Bhagavatam-daily 182 – 11.10.24 – Seek change not in scale of pleasure, but in its nature

Fulfilled thank you shiv bhagavatam 11 10 24 so punyopachite shubhre vimana upagiyate gandharvair viharan madhye devinam rudhya vesha dhrek so punyopachite shubhre as per swapunya as one is accumulate upachite shubhre shubhra is shining upagiyate so there in a shining vimana airplane upagiyate with singing gandharva viharan madhye one delights enjoys madhye amongst them devinam rudhya vesha dhrek devinam refers to goddesses but it refers to the apsaras the celestial celestial and singers in the heavenly planes rudhya they are dressed very beautiful so of course they can be referred to as goddesses krishna says specifically referred to the apsaras so in this next few verses krishna will give briefly a glimpse of the life that one enjoys in heavens now in this world there is the pleasure of gross sex and there is the pleasure of subtle sex gross sex refers to of course sexual gratification physical gratification that comes through bodily contact and then there is there is subtle sex that is a joy that comes from being praised by others so in the heavens one will get both it is depicted over here that one enjoys life with the apsaras colorfully dressed charming goddesses charming apsaras with them one enjoys life and then gandharvas sing one praises this is actually referring not just to a resident of heaven actually this is referring to someone who occupies the position of prominence its like indra who is in heaven he is glorified by the gandharvas and so are all the influential gods and all those who hold influential positions in the cosmic administration they all have their own panegyrics and those who praise them their own buffers so this is a vision of pleasure which can seem very titillating no doubt but the fact is that it is a vision that is not very fulfilling it is a vision that is quite unsatisfactory in the sense that it will be temporary so that’s what will be depicted in the next few verses in the next verse itself Krishna will talk about this but the essential point which we can understand over here is that the heart has a desire for happiness and the supreme happiness comes through love for the supremely lovable object that is Krishna however love is voluntary the love of our heart has to be voluntarily given to Krishna and as long as we are infatuated by illusions, thinking that other things can give us pleasure then we can’t pursue the path of bhakti wholeheartedly and this world offers us alternatives to God offers us opportunities by which we can explore alternatives to God opportunities by which we can play out our fantasies for pleasure in this world and one of the fantasies for pleasure is the fantasy of having immense levels of bodily pleasure and that fantasy is facilitated in heavens so of course even in this world sometimes people may be so wealthy and powerful that they can have a lot to enjoy although they can have a lot to enjoy still the fact remains that in this world whatever we enjoy it will soon be lost it is never going to last and in the heaven the same thing is provided at a much grander scale so for some people that is what is the grandness of the pleasure makes them think that this is what I want to aim for this is what I want to enjoy while heaven is an objective reality within the within the cosmos the conception of heaven can be a subjective notion that is perceived differently by different people so for example for a person living in the hot streets that person just gets to gets inside air conditioned room that person may think oh this is heavenly many people from third world countries or say underdeveloped countries like say India they consider America to be heaven they think oh if I just get to America then that is the perfection of my life similarly others may think that if I can see differently different people may have different conceptions of heaven so this different conceptions of heaven basically refer to the conception of what those people think will make them happy but apart from such conceptions there is there is a universal denominator which denominator of pleasure that is held by conditioned souls in general and this denominator is the denominator of usually of of gratification of the urge for gross sex and the urge for subtle sex and that is fulfilled in on a scale far grander than what is possible in the earth in heaven but despite the grandness of the scale of pleasure still it remains external to our nature it can only titillate the gross body or the subtle body it cannot touch and transform the heart and that’s why the wives do not pursue this pleasure they focus on seeking the transcendental lord who is the source of who is the source of immortal unending love and who is the basis of eternal undying relationships and the immortal ecstasy thereof so here when we redirect our heart towards the supreme lord it’s not just a change in the scale of pleasure scale means it’s like we have a somebody has a operation small scale industry somebody has a middle scale industry somebody has a large scale industry so this is a change in scale but when we turn towards spirituality it’s a change not in scale but change in nature itself it’s a completely different pleasure wherein one doesn’t cognize wherein one gets a pleasure that comes right from the core of our heart that addresses the deepest longing of our heart for love and therefore brings the deepest fulfillment and that is the pleasure that the Bhagavatam urges us to look for and it shows us the pathway to attain that pleasure and it urges us to not get distracted by heavenly promises of pleasure no matter how attractive