Bhagavatam-daily 105 – 11.08.21 – Learn to differentiate pseudo-hunger from hunger

Control and conquer our senses.
Thank you. Till that point the person is not to be considered as having conquered the senses. Till what point? The person may have conquered other senses but till the person till the point the person has not conquered the tongue that person has conquered all the senses when the tongue is conquered so the Brahmana here when instructing Maharaja Yadu about what he learned from the fish he is elaborating on the principles of learning from the fish and he is stating here that actually it is self-sense control is incomplete without control of the tongue and it becomes complete when the tongue is controlled.
Usually the sexual urge is considered to be the strongest force binding us to material existence and that is definitely true. But certainly the sexual attraction drags us down to bodily consciousness and locks us in bodily consciousness and prevents us from arising to spiritual consciousness with the hope of getting some future pleasure at the bodily level itself. So there is no denying the centrality of sexual attraction, sexual desire which is associated with the genitals in the bondage to material existence.
At the same time conquering the senses that has to in that the tongue plays a very vital role because the tongue is the source the mouth is the source of food for the body but in the mouth there is the tongue and the tongue is the source of not just the hunger for food but it is also the source of pseudo-hunger, greed for food. So when we are so when the tongue becomes greedy at that time oh our hunger signal which comes from within the body misfires and that is replaced by the pseudo-hunger signal means we are actually not hungry but we think we are hungry. It is not the biological hunger of the body it is the sensual hunger of the tongue which wants to taste delicious foodstuffs.
So usually the pseudo-hunger is characterized by two features untimeliness and selectiveness. Untimeliness means suppose we have put fuel in our car and we know that this fuel is meant to last for say 120 kilometers but then after 60 kilometers only suddenly the fuel meter starts giving empty signal or low fuel signal then we will understand hey probably this fuel meter is faulty. So if we know that the fuel tank is not leaking and there is no other way the fuel can be consumed can have been consumed then when we get a fuel low fuel signal we understand that the meter is malfunctioning.
So like that we need to understand that when we suppose we have eaten enough food at one meal and then that is meant to keep us nourished and running till the next meal but suddenly halfway down we start feeling very hungry. So we should know that this is pseudo-hunger. Our hunger meter has been hijacked by the tongue and its control now is not coming from the body it is coming from the tongue itself and this is pseudo-hunger.
So the first is untimeliness. The second characteristic of pseudo-hunger is selectiveness. When we are very when we are pseudo-hungry then we want a specific food.
Hunger basically wants food to fill the belly. Pseudo-hunger wants a specific kind of food. You know we cannot be hungry for gulab jamuns or pakodas.
That is pseudo-hunger and this does not mean that we should never eat delicious food but it is just to here to recognize the point that we should be able to differentiate between hunger and pseudo-hunger. So selectiveness is a good sign that a fairly reliable sign that our hunger is pseudo-hunger. Now of course we can be selective if there is there is an opportunity like there are several items to it and we can choose according to our preferences what we want to take if there is a feast.
It is not wrong to be selective but the combination of untimeliness and selectiveness can make us enslaved by the tongue. So from the tongue the passionate desires for sense enjoyment all over the body get fueled and as long as the tongue is uncontrolled then even if there is control of the other senses still because the tongue is craving for food and when the tongue is pandered to then from there the desires will spread to all the other senses. That is why there are people in the renounced order who may give up sexual desire but still sometimes they are very attached to food and that attachment if it is not kept under regulation then that can become the cause of bondage.
That can pose a danger. So when one is taking food as Krishna’s mercy seeing that as the Krishna Prasad that has been. Jai Sanam Mahaprabhu would take delicious foodstuffs but sometimes he would be able to live on very austere foodstuffs also and when he would take delicious foodstuffs he would be seeing that as oh this food has touched the lips of Krishna and this food has its flavor has been enhanced by the saliva of Krishna’s lips.
How nectarean is it? Now if we don’t have to go around judging other devotees you know oh this devotee is greedy this devotee has uncontrolled tongue or whatever rather than being judgmental about other devotees now then especially if advanced devotees are there they may well be taking Prasad in spiritual consciousness as Krishna’s mercy and we have to look at our own consciousness and we have to see what is the result on our consciousness. If we overeat generally speaking our other tongue our senses also get agitated. So for example if we overeat we may be in goodness but when we overeat either we sink like a stone falling into water and going right to the bottom we just sink from goodness to ignorance and just become lazy and sleepy or when we eat a lot eat delicious food we may not feel sleepy but we feel a craving for other forms of sense gratification and in that way we become entangled, trapped, bound.
So we by absorbing ourselves in Krishna says that in his purport to the he states that actually when we connect ourselves with Krishna through bhakti when we get a higher taste through the practice of bhakti then the lower taste will go away. So the control of the senses is not just a matter of saying no to sensory desires it is saying yes to our spiritual desires. The soul has a natural spiritual desire to love and serve Krishna and we say yes to the spiritual desire by connecting by practicing bhakti by connecting with Krishna in whatever manifestation is most appealing to us.
So now when we feel agitated by desires to eat food at one level we can just use the same tongue to chant the holy names and get the taste of Krishna through that same tongue and when the tongue gets the taste and when we get the taste of Krishna then that tongue’s craving for food will go away and along with chanting the holy names we can also memorize specific verses and recite those verses also because sometimes when our mind is too turbulent then although Krishna manifests as the holy name the turbulent mind doesn’t allow any contact between our consciousness and Krishna to happen even when we are chanting the holy names that means we are so distracted by the turbulent mind by the turbulent senses it can be tongue also here from the desire from the tongue will go to mind also and it will block us from block the contact of our consciousness with Krishna even when we chant the holy names and then we don’t experience the higher taste and so the lower taste keeps tormenting us so sometimes if we memorize some verses about controlling the tongue like these three verses that are there we recite these verses then the recitation of the verses offers both a both a spiritual and intellectual input for us they act as spiritual and intellectual strengtheners for us in our battle against temptation spiritual because this is coming from scripture the sound vibration is extremely sacred and potent but along with that it’s intellectual also because there are philosophical points being made over here and the scripture gives us something for our intellect to for our intelligence to munch on and thereby become activated and energized and thus with the combination of the with the intelligence we can silence the mind we can silence the tongue and let Krishna come in contact with the consciousness and then when Krishna comes in contact with the consciousness then the higher taste will come and the lower taste will be will become silent will go away will be defeated so thus by absorbing ourselves in Krishna and by determinately bringing ourselves back to Krishna when we get distracted