Bhagavatam-daily 112 – 11.08.28 – Let the imagery of war energize spiritual life

Thank you 11 8 28 tashya nirvinna chittaya so the avadhut brahmana is continuing the description of the past time of pingala the story of pingala and here is the tashya nirvinna chittaya she offered nirvinna chittaya nirvinna nirveda and nirvinna seem similar but there’s a difference in their meanings nirveda is detachment nirvinna is largely disgust so disgust can lead to detachment and that’s what is going to happen to her nirvinna chittaya she became disgusted with her own situation what is this i am sitting like a beggar over here hoping that someone will come and give me some alms and what is this i am pursuing pleasure and hoping for getting a lover and getting some money in this whole way this whole thing is and as her consciousness became detached then she spoke her thoughts in the form of a song now she was a prostitute so she could she had the skills to sing but here we will see that she’s she recites a song which is sung in sanskrit so there are different levels of prostitutes also there are common sluts and there are high society high society prostitutes society women who you know who have a elite clientele and who have expensive charges so she pingala it seems although at this particular time she was like a prostitute on the street she is she by her past culture upbringing or whatever knows sanskrit and she will recite a song in sanskrit so as she spoke the song that i will recite so till now it was a narrative going on but now there’ll be a the character speaking directly in the first person and i further so because of nirvana because of a detachment because of her disgust detachment awoke that was mentioned in the previous verse of the nirvod the paramo jagge so that nirveda what asha pasha now desires are like they are like shackles ropes that bind us trap us and then for a person who is bound by the shackle of desires so detachment is like a sword that cuts off the desires that shackle us so now this song is an expression of her detachment of how with her detachment she is going to cut off the shackle of desires so in spiritual life the war metaphor is often used to convey the gravity of the situation and to also stimulate a courageous spirit akin to a fighting spirit i mean war in real life is quite brutal when warriors or soldiers have to live in cold and hunger and thirst and in sometimes barren areas it’s quite painful but in the popular imagination war is often glamorized how their heroes go and either laying down their life selflessly or fearlessly charging into the enemy’s ranks and blowing them down with their prowess in their skills or heroes who are like people above everyone else expert in skills and expert in weapons so there is a in the popular imagination war is often glamorized although to some extent there is also the counter which comes from the live depiction of wars nowadays happening through television sometimes where the ghastly results of war are also being seen but anyway the point is because war catches the imagination and fires the imagination so to ensure that the imagination is not fired only by worldly desires and the dreams for pursuing those desires because in general our imagination gets fired very quickly by sensuality we see some one image we hear one sight and then the imagination goes and practically catches fire and just goes from one thought to another thought to another thought and soon we find ourselves engaging in sensuality and wondering why did I do that so the imagination which catches fire because of various things that imagination needs to be spiritualized so of course when we have love for Krishna naturally our imagination will get spiritualized we will see say one peacock feather and immediately the thoughts will rush towards Krishna and we’ll think of his face and his lips and his eyes and his nose and his complexion and about everything about him and we see that this happens for advanced devotees Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would sometimes just get one glimpse of Krishna and would fall unconscious or will become mad and run chase after that particular play chase after a particular vision so that spiritual sparking of the imagination is wonderful but that is something which we are far away from so right now to kick-start our imagination often metaphors are useful metaphors are implied comparisons when like is used in the comparison then it is a simile otherwise it’s a metaphor but either way there is a comparison and by comparing one thing to another which is familiar so by comparing an unfamiliar thing with a familiar thing then the unfamiliar is made familiar and whatever emotions connotations meanings are associated with the familiar they get associated with the unfamiliar because of the correlation between the two so similarly here we see that actually the correlation between imagination and sorry the correlation between renouncing desires and war is done here by using a sword by using the metaphor of a sword to refer to detachment Nirveda so normally the in the at least the popular media it is pursuing sense gratification getting sense gratification that is glamorized say a boy and a girl they pursue each other in spite of hundreds of obstacles the families are opposed maybe their financial institutions are different they come from different cultural backgrounds and still they pursue a romantic relationship and when they succeed in that and the audience which has been cheering them throughout it erupts so with applause so the point is that often the imagery of fighting against opposition of waging a war is used for the pursuit of sense gratification and in that way whatever emotional energy is there which the war metaphor or the battle metaphor brings that gets used in the pursuit of sense gratification but by using imagery of the war for the renunciation of sense gratification then that image that energy associated with that imagery can be diverted that means say if you are sitting and chanting Hare Krishna now that doesn’t seem to be at all a glamorous activity or you’re just sitting and uttering some mantra then it’s often difficult to become excited although it’s the most exciting activity because through the chanting we are remembering Krishna who is a supremely exciting person and we are coming in contact with him and as we become more and more purified more and more excitement will awaken in our heart by our increased remembrance of Krishna but at this stage it doesn’t seem to be at all an exciting activity so if we stimulate our imagination with some metaphor every mantra that I’m chanting it is like a punch I’m giving on the narthas in my mind there’s a lust there’s anger there’s greed so what to speak of every mantra no every word of the mantra that I chant it’s like I’m delivering one punch and every month every word it’s like the punch being evaded by the opponent so just this imagery can stimulate our imagination so like that here the imagery of detachment is used to convey to us that the positive and the exciting side of using detachment as a sword so suppose we are shackled and then somebody we will treasure that sword and slash slash slash we’ll cut off the ropes and break free so by comparing asha with apash by comparing desires with shackles and by comparing detachment with a sword the imagination is fired and we feel inspired to use to treasure the sword of detachment and to use the sword of detachment for shackling of the desires that bind us so here the pingala is now because of nirveda which is acting like a asi a sword she has become detached and what are the thoughts that lead to this remarkable detachment that she will share from the next verse onwards thank you