Bhagavatam-daily 92 – 11.08.08 – The fashion and cosmetic industries make the fire more seductive for moth-like humans

Srimad Bhagavatam 11.88 Yośidhiranyābharṇāmbarādhi Draveshu māyāraciteshu mūḍhaha Pralobhitātmāyaupabhogbuddhyā Pataṅgavan naśyati naśtadriṣṭihī So Yośid Is woman Dhiranyābharṇāmbarādhi Dhiranyā is gold It refers to ornaments Made of gold And other precious items Bharana Is ornaments Basically Golden ornaments And ambara is dress Draveshu On seeing such materials Māyāraciteshu So the whole appearance Of beauty Is created by māyā Mūḍhaha The foolish person Pralobhitātmā Because the person The ātmā becomes Enticed Pralobhit Yaupabhogbuddhyā And such a person gets Upabhogbuddhyā The desire to enjoy And pataṅgavan Like a moth Naśyati Is destroyed Naśtadriṣṭihī Because The What is destroyed is Naśta Naśta is destroyed What is destroyed? The word driṣṭihī Literally refers to eyes But actually We see not with our eyes But we see with our intelligence That’s why the word darshana Can refer to What we see with our eyes It can also refer to philosophy A way of looking at the world So naśtadriṣṭihī means here That just as the Just as the moth Has its intelligence destroyed Similarly The intelligence of a man Also gets destroyed So here The Agadur Brahmana is describing What He is continuing to describe What he learned from a moth And He is giving an example of What is the fire To which A human being is attracted So In different metaphors The same object May be compared to different things So for example A sense object May be compared In one place to fire And sometimes Lust is compared to a fire So lust burns within us And no matter how much we enjoy It doesn’t satisfy us So there It doesn’t get satisfied Just as putting fuel Into the fire Only inflames the fire further Similarly indulgence Actually aggravates the fire It doesn’t pacify Or extinguish the fire So now in this case Yoṣit dhiraṇyā Bharaṇāmbarādhi So here now interestingly Krishna compares Krishna compares lust to the fire This is in 3.39 It is lust that is like the fire Here instead Krishna is saying that It is It is The Form that attracts us Which is like the fire So different metaphors can have different Purposes And we have to see the context Of the purpose To understand the purpose of the metaphor So when lust is compared to fire The point is that Putting fuel will not extinguish the fire Similarly indulgence Will not extinguish lust Indulgence will not extinguish lust We have to eventually purify ourselves That is the point of that example Where at this point The example of The moth is attracted to a fire Similarly we are attracted to sense objects Here it is not lust that is compared to the fire It is the sense object that is compared to the fire So The point is We should not become attracted to the sense object So there are two different Although fire comes in both the metaphors The point That is being talked about is Substantially different One is that That Indulgence will aggravate the fire Of lust not extinguish it And the other is Attraction to sense objects is destructive So Now it is interesting that The Fire Which attracts a Fire We don’t think of it as ornamented Whatever objects Are put into the flame The flame basically bursts forth And sometimes some fires May look attractive So for example if We have a firecracker which gives out Sparks of fire that go up like a tree Or sometimes Some people have some Luminous sticks Which they move around and creates a flame of fire That sort of fire might seem attractive Because it has a particular shape So although at one level All fires seem to be the same But If we human beings who are not innately Attracted to fire In fact we want fire for its warmth For its luminosity But we also know that fire burns So we keep a distance from it but still We also find fire attractive And we can just imagine how much A moth will find fire attractive And the very fact that the moth is Ready to risk Its life It may not be consciously aware that Risking its life but it is ready to charge And almost with a blind Fascination for it that indicates The moth does find this very attractive So similarly Here it is said that the sense object To which we become attracted To which pralobhitatma A person becomes attracted The sense object also Is adorned So golden ornaments And then Amber dress Now the body itself If we see later on In the Pingala story that will come in this chapter The human body And its apparent beauty Is dissected quite Ruthlessly But here if we think of it Objectively also The beauty of the body Is illusory Although it may seem resistibly beautiful But actually speaking the body is Body also, any body no matter how good Looking it is, it gives out sweat, it gives out Foul substances And it becomes smelly Messy and it is not very Attractive Now the whole cosmetic Industry is actually Meant to make the unattractive The unattractive body Seem attractive There can be some attractiveness in some bodies But that attractiveness doesn’t last For very long So To try to increase the attractiveness And to prolong the attractiveness That is the whole Purpose of the fashion industry and the cosmetic Industry The fashion industry basically involves Putting things on and around the body So better Ornaments, more attract good looking dresses More good looking ornaments And the cosmetic industry is Putting things on the body itself There can be There can be Substances to make the lips The eyes, the cheeks Whatever and the complexion look more Attractive, the hair look more attractive And all there is a whole Multi billion dollar Industry which Is essentially Trying to make the fire More attractive so that The moths will fall into it And you know we shouldn’t see This as a critique Of women Per se, the scripture is Clearly wherever it is talking about Maya Rachiteshu So it’s created by Maya So it is basically Whatever attracts us to the Illusions of this world That is what is entangling And so for males It is females, for females it is males So rather than trying to See this as a, rather than seeing It simplistically as a Critique of women We should see this as a As a sophisticated expose Of the nature Of illusion So here Basically The moth as it is attracted to fire And suppose the fire is made more and more Attractive, then the Hope of the moth Being able to resist the fire Becomes near negligible and the moth gets Hopelessly, helplessly attracted and lost Thereby, similarly In this world The Whole The whole fashion industry and cosmetic industry Is basically out to Make the Make the fire More attractive Fire of the sense objects more attractive So that we become like moths And we become captured So Nashta Drishti Nashta Drishti means the intelligence Gets destroyed So now, the more we contemplate on the form Forms of this world The more Our intelligence deteriorates Why? Because The more we contemplate, the more the forms Seem attractive and the more they seem attractive The more The intelligence capacity to see The reality beyond the appearance Becomes blunted And there, the Intelligence essentially means to see the truth beyond the appearance Substance beyond the appearance But our intelligence deteriorates And then We Fall into illusion Krishna also said in the Bhagavad Gita That 2.6263 He describes how Contemplation one starts and then When the intelligence is destroyed Then we fall So here it is described that Just as the Moth is destroyed Similarly Our intelligence gets destroyed By contemplating the good looking Forms of this world And that’s why we need to avoid Contemplation on these forms and instead Contemplate on Krishna And By that positive spiritual contemplation We can protect ourselves From being seduced and destroyed By the illusory attractions of this world Thank you