Bhagavatam-daily 137 – 11.09.12 – Exhaust the fuel of material desire by kindling spirtual desire

Smt bhagavatam 11, 19, 12 yasmin mano labdhapadam yadetaj chanai shanair munjati karamarenun sattvena vriddhena rajas tamascha vidhuya nirvana upaiti anindhanam daudh brahmana is talking about the power of the mind anindhanam indhan is fuel anindhanam is without fuel so just as fire burns out when there is no fuel yasmin mano labdhapadam yadetaj yasmin whose feet or padam can mean feet, padam can also mean situation means when the mind mano labdhapadam when the mind attains the situation of the shelter of the lord yadetaj chanai shanair munjati karamarenun chanai shanair slowly step by step munjati gives karamarenun the contamination of karma materialistic activities sattvena vriddhena rajas tamascha so what is that karamarenu that is the contamination of three more sattva ruddha sattva rajas tamascha vidhuya nirvana vidhuya means to be cleansed away to be given nirvana the extinction of material existence upaiti anindhanam so just as when the fuel is stopped at that time the fire gets extinguished similarly the material existence which is fueled by the three modes of material nature gets extinguished when the mind gets sheltered on the supreme lord its a beautiful and important metaphor over here normally when we talk about a fire if you understand that a fire cannot be set up on its, cannot go on if it does not have fuel, it has to burn and it needs something to burn otherwise it burns if it doesn’t burn out, if it doesn’t burn down it has to burn out so it can either burn down something to ashes or it will burn down and become extinguished now in our material existence we keep chasing after material things and because we keep chasing after material things we often don’t realize how complicated material existence is rather we focus instead on trying to get out of the specific problems that we are facing hoping that by getting rid of one problem we will come to another problem and then we will be able to deal with another problem and this way the problems go on and our hope is never fulfilled so the way out of this situation is to raise our consciousness upwards towards Krishna and here Shanai Shanai the Bhagavad Gita also uses the word Shanai Shanai in its 6th chapter 26th verse 25th, 26th verse talks about how to control the mind slowly step by step one controls the mind that way one goes beyond material existence so now when we talk about this controlling slowly step by step here it is said one becomes free from slowly step by step gets exhausted now the mind needs to be fixed on the supreme lord so how exactly does fixing the mind exhaust the fuel of the fixing the mind on Krishna exhausts the fuel of the mind so the fuel of the mind is essentially desire or we could say more specifically something that stimulates desire and for the mind to burn with the flame of materialism to continue material existence then it needs the fuel of material things things that will stimulate material desires and the three modes manifest in various ways as the products of material nature and they create attractions according to how or which particular mode is influencing us and in that way we become bound in material existence so here the Bhagavatam is stating that the key to ending material existence is not just to stop fueling material desire but rather to fix the mind of the supreme lord by which the material desires fueling will automatically stop now you may wonder how does fixing the mind on the lord exhaust the fuel of material existence just as if a glass is filled with milk it cannot be filled with water of course if the milk is pure then the milk will not contain water or we could say that when a glass is filled with milk then it cannot have air the air in it will automatically be driven out on the other hand if someone tries to say with some vacuum creating device draw out all the air from it it is very difficult so like that to simply make the mind to make the mind fuel less by not having it think of anything, desire anything that is nearly impossible but if we fill the mind with Krishna then that stimulates spiritual desires in our heart and once spiritual desires are stimulated then automatically as a consequence material desires get destimulated, material desires get exhausted, material desires get eliminated so the key then is more to recognize that we need not so much a stopper of desire as a starter of desire we need something Krishna is the best starter of spiritual desires so the more we come in contact with Krishna the more we realize how Krishna is wonderful how Krishna is all attractive, how Krishna is supremely compassionate how Krishna is all loving, how Krishna is there with us always in his various manifestations and the more we come in contact with him the more we become stimulated by spiritual desires and the more we are stimulated by spiritual desires the more material desires are crowded out of our existence, of our consciousness and like that by that gradually our material existence gets exhausted so the key here is to recognize that nirindhana that we want to end the indhana, the fuel of material existence and for that we need to fill our consciousness with the best fuel for spiritual existence and that best supreme fuel is Krishna so the more we come in contact with Krishna the more we expose our consciousness to Krishna the more we will be able to break free from material existence and attain spiritual existence so when the mind attains the shelter of that supreme lord step by step the more our mind becomes filled with Krishna the more karmarenu, the contamination of material desire gets driven out and material desire or karmarenu is fruitive activity which is the result of material desires which creates seeds for further material desires karmarenu causes the karmarenu causes to get increased but when but when we have attained then we have attained the lotus feet of the lord, we have attained the shelter of the lord the the material existence, the contamination gets cleansed, the material existence gets exhausted we attain nirvana, we attain liberation from material existence because the fuel that causes the soul to run on material existence which is material desire that gets exhausted