Bhagavatam-daily 278 – 11.13.11 – Awareness of consequence without alteration of lifestyle is non-transformational

Thank you Srimad Bhagavatam 11.13.11 One who performs under the influence of kama of uncontrolled desire kama coming under their control karmanya vichitendriya a person performs works with uncontrolled senses dukho dhara kani samparshan dukho dhara kani udhara kani means blinding future dukha samparshan sees properly but is bewildered by the force of passion that means that a person who is in the predicament of seeing but not seeing this person understands that I’ll get bound, I’ll get trapped I’ll get entangled, I’ll suffer as I have suffered in the past if I engage in uncontrolled sense gratification and yet despite knowing this that person is unable to resist that person is unable to reject the temptation and thus one stays increasingly in illusion normally if we are going on a road and there is a pothole we won’t deliberately go into the pothole we would try to go around it so normally nobody deliberately accepts misery even in the extreme case when somebody commits suicide it is not that the person is choosing misery the person is thinking that the misery of living is so great that the misery of dying will be lesser as compared to it and this person doesn’t know actually what is the nature of the misery of death and that’s why that person makes such an uninformed choice but the point is that we are by defying pleasure seeking and pain minimizing creatures so if somebody is in a situation where they are choosing suffering in one sense or making choices that they know will cause them suffering then we may wonder why would someone do like that sometimes we see some people in some religious rituals where they do self-flagellation they whip themselves now this kind of austerity where a person tortures the body the Bhagavad Gita considers it to be tamasic in fact it characterizes such austerity as in the mode of ignorance as demoniac practically speaking not just in the mode of ignorance as demoniac in the 17th chapter it says so Krishna says that they torture themselves and they torture me too because I am present in their body as a super soul and they are my children I love them I don’t want to see them suffer and why should they inflict suffering upon themselves like this so the point is that even when somebody does some self-flagellation often the goal is to forget some other misery that has been troubling one something that will say haunting one pinching one’s conscience one hopes that self-flagellation will free one from that pinch of conscience unfortunately that doesn’t happen because self-flagellation is not what will bring freedom will not bring elevation of consciousness you need purification for that and purification comes primarily not by beating ourselves for having done something impure but it comes by connecting ourselves with the pure so here so given that we are thus misery minimizing creatures why would anyone voluntarily choose misery or voluntarily choose actions that lead to misery and one knows from experience that they will lead to misery the mode of passion distorts both our perception it actually distorts everything our perception means our perception of the present our recollection of the past and our visualization of the future so Vishayendriya Sanyoga Tatsukham Rajasamsmithah Krishna states over here that Vishayendriya Sanyoga by the contact of the senses and the sense objects initially there is nectar but eventually there is poison and when we are deluded by passion that means we see only the initial nectar and although we know that there is a poison although we have when our cells suffered the toxic consequences of unrestricted sensual indulgence still we are as if forcefully dragged towards the sense objects and thus we stay trapped in material existence so here Krishna is stating the point that knowledge alone is not enough without a change in lifestyle without the cultivation of a higher mode without choosing a lifestyle which fosters the mode of goodness knowledge of consequences alone won’t lead to lead to renunciation and renunciation won’t really help effectively in self mastery because as long as we are in passion we will see that ok there is some misery but there is a lot of pleasure and misery is not such a big factor the pleasure is what matters and anyway there is sometimes pleasure sometimes pain so just better bear it don’t get carried away don’t get too pessimistic you can bear the consequences as long as you get the pleasure in this way the mind rationalizes and deludes us and thus even after knowing the consequences because of the mode of passion one is not able to resist so that’s why the change of life a change of heart also requires a change of lifestyle so change of heart we may decide oh this is wrong and I am not going to do it so change of heart can be sustained only by a change of lifestyle without change of lifestyle the change of heart will be changed by another change and will be rechanged and we may will have a relapse but if we practice the bhakti lifestyle where overall we focus on Krishna while cultivating goodness then there can be sustainable change then there not only the intellectual understanding that ok unrestricted sensory intelligence intimacy but there is also the necessary determination to act on that perception and avoid self defeating self injuring

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.

Srimad Bhagavatam 11.13.11 karoti kama vasagaha karmanya vijitendriyaha dukho dharkani sampashyan bhajo vega vimohitaha karoti kama vasagaha One who performs under the influence of kama in the form of uncontrolled desire kama vasagaha coming under their control karmanya vijitendriyaha a person performs works with uncontrolled senses dukho dharkani sampashyan dukho dharkani udharkani means bringing in future dukha sampashyan who sees sampashyan means sees properly bhajo vega vimohitaha but is bewildered by the force of passion that means that a person who is in the predicament of seeing but not seeing this person understands that I'll get bound I'll get trapped I'll get entangled I'll suffer as I have suffered in the past if I engage in uncontrolled sense gratification and yet despite knowing this that person is unable to resist that person is unable to reject the temptation and thus one stays increasingly in illusion normally if we are going on a road and there is a pothole we won't deliberately go into the pothole we would try to go around it so normally nobody deliberately accepts misery even in the extreme case when somebody commits suicide it is not that the person is choosing misery the person is thinking that the misery of living is so great that the misery of dying will be lesser as compared to it and this person doesn't know actually what is the nature of the misery of death and that's why that person makes such an uninformed choice but the point is that we are we are by defined pleasure seeking and pain minimizing creatures so if somebody is in a situation where they are choosing increased suffering in one sense or making choices that they know will cause them suffering then we may wonder why would someone do like that sometimes we see some people in some religious rituals where they do self flagellation they whip themselves now this kind of austerity where a person tortures the body the Bhagavad Gita considers it to be tamasic in fact it characterizes such austerity as as in the mode of ignorance as demoniac practically speaking not just in the mode of ignorance as demoniac in the 17th chapter it says karsayantah sharirastam bhutagramam achetasam mam sevantah sharirastam so Krishna says that they torture themselves and they torture me too because I am present in their body and super soul and they are my children I love them, I don't want to see them suffer and why should they inflict suffering upon themselves like this so the point is that even when somebody does some self flagellation often the goal is to forget some other misery that has been troubling one something that will say haunting one pinching one's conscience and one hopes that that self flagellation will free one from that pinch of conscience unfortunately that doesn't happen because self flagellation is not what will bring freedom will not bring elevation of consciousness you need purification for that and purification comes primarily not by beating ourselves for having done something impure but it comes by connecting ourselves with the pure so here so given that we are thus misery minimizing creatures why would anyone voluntarily choose misery or voluntarily choose actions that lead to misery and one knows from experience that they will lead to misery so rajogamohita Krishna says over here the mode of passion distorts both our perception it actually distorts everything our perception means our perception of the present our recollection of the past and our visualization of the future so Krishna states over here that by the contact of senses and sense objects initially there is nectar but eventually eventually there is poison and rajogamohita when we are deluded by passion we see only the initial nectar and although we know there is a poison although we have when ourselves suffered the toxic consequences of unrestricted sensual indulgence still we are as if forcefully dragged towards the sense objects and thus we stay trapped in material existence so here Krishna is stating the point that knowledge alone is not enough without a change in lifestyle without the cultivation of a higher mode without choosing a lifestyle which fosters the mode of goodness this knowledge of consequences alone won't lead to lead to renunciation won't really help effectively in self mastery because as long as we are in passion we will see that ok there is some misery but there is pleasure lot of pleasure and the misery misery is misery is not such a big factor the pleasure is what matters and anyway there is sometimes pleasure sometimes pain so better bear it don't get carried away don't get too pessimistic you can bear the consequences as long as you get the pleasure in this way the mind rationalizes and deludes us and even after knowing the consequences because of the mode of passion one is not able to resist so that's why look to change of life a change of heart also requires a change of lifestyle so change of heart we may decide oh this is wrong and I am not going to do it so change of heart can be sustained only by a change of lifestyle without change of lifestyle the change of heart will be changed by another change and will be rechanged and we may have a relapse but if we practice the bhakti lifestyle where overall we focus on Krishna while cultivating goodness then there can be sustainable change then not only the intellectual understanding that sensory intelligence but there is also the necessary determination to act on that perception and avoid self-defeating self-injuring behavior thank you.