Bhagavatam-daily 85 – SB 11.08.01 – Why struggle to increase the pleasure that is unchangeably finite?

Bhagavatam-daily Podcast:

Krishnamurti Bhagavatam 11.8.1 Shri Brahma Vacha Sukham Indriyakam Rajan Swarge Naraka Evacha Dehi Naam Yad Yatha Dukham Tasma Nechate Tat Budhaha Sukham Indriyakam Rajan So the Brahmana, the Brahmana is speaking to Rajan to Maharaja Yadu and he is speaking over here saying that Sukham Indriyakam the pleasure that comes from the senses Swarge Naraka Evacha even in heavens or in hell Dehi Naam Yad Yatha Dukham so just as Dehi Naam, the embodied soul gets Dukha Tha Dukham so just as the embodied soul gets misery without seeking for it Tasma Nechate Tat Budhaha similarly therefore Nechate one should not desire it Tat Budhaha the one who is a knower of this the Bhagavatam is repeating here a point which is made several times in the Bhagavatam it comes in the first canto in Narada Muni’s instructions Vyasadeva Talabbate Dukha Annata Sukham Kaale Na Sarvatra Gabhira Ramasa Sukham Indriyakam Dehyogena Dehi Na that comes in Pralad Maharaj’s teachings to his demoniac friends also that the happiness which we get from sense gratification it is fixed it is determined by the body what exactly this means has to be carefully understood the happiness that comes from the body is something which we cannot on our own experience or rather which we cannot on our own realize to be finite but we understand that although the mind may imagine there to be immense pleasure in sense gratification but actually when we experience sense gratification we realize that the pleasure in it is very limited and that’s why we cannot deny the reality once we experience it once we start going into the activities of sense gratification we realize that ultimately these pleasures are temporary no matter what we do we cannot expand the pleasure of sense gratification beyond limits it is there what is there is there and once it’s over it’s over so the senses are temporary the sense objects are temporary and so the pleasure that one can get from the sense objects is also temporary given this reality we cannot go much beyond this capacity no matter what we do so a pig may find a she-pig beautiful we may find a particular sense object beautiful humans and similarly every species will find pleasure according to what its conceptions of pleasure are and still hmm according to the sense objects according to the kind of senses we have the particular kind of sense objects appear pleasurable to us but they don’t appear pleasurable to anyone else and this relativity of sense pleasure is something which cannot be denied or changed we cannot find sense objects which are attractive to an ant or a dog or something like that attractive so that is the first level of limitation that comes on our sensory pleasure beyond that whatever sense pleasure we have actually that pleasure is limited by further that sense object itself doesn’t last stay for very long it will be attractive now but it doesn’t stay attractive forever and because of that whatever pleasure we get that remains temporary after that even when we get the pleasure our own capacity for or after we get the sense object our capacity to experience pleasure through that sense object is also finite the senses their capacity gets exhausted we cannot eat unlimitedly we cannot get any sense gratification we cannot enjoy any sense gratification unlimitedly and in that way we stay entrapped so now beyond that also beyond these limitations which are there actually whatever pleasure we experience so first of all whether we will get attractive sense objects to enjoy whether we will have the sensory capacity to enjoy or not apart from all these limitations also there is the state of the mind even if there is a very delicious food and I am healthy enough to eat the food but then I find that somebody comes and insults me just before I eat the food and then I cannot enjoy that food at all afterwards so the pleasure that I get depends on a variety of things and one of them is whether I can deal with the problem of pleasure in the sense that whether I can whether I have a peaceful mind to experience the pleasure or not rhetorically meaning that when there is no shanti there cannot be any pleasure so actually by our destiny we all have done a particular kind of karma and that has determined our destiny and by that destiny the quantity of pleasure and the quantity of pain that we get is fixed just like if somebody has got a particular kind of car particular kind of vehicle some people may have a sleek modern vehicle some people may have a old fashioned vehicle once they have got the vehicle that is the that is all that a person can enjoy once the person is in that car that is the speed at which the car will go and the person has to accept that so similarly we have to accept that whatever body we get there is a certain amount of sense pleasure we will get in that and that cannot be increased now if we try to increase that we in the process do karma and we will get karmic consequences for that so we just like if a car can go at a particular speed we try to go very recklessly in a car far beyond its normal speed now a normal car can’t go like a racer’s car racer’s car but if a person tries to go at that speed soon there will be an accident if there is not an accident soon the car will not function for long it will break down so like that we cannot expand the body’s capacity for pleasure too much it will rebound on us as karmic complications which will bring suffering so the finiteness of material pleasure and it is something which we can we our mind rebels against it no if I work hard I will get more pleasure so here the reasoning is given do we endeavor for misery no one endeavors for misery still misery comes so why does misery come because it’s destiny now there may be relative differences between some people get more miseries in life some people get less miseries of course people feel that I am getting more misery and others are getting less misery actually everybody’s life is miserable but still the point is that just as we get nobody asks for misery whether it is less or more nobody asks for it and yet it comes so just as misery comes without asking similarly pleasure will also come without asking and rather than wasting our energy on that which cannot be increased we focus on that which can be increased and that is our spiritual happiness if we try to get become more self-realized develop more of our relationship with Krishna and therein we can experience greater happiness and not just greater happiness we can there’s no limit to the happiness which the extent to which we can experience happiness and that’s why that is the recommended way to move forward in life so the finiteness of the statements about the finiteness of material pleasure are not pessimistic they are meant to redirect our consciousness towards the infiniteness of spiritual happiness that is available to us