Bhagavatam-daily 128 – 11.08.44 – Worldly desire is the cause of suffering and is itself suffering

From bondage to desires by the sword of detachment thank you bhagavatam 11 8 44 it’s the last verse of the chapter on pingala although the whole chapter is said to be about pingala the story that’s called story of pingala but it starts from practically the 21st text 22nd text and then it moves onwards so a little more than half of it is about pingala but because the remaining is not about one focused topic it is about talking about how the different senses can tempt and entangle so examples for the various senses are given so that which is a major part of the chapter is called the chapter title so here there are two parts in this last verse which the author is speaking the second half that c and d of the verses that the cutting off the desire for lovers after cutting off her desire for lovers what did she do she happily went off to sleep so so come again this might seem anticlimactic but as we discussed in the previous talk for a business for a shopkeeper to not be able to do any business throughout the day the shopkeeper may well lose the night’s sleep because of anxiety but pingala is peacefully going off to sleep so again her peacefully sitting on her bed mentioned in the previous words and her happily going to sleep in this words both indicate that her detachment is for real so with c and d the story concludes and in a and b the lesson from the story is reiterated in a different way so at the start of the past time when in the 27th verse he said 28th verse when he said that hear my song so it was said detachment the shackle of desire see here a c is a sword so for people this is a sword so detachment is a sword that that frees one from the shackles of desire but that same point is stated in a different way here when it is said that desire is the cause of the greatest suffering and freedom from desire is the cause of happiness now when we especially when a person is an addict person can have a very clear realization of this say person is addicted to smoking so everybody around is just living peacefully maybe doing some constructive work relaxing chatting and this person is internally tormented by the desire for that cigarette and then that desire is pulling at the sign pulling it’s like invisible rope and that so before the indulgence there is this agitation there is a craving that is a dukkha during the agitation during the indulgence also there is a dukkha that oh it’s going to get over and then after that there is a frustration it got over or there is otherwise frustration oh i had resolved not to indulge in why did i indulge in it either way why did i do it or why did i get over whichever way one may regret it but one has to regret eventually now we may say what is so much a big deal about smoking a cigarette no but this principle applies to all desires now this principle of wasn’t smoking once may not be a big thing but actually when the desires grow and when the desires drag us lower and lower they eventually make us do such terrible things that we become become bound by karma in fact all the all the suffering that we get is a reaction to our sinful karma and we do sinful activities because we are we are impelled by our desires to do those activities so in this way all the suffering even if someone doesn’t agree that desire itself is the is the suffering but desire is definitely the cause of suffering whatever agitation we face is either because of the present desire that we have or is it or is it a it is a reaction to a past desire that we have had either way we suffer now as contrast to desire the freedom from desire desirelessness is the supreme happiness and now here the word desire is used in a specific sense of material desire in this very song and and this just a few verses before this the audubh brahmana has recited the song of the prostitute pingala gita and there she has said that she how she had spiritual desires so in 36th verse she had said that 35th verse actually right i’m going to offer myself to him and i’ll purchase him and i’ll enjoy with him the way ramadevi is enjoying and munaivaham so she’s again said that how am i going to enjoy with him alone and definitely i’ll offer my soul and at a spiritual level i’ll enjoy so enjoyment itself is not denied in fact she has made a resolve to enjoy spiritually and that is not what is talked about in this verse here so spiritual desires are definitely desirable what is nirasha referred to that we should not have material desires because material desires are the cause of illusion bondage and suffering so the freedom from those desires is like persons breaking free from a jail now once the person is broken free from the jail after that that person can move onwards and do other things and go back home so it is what one does after one is free that is the source of supreme happiness say like that once we come once we become free from material desire then we can practice devotional service purely even now we can definitely practice devotional service but our devotional service right now is not pure and because it is not pure so the happiness that we experience from it is also not uninterrupted because the happiness is remembering and serving krishna comes as long as we are remembering and serving krishna but as long as we have material desires those desires keep distracting us and that’s why we can’t remember and serve and that’s why we stay in illusion that’s why we cannot experience that’s why we don’t stay connected with krishna we stay in illusion and because we’re disconnected from krishna so we cannot experience happiness constantly so a solution is that yes nairasya paramsukham means it is true that detachment is a cause of suffering detachment is the source of happiness how because detachment enables us to rise to the level of pure devotion and once one level seems to pure devotion then there is pure spiritual emotion oceanic spiritual emotion so krishna first he talks about a journey you rise from sense gratification to worldly activities to prescribe dharma that is from 18.40 onwards krishna starts talking and he moves onwards talking about varna ashram then he talks about then he comes to bhakti yoga or rather from jnana yoga after one attains perfection krishna points out that after one has come to the brahman level after that there is the pure so it is mentioned that in my devotion so now the key again for us to do this change is to so for us so when we understand that for us to change our heart we need to there also it is said that we get pure devotion from someone said so that paravakti will come when there is purity there is brahma buddha on the spiritual platform is free from hankering and lamenting then one can paravakti religious pure devotion so that is specifically not a easy thing to do but the more we absorb ourselves in devotional service the easier it becomes because we get the higher taste and that way you are able to