Bhagavatam-daily 49 – 11.07.39 – Focus is not fanatical – it is logical choice for great achievement

Srimad Bhagavatam 11.7.39 pranutyaiva santushena gulir naivendriya priyai jnanam yathana nasheta naavakirye tvam manaham Here, the Abdul Brahmana is speaking to Maharaj Yadu and is teaching a principle that is fundamental for serious spiritualists. The way they practice it may vary, but the principle is vital.
pranutyaiva santushena santushena means to be satisfied, right? pranutyaiva that means with the inclination, with the movement, with the need of the prana, that means basically one should be satisfied with whatever is required for maintaining the prana, for ensuring that the prana keeps moving, that means for survival. munir naivendriya priyai muni the sage naiva certainly not indriya priyai should not seek pleasure from this of the senses, why not? jnanam yathana nasheta because seeking pleasure of the senses can destroy the knowledge, so one should act in such a way by which jnanam na nasheta yatha, one should act in that way by which knowledge is not destroyed and naavakiryeta vanmanaha and one’s avakiryeta means to disturb but one’s van and manaha, one’s speech and one’s mind are not disturbed. To succeed in any endeavour, one needs focus.
If one wants to become a champion cricketer, the aspiring cricket champion has to focus on only that one game, there are thousands of games in the world and there will be dozens and dozens of games being played in that city itself but if the cricketer says I’ll play tennis today and chess tomorrow and volleyball day after tomorrow and then I’ll play cricket also, that won’t work, one has to fix to one game and not just one game, you know often I’ll just focus on one thing, I haven’t decided okay I want to become a batsman, then what kind of batsman, left-hand batsman, right-hand batsman or if I want to become a bowler, there are so many things, that I’ll become a medium baser or a fast bowler or a spinner, if it’s a spinner then what kind of leg-spin, off-spin, the point is this is not a analysis of cricket but the simple point is that to achieve anything one has to increasingly focus and focusing essentially at one level means narrowing one’s sphere of activity, so the cricketer wants to become say a champion, leg spinner, will focus on that particular activity more and more, so now just as one has to narrow one’s area of activity, if one has to excel in any particular activity, similarly with respect to transcendence, if you want to achieve life’s supreme perfection, we want to achieve eternal spiritual love for Krishna, we have to focus on that and focusing essentially means narrowing down our area of activity, so here now when we are in this world, we are souls in material bodies and because the body is material and we are spiritual, there is a often existential incompatibility where the soul’s spiritual aspirations sometimes go at war with the body’s material inclinations, the bible phrases there the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak, we could put it as the soul looks soul seeks meaning, the body settles for pudding, that means the soul wants to understand what is life, what is the purpose of life, who am I, but the body just want to get some delicious food, some pudding, the body settles for that, don’t bother about all these difficult questions, just enjoy, just relax, so there is this existential battle that goes on within us between our short-term material nature and our long-term spiritual nature, now within our material nature also there may be some long-term strands, so sattva guna in general thing enables us to think long-term, so that so things need not be so black and white, even in spiritual practices there may be some influences of the lower modes, so that can also be tamasic like that, but the overall point is that we can to a significant extent make out whether what is the nature of the activities that we are doing, what will be their consequence, so whether it is in ignorance and it’s going to take me deeper into ignorance, if I drink alcohol in order to forget the pain, let’s say it’s caused because of some tragedy, some heartbreak, some misery, then that at one level is good to seek relief from misery by doing something positive, but along with that it is also important that one engage in the positive for the sake of the positive, not just because we are beaten up in the material world and we need some shock absorber, but also because we know that there is something higher than this world and that we make our aspiration, so when we have that positive view of spirituality, then we understand that a focus on spiritual things is not restrictive or prohibitive, it is actually productive for that, it is conducive and productive for what is our interest, so to for example when it says here, just be satisfied with bodily needs, don’t engage in sense gratification, now some people may call this as extreme deprivation, now what do you mean just living for survival, but the point is this is a call for concentrating one’s energy, if we understand how we are souls and as souls we need to take care of our bodies for their survival, but the body’s drives does not have to become the primary purpose of our life, so if we recognize that our spiritual side is our real side and it is only in fulfilling the spiritual side that we will get lasting happiness, then the focus on spirituality becomes not fanatical but logical, so here it is said that one should not let one’s knowledge be destroyed or one’s speech and one’s mind get disturbed, now when we indiscriminately engage in materialistic activities, especially expose ourselves to sensory stimuli, then Krishna says in 7.20 that kama, but he will desire, it destroys knowledge, Krishna said that earlier also in the third chapter in the section on lust, he says that in 3.41, so the point is that we don’t let ourselves be indiscriminately exposed to materially provocative stimuli, then our knowledge will stay safe and we’ll be aware of our spiritual identity and our spiritual purpose and also this focus on spirituality requires not just intellectual clarity, but also mental and sensual purity, that means the mind and senses are filled with too many desires, are agitated by either the hopes of getting some pleasure or the fears of losing something, some pleasure, then they will not be able to focus on Krishna, so one doesn’t get too engaged in too many materialistic activities, even for one’s livelihood, if we take up too much anxiety, if we take a profession that takes too much time, causes too much stress, then our mind and senses will stay disturbed and we’ll not be able to even focus on Krishna, leave alone relish Krishna, so by seeing the nature of reality and by seeing our spiritual focus as a positive, productive choice, that is going to help us grow, we won’t feel it prohibitive or fanatical, but we will embrace it as something logical, something productive, something desirable, which will bring the supreme fulfillment, so Krishna says in 5.21, to the extent one becomes indifferent to external pleasures, to that extent one can relish inner joys and that is what the Bhumi does and that is what