Bhagavatam-daily 204 – 11.11.09 – Maximizing the contact of senses and sense objects is the expressway to entanglement

Bhagavatam 11.11.9 Indriyair indriya tesu gunair api guneshucha Grihamaneshvaham kuryannavidvanyas tvavikriyaham Here, Krishna while speaking to Uddhava is continuing the analysis of the difference between the conditioned soul and the liberated soul and he describes here indriyair indriyaar tesu the contact of the senses with the sense objects essentially, this is all that material life is about we have senses and we dream and fantasize that by getting the senses to come in contact with the sense objects we will get pleasure and thus, we create a whole complex techno-centered civilization that promises to maximize the contact of the senses with the sense objects indeed, most of entertainment centers on presenting the most attractive sense objects dressed up in the most attractive ways and present it to our senses using the best of technologies so, maximizing the contact of the senses with the sense objects is the prime business of materialistic civilization and this only increases the illusion as it is, the conditioned soul is an illusion and just by body, mind and intuition there is illusion and when there is perception of sense objects then the further illusion comes in if I just get these sense objects, I will become happy and when the most seductive looking sense objects are brought in towards are presented and if they are not presented are bombarded upon the senses through high tech means then the illusion of the conditioned soul shoots up manifold and this will the hopes of the soul to ever come out of illusion become dimmer and dimmer and as this illusion soul engages in more and more sense gratificatory activities it won’t give satisfaction and satisfaction then goes further into from not just sense gratificatory activities to grossly sinful and violent activities and in that way one becomes degraded terribly and the more worry issue that the doors to dark destinations the disposition becomes dark in this very life and that opens the door to a very dark destination in the next life and such unfortunately is considered of the sign of progress certainly to make technology requires intelligence to make cosmetics that dress up the sense objects cosmetics and other personal care items other such things requires intelligence certainly those people who have good looking forms they have done some good karma because of which they have got those good looking forms now so in a sense none of these things are intrinsically negative there is intelligence in making technology, there is intelligence in making personal care items and there is good karma in having beauty and other attributes but all these are misdirected not to take, not to elevate a person towards a virtue ultimately God but in the materialistic civilization these are misappropriated to maximize the profits of vested interests and while doing this the conditioned soul becomes married by the hope of more and more gratification and in that hope the conditioned soul wants sensory contact on sensory gratification of greater frequency, greater variety and greater intensity so for example if some people start through this artificial contact of the senses with the sense object that is brought say through pornography, now internet pornography makes visually virulent material so easily accessible and people who start with what is technically called as soft porn they don’t feel any satisfaction actually there is no satisfaction at all but even the whatever little titillation is there that also dies out after sometime when they go into hardcore pornography which is mixed with violence and brutality and even murder and then there are people who after absorbing all this they act it out in real life on hapless victims so this is a hallmark of a demoniac civilization where people’s weaknesses towards weaknesses towards sense objects their lust and other art are exploited with a fiendish intelligence to maximize one’s profits a wise person understands that actually the contact of the senses and the sense objects and whatever pleasure is imagined through it that is simply it is because of the action of the modes now a person in the mode of goodness will not want to even see such thing and the person here is also about how in sexuality there is depicted brutality and murder the person in goodness will be shocked what is this how can anyone enjoy such a thing because the person is in goodness the mind doesn’t think that way at all but those who are in passion and ignorance in Rajasthan Tamas they do think that way and in this way the person goes deeper and deeper into illusion so we are definitely far from the level of enlightened souls but here by seeing how enlightened soul thinks we can also at least to some extent try to counter the illusions that are being targeted at us so a wise person understands the wise person understands that the liberated soul here not just the wise person that actually I am not doing any of these things so by staying fixed in spiritual identity in remembrance of one’s spiritual identity and in remembrance of our real life with the supreme lord we can avoid letting ourselves be captivated by the illusion that the contact with the senses and sense objects brings pleasure liberated souls can completely avoid misidentification with the body we can at the very least begin that journey by avoiding misidentification with with images on screens wherein there is within that illusory or virtual world there is indriya indriyarth issue there is the imagination that we are enjoying so at least we can begin by liberating ourselves from this secondary illusion that is created in today’s high tech world by meditating on how the liberated souls can distance themselves even from all body activity thank you