Bhagavatam-daily 302 – 11.13.35 – Don’t equate the temporarily real with the eternally real

Thank you so here Krishna is continuing his instructions to Uddhava and he is telling about how one needs to live cautiously while living in material existence living cautiously means that one has to be careful not to be captivated by material illusion that the material existence is not ultimately real although it is temporarily real it is not ultimately real and so the previous verses various kinds of analysis have been described by which one can withdraw one’s consciousness from matter so after one has withdrawn one’s consciousness then thereafter the next question that comes is how can one live on how can one move on what can one do to stay focused in transcendental devotion what can one do to stay pure hearted actually speaking even when we turn away from the world we cannot get out of the world we still have to stay for as long as our embodied existence continues in this world so when we are in the world there is always the possibility that we may become entangled again the way to protect ourselves from such entanglement is by focusing on the transcendental principle of devotion but again our mind may turn away from devotion because it is by nature restless even if it gets satisfaction and devotion but still intermittently it will look for a change rather than looking for change within devotion it will look for a change outside devotion that means that yes it is difficult for us to stay concentrated and focused on one thing all the time that is a natural it is a natural thing that we want to we want to do so for example if we are chanting the holy names then we can try to concentrate on the holy name as much as possible but it is always possible that the mind will go here and there when the mind goes here and there at that time we need to slowly but surely bring it back on Krishna we need to gradually or avoidably focus on the transcendental principle of devotion but when the mind goes away from the holy name we don’t have to let it go directly into illusion into thoughts of self gratification we can look for change within devotion that means when the mind can’t think about the holy name can’t think sound of the holy name we can think about some beautiful daily darshan that we may have had we can think about some verse which talks about the glory of the holy name if chanting seems very difficult we may just pause and breathe deeply and pray to Krishna so the point is we should try as much as possible to accommodate the mind’s proclivity for change within the circle of devotion and not go outside that circle that way we can protect ourselves from temptation and illusion along with that there is also the habitual unavoidable interaction with matter that we have to do when we focus on Krishna that means when we function for the world for example when we have to eat some items may be delicious they may trigger sensual desires in us while we are doing our activities in this world we cannot go around with closed eyes we will see sense objects and sense objects will trigger sensory desires within us so these are unavoidable but although they are unavoidable they if we remember avastu buddha that whatever we perceive at the material level it does not have any ultimate reality that meditation can help us drag our consciousness back from matter to Krishna so just like a person playing kabaddi we go into the opposite territory touch and come back like that when we have to interact with the sense objects we keep our interactions brief Krishna doesn’t say that seeing the sense objects is the cause of falling he says a discontemplation on the sense objects that leads to eventually pranashiki so we if we have to interact with the sense objects we can interact, we cannot avoid and we cannot Krishna manifests as prasad we shouldn’t disrespect prasad by seeing it merely as a sense object and similarly when men are interacting with women women are interacting with men we don’t want a deep impersonal culture of disrespecting others but we have to be polite but in the name of polite we don’t have to dally and be frivolous we have to be polite and take in polite interactions the important point is that we can have interaction without unnecessarily prolonged contemplation functional interaction these can be there so when Krishna is addressing Uddhava here and he is stating that Uddhava you are in a position where you want to renounce the world you should remember that you have turned away from this world now in one sense even if you are not in the renounced ashram by the very pursuit of spiritual life seriously as sadhankars we have to some extent turned away from the world if you remember that that I have turned away from so much after having turned away from so much what is the need for to get caught in something so petty after having turned away from so much for a little pleasure after I have restructured my entire life so that I can be pursuing Krishna why should I take a U-turn so by remembering that we have changed the course of our life and it’s by our choice and we have chosen that way because we have understood the higher value of spiritual life by remembering the decision that we have made the choice we have made when temptation comes we can reject the temptation and recommit ourselves to our transcendental determination and thus progress towards the transcendental destination that is ultimately beyond the illusion and temptation of this world