks.

What does he make? I got a snack attack. Sometimes, he is actually hungry, sometimes he is bored, sometimes he is studying, and he has nothing to do. Something to munch on.

Then, he is making, the place where he is studying, there will be a drawer, he is making some food. Then, he will pick up the food, start eating, start eating, and he will not realize how much he is eating. But, if he could go to some other place, he will go to that place, and get that food.

So, it takes some time, it takes some effort, but space protects us. So, now, what does time mean? Time means, we will decide that, ok, every morning, I normally turn on my social media, till 9 o'clock. So, till this particular point, no social media.

Now, if we decide that, no, but you know, I have some manager responsibilities, and I have seen somebody else worked at me. Then, if we decide, ok, only this particular half hour, we will work. And then, I will look at it, and we will work.

So, we try to create some boundaries, in terms of time. So, now, the space and time, both of them are very similar. The positive of space and time is that, it is, for most cases, it is doable.

It may not be doable all the time, but it is doable. So, the negative of this is, also that it is invariable. I may decide to do it, and I may just do it at any time.

But, if we can erect the boundary, then we can protect. If we can establish the boundary, then that helps us to fight. That helps us to defend ourselves.

Now, of course, boundaries alone are not enough. Later on, Krishna will say, dhyayato nidhiyo naam kumsava. But, what is the example over there? Small contemplation, that can eventually lead to, panashyati, self-destruction.

So, it is like, you have built a boundary wall, but you let the enemy, make a small hole in the boundary wall. And, if they make a small hole, in whatever way, once they make a small hole, they will break. Maybe, just a small hole is enough, and they put some dynamite in that small hole.

And then, if the dynamite is outside, that can also blow the wall. But, if the dynamite is inside the wall, then the whole wall gets broken. So, the idea is, Krishna says that, it is not just enough.

So, with respect to boundaries, first, they have to be, built. And then, after that, the boundaries have to be protected. We have to make sure that, others don't, destroy the boundaries.

In 2.58, he is talking about, establishing the boundaries, through the example of a metaphor. But then, in 2.62-2.63, Krishna is saying that, this is a small contemplation. That contemplation is like a, a hole in the boundary.

And from that hole in the boundary, sometimes things may happen. That hole we can see later. But sometimes, from that small contemplation, we may go towards, self-destruction.

So, how this happens, and how this can be prevented, through the more positive strategy. You don't want to just defend, you also want to counter-attack. So, if there is dynamite in that hole, then, the whole boundary was destroyed.

So, like that, we have to be careful that, we establish the boundary, the boundary will protect us, provided we protect the boundary. Isn't it? It's a two-way thing. And the walls will protect us, but, we have to make sure that, we ensure the wall is not destroyed.

So, the boundary, it protects us, and then we also protect the wall. It's both ways. And by that, we can be safe.

So, in Bhakti, there are rules and regulations. The rules that you follow, are like the boundaries. And these boundaries, help us, to win, or at least not be defeated, in the war against temptation.

So, I'll summarize, what we discussed today. Mainly, discussed three times, in the war against temptation. The first one we discussed was about how, in the war, we need, to keep, the biggest battle, the biggest fight.

We need to fight the biggest battle, and not the smaller battles. So, material gain, and material loss. These are like the, smaller battles.

The fight will be gain, or fight will be loss. Whereas, spiritual growth, will be like a, fight for gain. We want to keep fighting the bigger battle, and that's why, we need the grand routine.

We don't get caught in the small battle, because otherwise, we will be caught, and avoided by the decoys. So, these are small things. And then, we discussed about, if you want to fight that period of war, then, we need boundaries.

And, with respect to the boundaries, what they do is, they give, they take for a country, the consciousness needs boundaries, just like a country needs, boundaries. What they do is, they use a clear cut reference point, for fighting. Otherwise, what is it that you have to fight over? So, boundaries they define, they separate, acceptable behavior from, unacceptable behavior.

So, we discussed boundaries of, four kinds. C was a, category. Like, this whole thing, this category, A was, accountability.

Accountability, there were two kinds. One was, to others, the other is to, ourselves. S was, space.

And, D was, time. So, this was the major part of the class. The third one we discussed was, that, we need to, there is 2.6263 years, as an example, a bone, in a boundary, in a wall, by the way.

See, that's right. It's like a small, ditch, a small contemplation, on a sense object. That can lead to destruction.

Similarly, this can also lead to destruction. So, we need to, the boundaries will protect us, but we need to protect the boundaries. So, the words are saying, dharma rakshati dharma.

That those who protect dharma, are protected by dharma. So, like that, protect boundaries, the boundaries protect. This way, we all, can, at least, defend ourselves, in the, human world.

Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. Any questions, or comments? Yes, please go ahead.

You go first, I'll come after you. Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna Guruji.

Thank you for, such nice words. Guruji, actually, I have heard, at one place, that, they, this way, they like, they, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, have that kind of thing. But it's not that, This is the problem that we face in many fields in India.

Many times, if there is no actor, then there is no drama. Even the man gets excited, his phone comes out. So, in the same way, there is no storm if the person is not attracted.

So, attraction, then there can be no reproduction. You know, it always happens like that. But that's one of the purely sociological reasons why even non-religious people are talking about not using porn.

They are talking about using non-article. What is it? So, more people are exposed to porn. And in pornography, all kinds of weird and exaggerated sexual images come up in people's minds.

That's what I want to ask you. So, what happens is that people get sexually excited or agitated only when they see these exaggerated sexual images. And even when they are excited, they don't see that.

And there is this whole world, which is actually preventing people from having sex. And then, people just can't unite, people can't reproduce. So, the problem is that the idea is that a person can't reproduce.

The person has to move away. So, lust itself has its movement. As long as the body is there, lust is going to be there.

Because that's the way it is. And also, the dharma, vidhya, vipeshu, kama, namaskara, darshana. I use the word kama itself over there.

So, in the Gita, kama has both an affirmation and a premonition. The negative is that we discuss in three verses to God is me. That Krishna says, kama means Shiva, Krishna means God.

But, we read this 7th, 10th and 11th, where Krishna talks about that when kama, the problem with karma, Krishna says, I am that karma. What does that mean? That means, actually, birth or the creation of a new life form is a miracle. And how it happens? It's actually a biological miracle.

When a couple wants to have a child, they are not able to have a child. They go to a doctor. Now, they go out there for a genetic test.

They get pregnant with each other. So, there is a mystery. And in biological evolution, they like a male and a female.

Actually, they are not able to conceive. So, there is some element of mystery. Where Krishna says, I am the prajanjana.

So, just to mention without responses, that's not good. But, it is a positive realization. So, when we say, as by the way, there is no truth.

Because, the idea is that there is no truth. There is also a truth at a particular level. And this is a parallel to production.

It's a parallel to production. So, we will experience this. Krishna's version is a positive version.

It means, apparently, he says, He says, It's a very curious phrase. Nakamakami means, Don't be a desirer of desire. Don't be a desirer of desire.

Not that, do not be. What does it mean? So, basically, Because it is a consciousness, Kama can refer to the temptation or the proposition. The proposition can come in from outside.

And Kama can refer to the intention. Once I get the intention, then I do the action. So, Krishna is emphasizing this 2.7, although the desire may come, but the inclination to fulfill the desire is not there.

What it means is that, say, for example, Ekadashi. If we see some delicious food, we have the desire to eat it, right? No, we do not want it. So, the desire may come, but the inclination is not there.

So, that is where our inclination comes in. And Krishna says that, So, as far as the desire comes, there is a difference between perception and contemplation. They are not the same thing.

Perception and contemplation. Krishna does not say, He says, What does contemplation mean? Contemplation actually involves some imagination. It is not just the perception of a certain subject that triggers desire within us.

It is the imagination that is associated with it. When there is imagination, that is when the desire starts to grow. When there is no imagination, then there are no desires.

Say, if you are travelling by train, and while you are sleeping, and it is an overnight train, but you do not have a bed, you do not have a sleeping mat, so you are sitting and sleeping. And if a person is sleeping next to you also, maybe that person will get up and go somewhere, and someone else will come and sit over there. And you are sleeping, and then maybe that person is sitting next to the female.

And our body may be touching that female. But we may not be aware. Body is just the body.

It is not that there is a significant difference. I am just giving an example. If there is no imagination, and even the physical touch is there, there is no agitation by it.

So, because what is happening is, the perception in the sense that my body touches someone else's body is there, but the contemplation involves imagination. Imagination is what triggers the desire. So, if somebody is a doctor, and the doctor has to treat a patient, and the patient is a female, you are attached to a patient, and then the doctor has to train some machine, so that you are not focusing on imagining over there, you are focusing on investigating the physical health of the patient.

So, if the doctor can't do that, then the doctor may not be a professional. It is not always easy. But the point is that it is not just the perception that leads to agitation.

It is the imagination associated with perception. And we have the capacity to regulate the imagination. It can come from a sense of responsibility, when the doctor is a patient, and the patient is a female, and the patient is in a serious condition, the patient may attract a young woman, but the doctor says, it is critical care, I have to take care of this patient.

A sense of responsibility getting together. So, a sense of morality also can be there in that. In that, generally speaking, say somebody has a sister, the sister may attract her, but a sense of morality is there.

We won't imagine everything. So, the perception and the imagination are two separate things. Dhrushyato and dhyayato.

So, dhrushyato cannot be avoided. But dhyayato is a matter of choice. And in that, when we avoid that, contemplation is actually means what? It is our emotions are getting triggered.

And the emotions are triggered by an act of imagination. Imagination. Okay, I will give you an example, maybe you will probably get it.

But let's take a little moment, let's organize that. Suppose there is a Bharatanatyam dance going on, and Krishnaji has been there. And maybe it is a young woman who has depicted that.

Now, if somebody is just a lusty person, then all that person is going to say, it is a female body, they will get attracted, they will agitate. But somebody else, who is an expert Bharatanatyam, that the person is a female, is there. It is not that you are blind to that.

But the focus is on how expertly the person is dancing. And you know, which Leela are they depicting? How well are they depicting that Leela? So, what is happening is, there, the attention, the emotion, the imagination, is not going in a sexual direction. But it is going to go in an analytical or emotional direction.

So, perception is there, but after that, the imagination, where it goes, that, at least we have some choice. So, we will continue tomorrow. And tomorrow, we will be discussing about the concept of, while Paramahamsa is mentioning this section, we will elaborate it in the next section.

So, how Bhakti itself can help us to not only defend ourselves, but actually counterattack and to win the war. And what winning the war actually means? Does it mean that we are forever free from desires? What does winning the war mean? All that we will discuss in tomorrow's final session. Thank you very much.

Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna.