Bhakti Shastri (066) – Bhagavad Gita Chapter 03 Text 37 to 40

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Arjuna Shyadam Kurmandita Naukatlaya Pakaranya Tasmai Krishna Hare Krishna Welcome back to our Bhakti Shastri course, today we will discuss the last part of the third chapter of the Bhagavad Gita so we discussed Arjuna’s question 3.36 what is it that impels us to sin, let us look at Krishna’s answer now 3.37 Shree Bhagavan Vacha, Kamesh Krodhesha Rajogunasambhava Mahashano Mahapatma Vidyanami Havairinam so Krishna answers Kamesha it is lust indeed Krodhesha Krodha is anger or wrath and how do they begin Rajogunasambhava Udbhava is to be created sama means with, they arise with, born of, Rajoguna so when we come into Rajoguna then Kama and Krodha come Mahashano Mahapatma Ashana is to eat or to devour Mahashana is that which is a great devourer Mahapatma is that which is extremely sinful, very very sinful very great devourer Vidyanami Havairinam know this to be Vairi, Vairi is the enemy know this to be the enemy so now, so Arjuna’s question was what is it that impels us to sin so Krishna says that it is lust and then it is anger which is the all devouring Prabhupada says all devouring sinful enemy of the world so Ihabairinam the word Iha is often used in the Bhagavad Gita to refer to this world this will come in later on also in the 5th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita where Krishna will talk about Samya he says that those who are situated in equanimity they have actually conquered, they have attained Brahman Iha Iha Iha means in this world so Iha also means here so in this world for everyone lust is an enemy and lust transmogrifies transmogrifies means transform is to change transmogrify that means to change into an ugly form so lust transmogrifies into anger, wrath so what exactly is this lust, where does it come from Prabhupada’s purport is very interesting so Prabhupada writes that how all of us are expansions ultimately of the Supreme Lord Eko bahusyaam the Lord expanded himself into many for his ever increasing spiritual bliss and the living entities are parts and parcels of this spiritual bliss so it’s an interesting word, Prabhupada is not saying we are parts and parcels of the Lord he is saying that we are parts and parcels of this spiritual bliss now what does it mean how can we be parts of bliss so it’s a usage which indicates the point that we are meant to be blissful so we are parts of Krishna no doubt but Krishna is himself he is actually full of joy and similarly we are also part of joy so Prabhupada is referring to that over here now we are Krishna is blissful, we are blissful but the difference is that Krishna is independently blissful we are dependently blissful we are tiny because we are tiny, if we try to enjoy separate from Krishna the happiness that we can get through that is tiny when we connect with Krishna the happiness we get through that is huge so therefore what is advised, what is glorified is that we connect with Krishna then we can get enormous happiness and that’s the ultimate goal which is being sought over here so we now because we are tiny if we try to enjoy ourselves we get only tiny happiness but when we try to enjoy separately there is another consequence that comes, that desire to enjoy separate from Krishna disconnects us from Krishna and then we come under ignorance and we seek enjoyment where there is no enjoyment so we seek enjoyment in this world in the objects of this world and that causes bondage and suffering so how do we come out of this bondage and suffering for that we have to enquire about spirituality so Prabhupada writes in the Parpot this material creation is created by the Lord to give facility to the living conditioned souls to fulfil these lustful propensities and when completely baffled by prolonged lustful activities, the living entities begin to enquire about their real position so when they are completely baffled then they begin to enquire so that is what Prabhupada will talk about in the next verse so when will a person do Brahma Jijnasa actually as long as a person is caught up in doing Indriya Trupti Jijnasa, the person will have no impetus for doing Brahma Jijnasa Indriya Trupti Jijnasa means where will I get enjoyment here, I will get enjoyment here I will get enjoyment here so the whole culture media, advertisements in today’s society they provide us with newer and newer avenues for Indriya Trupti Jijnasa enjoy here, enjoy there, enjoy there this is where you will enjoy and you know sometimes nowadays on television there are 300 channels and people who sit down they think there must be at least one programme that I will enjoy this is boring, switch to another channel switch to another channel switch to another channel so actually speaking people when they are watching TV they are more eager when they are surfing channels than when they are watching channels because when they are surfing they are expecting, maybe I will get something better something better, something better but when they start watching, it’s boring it’s not what I expected, it’s not as enjoyable as I expected it to be so there will be 300 channels on the TV but actually happiness is not available on any channel happiness is actually available only on the bhakti channel and that is not there on television even if there are some programmes which talk about bhakti they themselves cannot make us happy it is, the bhakti channels are connection with Krishna so yes, of course, if there are devotional programmes coming from proper sources we can watch them but the important point is that the conditioned soul gets really excited yes, maybe this will make me happy where can I get happiness where can I get happiness but after prolonged lustful activities soul is completely baffled there is no happiness in sanskritifications, I have tried so much what should I do now and at that time maybe there is happiness somewhere else that’s what I need to enquire and it is that point when brahma jignasa begins so brahma jignasa is not just an idle intellectual enquiry brahma jignasa is not just an idle intellectual enquiry, idle intellectual enquiry means, somebody just sits down on armchair and thinks, hey, you know is there something called spiritual world is there something called God maybe, maybe not who can know about these things let me just turn on my enjoy some music or let me turn on television and watch some TV so no, that sort of enquiry anyway if somebody enquires about spirituality that is good, but that sort of enquiry is not really brahma jignasa brahma jignasa is when one is serious is there something beyond this world if there is, I want to know what it is because what is in this world doesn’t satisfy me it’s all tiny, it’s all insignificant it’s all an anticlimax so then one starts thinking what, what can be there beyond this world let me find that out and that’s how the person starts enquiring about spirituality so therefore the important point is that all of us, we all have to come to that level sometime we may have got some realisations of the ultimate futility of sensual pleasures, but although we get that realisation, that realisation doesn’t stay an ultimate realisation because again the world is filled with so many promises of sense gratification that maybe this will give me happiness, maybe that will give me happiness so again we return back to the same things so if you want to go beyond that what we need to do is we need to get a channel by which we can also experience spiritual happiness and then you can this happiness is so fulfilling, this happiness is so unfulfilling, but you achieve after that, so Athato Brahma Jignasa actually begins when we become frustrated with material enjoyment and start seriously seeking for spiritual enjoyment so Prabhupada in a lecture to the hippies in one of the Ratha Yatra festivals in America said so all of you hippies, you are considered you are not very much appreciated in America, you are considered frustrated people people think that oh you are all frustrated, but Prabhupada said you know I appreciate all of you human life is meant to become frustrated human life is meant to become frustrated but frustrated in what sense? frustrated in, so in America people had huge amount of enjoyment actually after the second world war, America became enormously prosperous because practically speaking none of the second world war conflicts were fought on American territory, so America suffered very little casualties in terms of infrastructure damage of course there were some soldiers who were killed the only attack on American territory was on Pearl Harbour, that was right at the fag end of the war practically speaking and America provided weapons to the allies and selling weapons means getting money also so they did not suffer much damage and they got a lot of money so though for world war 2 veterans when they came back they had a fairly good life with them so they generally whatever material dreams people have, I want to have a good house and I have a good family, I have a good job I have a good bank balance these kind of dreams the children of the second world war veterans, they had all this right from the beginning of their lives second world war ended in 1945 and 1960-65 the generation of children, they had all this and they had it all and they felt that it was stupid, it was nothing, it didn’t satisfy them so what the previous generation of Americans were dreaming about that this is what we should have these people had this and they felt that there is nothing in it I want this, there must be something more to life and that’s how they started exploring whatever more is there in life maybe we will get it through drugs and that’s how they started going towards drugs later on of course once they got into drugs, drugs got into them and then they got caught by drugs and it just became a search for drugs not a search for spirituality so that was unfortunate but there were some people who did seriously seek spiritual experiences through drugs and Prabhupada told them that Hare Krishna will give you a spiritual experience which is far greater than the experience that you may get through drugs so now Prabhupada says that human life is meant to become frustrated that this routine stereotype life of trying to make it happy and big in this world that is not the ultimate goal of life, one should seek something higher then Prabhupada says that how does one this is a very significant point the origin of lust is also in supreme now how can we say that the origin of lust is also in supreme because Prabhupada says everything comes from the supreme so even lust will come from the supreme so what does it mean lust comes from the supreme it essentially means that the desire desire for loving and the desire for being happy which is what creates the male-female attraction which is what underlies the male-female attraction that actually is present in supreme also so everything comes from the supreme so that desire, lust also in its original form is called Adhirasa that comes from the supreme and it is meant to be directed towards the supreme when it is misdirected then that causes suffering and Prabhupada gives example of redirection so this desire is there if it goes down lower then it can become anger and it can cause a lot of suffering but if it moves upwards then it can become transcendent so Prabhupada gives example of Hanuman spiritualising anger but the important point here is that where does lust come from it comes from the supreme lord and it is a misdirection of our original search for happiness so Krishna is telling Maha Shano Mahapadma it is all devouring sinful energy why all devouring all devouring because once a person becomes lusty actually lust can just go out of control and can blind a person completely once there is normal sexuality then there is all sorts of different kinds of sexualities which people have homosexuality and bisexuality and these sort of things and then beyond that there can be different kinds of perversities that are there so there can be paedophilia where people are attracted to small children and they brutalise small children in that and this is even coming in a very revolting way in the form of abuse of children within families small small children many of them suffer child abuse because they have some relatives whom the family members trust and those relatives they sometimes violate and brutalise the children it’s terrible sometimes it may happen with parents also abusing children that’s rare but that also happens that’s incest so actually lust has no limits to where it can go so all devouring once lust gets triggered then in many cases for lust nothing remains sacred nothing remains sacred for lust when nothing remains sacred anything can happen there can be perverse fantasies perverse fantasies which people have so these can make Mahashino Mahapapna so lust means nothing sacred lust devours everything Mahashino Mahapapna Mahashino Mahapapna so we see today in the world sexual assaults, sexual abuse, rapes and everything surrounded with that is such a big problem it all originates in lust and when it originates in this way it’s quite sad that people are not able to see the link between what they are looking at eagerly in the media and what they are looking at horrified in the news what does it mean? sometimes in the advertisements in the billboards in the movies there is so much sexuality being explicitly promoted that means there are sexually there are obscene pictures revealing pictures of male-female sexuality and then there are incidents which are reported in newspapers of people being perversely violent and people become victims and people look forward to that kind of depiction in the media and they are horrified but actually the same force same lust that is being triggered through those kind of hoardings those kind of pictures then when it gains a deadly momentum it becomes like this so most people may say no no no actually the movies are depicting romantic consensual sex they say both men and women they are attracted to each other and doing everything voluntarily but here what is happening it is it is forcible it is not at all romantic it is brutal and they may say that you know that is something good this is something bad there is a difference between the two no doubt but the point is that reference can be understood when a person is not blinded by lust once a person becomes blinded by lust then lust doesn’t see all these differences once lust is triggered then it can just transmogrify into ugly forms which people can’t even think about so of course if people have culture people have morality then most people may not go from romantic consensual to forcible brutal things but actually most people have too much too much of a positive self image you know oh I will never do such things but actually lust doesn’t respect our moral boundaries most of the times so we have to be careful in Ajaamel when he just saw while passing by saw that image saw that Shudra and Shudrani embracing if somebody had told him before that you know after one week you will be throwing out your wife from your house you will be throwing out your parents from your house and you will be cohabiting with a prostitute the Shudrani will say what nonsense you know in today’s time if somebody say like that a person will say I will do a libel case against you how can you speak something like this to me Ajaamel would never have thought I would ever do something like this but then once that lust came it just devastated him completely so therefore lust is it is the enemy of the world so it is an enemy and Krishna says that this is the enemy which impels us to act sinfully now normally when we think of an enemy we think of somebody with a gun say our country is there some other country is there and the enemy is attacking from the border or maybe they are coming by fighter pilots or nowadays we may say it is a masked people with suicide bombers we will think of that side of people as enemies then the question comes what kind of enemy is it Krishna and Arjuna they are on a battlefield and the enemies they are saying Duryodhana Dushyasana, Karna Karna is not there right now but Karna is very much there in the minds of everyone they are all there on the battlefield so what kind of enemy is this and how does this enemy attack so that Krishna explains in the next verses so he gives three examples here to illustrate how lust covers a person so dhumen is by smoke avriyate, avriyate is covered, vahaneer is fire so just as smoke is covered by fire yatha darsho malena cha so darsha, adarsha is mirror that in which we can get darshan adarsha, that is mirror malena cha, malena is dirt, dust just as dust covers a mirror yatha ulben avrato garbhas ulbena is the womb garbhas is embryo just as the womb covers the embryo, similarly yatha tenedam avratam similarly, tena refers to that that lust, idam, this that is the soul is covered tena idam avratam, so he is giving three examples of how lust covers the soul, so let’s look at these three examples now so Prabhupada explains the purport and Bhaktivinoda Thakura also elaborates this in his commentary, Vasitranjan and Vidvatranjan so what does he say over here the first analogy is, this as fire covers the smoke so this refers to the human species so what is the nature of the covering it is thin and penetrable it means when smoke is there, just blow and then proper stoking this can be moved aside but when the dust is there in the mirror then that is considered to be the covering of the animal species, now sometimes the dust may be so much that one cannot practically see the mirror only there appears to be just a wall of dust only but thick and that sort of things one may not even know that there is a mirror behind the dust just appears to be a wall of dust that is thick and tough to penetrate so the animals they will take some time to come to a higher level of consciousness, where they can perceive spirituality and womb and child that refers to plants, the child in the womb, the embryo in the womb is in a state of helplessness it can’t do much it can’t prematurely come out often premature pregnancy can lead to problems also, it has to take its own time so it is super thick and penetrable only after long effort, the effort is what, effort is in the plants, plants cannot do any effort, so it is just the effort is here in terms of time the plants will have to go through many go through their own life course and that soul will have to evolve and eventually it will come to the human species so essentially the point which Krishna is making is lust covers us, now you say what kind of covering is it? so first is, what exactly is lust? is lust a thing or is it a desire? that means, is there something called lust, which is there out there or it is just when I have some desire it is called as lust so is lust a thing or is it just our own feeling? actually it is both what does it mean it is both? Krishna is here talking about lust as being a thing this is the kind of covering and he is referring to it as enemy so that means there are lusty impressions which is stored in the mind and there are lusty desires which are triggered in the mind so lusty impressions means what? that we may have seen certain images, we may have heard of certain things and those have created certain impressions which are there in the mind, so for example a small infant, at least from this life’s point of view they are not there but in most people they are there so this is the impressions which are there now different people may have been exposed to different degrees of lust so lusty imagery, now a days with the availability of internet porn people may have so much garbage in their minds so different people have different levels of impressions and these impressions are what are stored in the mind so in that sense these impressions are actually there that is a thing which is there in the mind lust is a thing, but that thing what does it do? that thing provokes us and when it provokes us then we get the feeling so when I’m talking about a thing it’s not a thing like this hand, it’s not a thing like a table or something not a thing like a wall, it’s not gross it’s subtle, but subtle things are also things, they are real so feeling refers to so based on that kind of thing there is a certain thing, certain feeling that gets activated, so for example if there were no lusty impressions in people’s minds, then even if males and females saw each other then they would not have so much agitation but when lusty feelings are there when males and females see each other, then there is agitation that happens so this agitation what is it the result of? it is the result of the impressions, so now the impressions Krishna is telling, they are already there we should not assume that we are pure devotee we should assume that lusty impressions are there but just because the impressions are there doesn’t mean that we have to have those feelings and allow those feelings to take control of us those impressions will create certain feelings in our heart, but we can say no to those feelings, just like when we are walking on the streets we can’t say that there should not be any hoardings which are obscene, that is the way the culture is in most many places in the world and the hoardings will be there people will be dressing in provocative ways also now we can’t stop that, that is the lusty stimulus that is there outside but what we can do is we can avoid exposing ourselves to it too much and we can avoid succumbing to it, avoid getting controlled by it just as we understand that there can be external provocative stimuli which we can prevent from controlling us similarly there can be internal provocative stimuli which are the impressions of what we have exposed ourselves to in the past which we can say no to when they start proposing themselves when they start prompting and pushing and pinching and punching and prodding us, do this, do this, do this we can say no to that, so here Krishna is right now talking about lust as a thing it is there in all living beings so now Krishna says it is a covering now what does this covering do? so this covering prevents us from having spiritual awareness it makes us spiritually forgetful and it makes us materially desirous, so in a sense this is a covering, so many of us may have heard about the avaranatmika shakti and the prakshapatmika shakti, maya has two energies, avaranatmika is the other word is avritam so covered avaranatmika is that which covers prakshapatmika is that which pushes so avaranatmika shakti means that which makes us forget our spiritual identity and prakshapatmika shakti is that which drags us towards material illusion so a simple example to understand this is when people go to a theatre to watch a movie there are two stages in the progression of the illusion, first is the lights are turned off so when the lights are turned on people forget the reality and then the lights are turned on which lights are turned on? the image on the movie screen starts so the first turning off of the lights makes people forget the reality and the second turning off of the lights drags people into the illusion so avaranatmika shakti is like the switching off of the lights and prakshapatmika shakti is like the turning on of the lights which start the illusion so both these they propel the soul into illusion, they rip the soul out of reality and propel the soul into illusion similarly this lust, what does it do? avritam, it covers us so it makes us forgetful of our spiritual identity and it prompts us to push up to get into material illusions how does it cover? that Krishna will describe in the next verse Krishna says these are degrees of covering but what is the method of covering? it’s not like if a blanket is there on my face I can’t see anything so what kind of covering is this? Krishna describes that in the next verse ya nino nitya vairina so avritam jnanam etena ya nino nitya vairina kamarupena kaunteya dushpurena nalena cha so avritam what does it cover? jnanam, the knowledge etena, etena means of this who is this? jnanino it covers the knowledge of the soul who is actually the knower the atma is here called the jnani the atma knows sat chit ananda, so chit is the faculty of the soul the soul is knowing the soul has the capacity of knowledge but that knowledge capacity, the awareness capacity of one’s spiritual identity is covered and then after nitya vairina this is a frightening word actually now Krishna has said earlier in 3.37 this enemy here but here the word is nitya vairi nitya vairi means eternal enemy so why eternal enemy? you know, this enemy is such an enemy if we have some enemy in this world and that enemy will maybe torture us kill us and that’s the end of the enmity but this is the enemy which goes on lifetime after lifetime lifetime after lifetime so in terms of identity, strategy and longevity this is our worst enemy longevity means lust will keep tormenting us lifetime after lifetime after lifetime longevity, nitya vairina identity identity means what? actually most of the time we don’t even come to know who is the enemy what happens for most people is they feel lusty and when they feel that lust is not satisfied when they feel angry because lust is not satisfied then they think those people who did not allow me to satisfy my lust they are my enemies so rather than becoming angry with lust they become angry with all the factors that are obstructing their fulfilment of lust so it’s identity so what has happened is identity we are not even able to identify the enemy and then that sort of enemy is very dangerous it’s like a spy if a spy has penetrated into the enemy ranks then the enemy can be sabotaged from within because the enemy is ok ok we shoot there but if a spy has penetrated into our ranks and we are prepared for the enemy I am going to shoot, I am going to shoot and a spy comes from behind and blows a bomb under our feet so the spy can sabotage our efforts from inside so like that we are thinking our enemies are outside but our enemies are actually inside and that way we get caught up as we identify strategy, what happens is normally when the enemy attacks us the enemy attacks and we fight and the enemy has to use its forces to curb us but actually when lust conquers, what does lust do? lust uses our own force to destroy ourselves how is that? when a person becomes lusty then the person doesn’t have to be forced to do bad things the person doesn’t have to be forced to do wrong things the person does wrong things oneself and that is a tragedy people get so many nasty sexually transmitted diseases so how do they get those diseases? actually they themselves indulge in those things and that’s how they get the diseases so many ways people get such terrible terrible complexities people get into so rather than the enemy destroying ourselves just as if there is a computer virus once a virus comes into our computer it uses our own computer space it uses our own computer the electricity that we are providing to the computer and it uses our own computer’s programming technological resources and then it damages the computer so like that when lust comes in it turns our own resources against us the person right there ready to shoot the enemy and somebody comes and says why are you pointing the gun there? turn the gun here, point here, shoot now so that’s it that’s how Ajamel a well educated Brahmin a cultured person but what happened? Lust stuck and he destroyed himself that’s how lust is in terms of identity in terms of strategy in terms of longevity lust can destroy us and that’s why nitya vairena and then kamarupena kaunteya who is this enemy? kamarupena it is in the form of lust and Krishna says dushpura analena cha so anala is fire dushpura is insatiable it burns like fire and it is insatiable so now in the this idea of lust being like fire is something which is even acknowledged in romantic literature for example in in movies they may have songs you know, my heart is on fire or they may in Hindi movies they have songs like sawan jo aagal gaye you know the fire that is lit in spring now they also acknowledge that fire but their illusion is what? that indulgence will extinguish the fire but indulgence won’t extinguish the fire indulgence will aggravate the fire why will it aggravate the fire? because indulgence acts as a fuel when it acts as a fuel when fuel is put in fire the fire is going to blaze further the fire is not going to get extinguished so Yayaati in the 9th canto of Shrimad Bhagavatam is a story which describes how he was captivated by Divyani and he enjoyed with her for 100 years but then after vishayan se purnam varshisahasram he says he enjoyed for 100 years vishayan sevateya sakrut continuously enjoyed but still not satisfied and then he says that he says actually na jaatu kama kamanam upabhogena samyati havishah krishna vartneva bhuyayeva bhivardhate he says na jaatu kama kamanam by kama by last kama by indulgence and last he cannot be satisfied upabhogena samyati na by indulgence and samyati pacifying na na na jaatu kama it will not happen why? havishah krishna vartneva when we put when we put some in fire we put some oblations we put some fuel bhuyayeva bhivardhate it will blaze forth all the more dushpore aalam so last will be aggravated by indulgence it will not become subdued by indulgence so then we may wonder actually then what is if it is like that then is there something like dharmic lust so there is marriage then is it that within the limits of dharma also if one engages in lust that will also aggravate then what is the point of grahastha ashram so if lust is always going to get fuelled by indulgence then what is the point at all how is grahastha ashram an ashram how is it going to purify us so actually in grahastha ashram it is not the indulgence that gives realisation and purification it is the observance of dharma that brings about purification and realisation so grahastha ashram is not grahastha and grahamedhi so grahamedhi is a person who is interested only in sense gratification grahastha is a person who is sense gratification is a part of life man woman may come together but that is only one part centre is dharma centre is Krishna so what brings purification what brings realisation is not the indulgence it is the practise of dharma so when there is a practise of dharma then that brings about purification that reminds us that there is a higher happiness and then when we have that when we keep ourselves connected to that higher happiness and then there is the worldly happiness and also there is the sensual happiness one compares this is there I was so excited about it but it is something so great this is better so actually it is only when you practise dharma that there is the comparison that can be done this is higher this is lower if one doesn’t practise dharma and one engages in sense gratification all that results by that is just the lust keeps getting more and more and then the person feels unsatisfied with one partner and then the person goes to some other partner and people can have extramarital affairs and then all sorts of things happen like that why because it is not that marriage itself is meant to be reduced to the arrangement for sexual indulgence it is only one part of it actually the primary purpose is to be practise dharma and to become purified by that so that which cannot be satisfied at all so yes there is definitely dharmic allowances there for indulgence but the allowance means that it has to be done under regulation and by doing it under regulation gradually and by the practise of dharma one gets a higher taste which gradually frees one from it so otherwise if one just fuels through indulgence alone you just keep blazing more and more and more so Sri Prabhupada explains in the purport here it is a classic statement he first says this world is like a maithun nagar everybody here is shackled by sex life he says criminals are kept within bars since the criminals were disobedient to the laws of the lord are shackled by sex life now it is interesting nobody will think of sex life as a shackle people think of sex life as very enjoyable where is the shackle in that the shackle is that that is what keeps us in the bodily conception of life one cannot get into sexual enjoyment without thinking that I am the body and thinking I am the body is the cause of bondage is itself bondage actually at one level it is a bondage of misidentification and beyond that there is a further bondage that results when we act on the bodily platform so sex in that sense is a shackle why because the soul is soul is here say and the body is here so the sex desire binds the soul to the body why it binds? because the soul is this is the way I want to enjoy and to enjoy this way I need the body the sex desire binds the soul to the body so that is how the souls who do not want to serve Krishna they are imprisoned in the bodily conception of life through sex desire and in the bodily conception of life there is old age, disease, death there is repetition of the samsara chakra and adhyatmik, adhibhautik, adhidaivik all these kleshas will come and then Prabhupada makes another classic statement I will explain in the next statement only in the part 4 advancement of material civilisation on the basis of sense gratification means increasing the duration of the material existence of a living entity so advancement of material civilisation on the basis of sense gratification what does this mean? this means that if we think what is progress? progress means to find out newer and newer ways of sense gratification if that is what we think as advancement so then the result of this definition of advancement is that people get more and more entangled means increasing the duration of the material existence so in the past if somebody would get lusty what was the option that person would have? maybe that person could have some if the person was so lusty that person was not satisfied in marriage the person may have some affair somewhere or may go to some go to some sort of some arrangement of prostitution or something like that but now if a person becomes lusty then what happens? just by clicking one button one can get filthy images and filthy scenes from everywhere practically in the world put together for access and not only that what happens is people who have their most perverse images people with the most perverse fantasies they make their most perverse images and they put it on the net and thousands of people see it and what happens by this is people’s minds get so contaminated the porn industry in the world today is one of the biggest industries the amount of money that is spent in America on baseball and football the franchisees all the franchisees of the biggest clubs the amount of money that is earned through all the franchisees the amount of money that is earned through the porn industry is much more than that so it is so many people are caught in that and porn addiction is a very serious addiction unfortunately and there is only one aspect of sexual addiction or the complications that come from sexual excessive sexual indulgence so now the point is that here is so much technology now developing the internet required a huge amount of intelligence at least the intelligence processing and understanding electronics and telecommunications and all that but then if the definition of success is yes you ought to have facilities for sense gratification so then that is pointless when I was doing my engineering I was quite interested in science how things work understanding nature understanding the mechanisms and the principles of how things work but then I studied electronics engineering when I came into 4th year then I came to know that one of the major applications of electronics engineering is to develop better and better forms of television and other forms of other similar kinds of multimedia that is used for entertainment so then I thought here I have used my intelligence for several years for what? to provide a better idiot box for people and what is happening by watching the idiot box? people are becoming idiots so if I use my intelligence to develop better idiot box by which people become more idiotic then I am an idiot is this the way I want to use my intelligence thankfully soon after that I was introduced to Krishna Consciousness but now it’s not that all engineers are going to do only this but you have to understand that people who are in the field of science are not free to do whatever research they want they also need their career, they also need finances and most of the finances for science and technology they come primarily from the defence industry or the consumer industry so defence industry is about defending and consumer industry is for eating, sleeping, mating so that’s where the funding comes from that’s where most of the research has to be done so advancement of material civilisation on the basis of gratification, that’s the kind of advancement that is mostly happening today and what does it do? it means increasing the duration of the material existence of a living entity it increases the duration because with this kind of conception the living entity gets more and more trapped more and more trapped whatever little imagination the soul had earlier now the imagination plays forth they become far far worse and then Prabhupada further says in the Purport last sentence while one enjoys sense gratification it may be that there is some feeling of happiness but actually that so called feeling of happiness is the ultimate enemy of the sense enjoyer so this is a statement that we can embed in our heart yes Prabhupada is giving concession over yes there may be happiness while one enjoys sense gratification it may be that there is some feeling of happiness and we say no not some feeling the poets write so many songs about it, the movies depict it so much there is a lot of happiness there actually speaking it’s a huge amount of exaggeration the body’s capacity to enjoy is very limited and we can’t expand it no matter what we do there is some feeling of happiness but even if there is some happiness the point is that actually that so called feeling of happiness is the ultimate enemy of the sense enjoyer why the ultimate enemy of the sense enjoyer because that feeling of happiness traps the person how is it trapped? when there is a mouse that has to be caught mouse is running around in the house then some cheese or some other suitable for the mouse is brought and that is put in the mouse trap and the mouse comes along it sees the cheese and it comes inside the door of the mouse trap closes and it’s trapped so now that cheese eating that cheese there is some pleasure no doubt but that so called feeling of happiness is not going to make the mouse happy actually it’s going to be miserable it’s going to cost its life also that means that feeling of happiness is the ultimate enemy there is happiness but that feeling of happiness is the enemy or like a fish and a bait so when the bait is there and the fish catches the bait when it initially eats at that time it’s so delicious, I want it at that moment the bait gets caught in the mouth it’s trapped, it’s pulled out it’s pulled out and then dragged dragged out to its death so like that actually there is happiness there may be some happiness but that happiness is the enemy so that is just like when a person is drinking person may feel some I feel such a relief when I drink but then after that it is the ultimate enemy of the sense enjoyer so now this is something which is quite a bitter pill to swallow it’s one thing to say you should not do it don’t get involved in sense gratification but it’s quite another to actually explain that that happiness is bad it’s not just bad from moral point of view nowadays people think moral values are up to you you think that is wrong, so it’s wrong for you I don’t think it is wrong, so it’s not wrong for me people think moral values are relative moral values, many people don’t believe in it actually the suffering and the complication that comes in life that is not relative if a person gets involved in illicit sex and then gets AIDS that’s not relative even if a person doesn’t believe anything is wrong with illicit sex and if the person gets AIDS there is no relativity in that so the consequences are there so the obnoxious is considered obnoxious because it is noxious obnoxious means that which is bad noxious means that which is poisonous so actually illicit sex, Prabhupada uses the word abominable, obnoxious, why does he use that word? it’s not just a moral it’s not just a value judgement based on some outdated conceptions of morality all people in the past thought this is right and this is wrong we have become modern, so we understand, there is nothing wrong about it these are not outdated conceptions of morality what is obnoxious is obnoxious because it is noxious noxious means poisonous lust is considered more poisonous than poison why? actually there is vishya and there is vishaya so vishya is poison, vishya is sense objects so vishya destroys only after consumption but vishya destroys just by contemplation when one contemplates on sense objects consciousness is already contaminated, it’s already poisoned and eventually it’s destroyed so vishya is not as dangerous as vishya therefore one has to be extremely cautious so called feeling of happiness is the ultimate enemy of the sense enjoyer let’s move forward now what is Krishna describing over here? he is describing the enemy how does the enemy act? the enemy covers our intelligence the next question will come where is this enemy present? so that he describes in this verse indriyāṇi mano buddhir asyādhiṣṭhāṁ ucchate etair vyohayateÅ›a yānavā rukte dehinam indriyāṇi mano buddhir that this lust is situated in the senses, the mind in the intelligence asyādhiṣṭhāṁ ucchate asyādhiṣṭhāṁ it is situated in this etair vyohayateÅ›a from there it deludes the soul yānavā rukte dehinam how does it delude? it covers the intelligence of the soul yānavā, it covers the knowledge of the soul this is again a very significant point that where is lust situated? lust is situated in our own mind, in our own senses in our own intelligence sometimes people say that some men may say we are just males if women dress inappropriately we will naturally become lusty no, actually lust is not situated in the female form lust is not situated in the female dress the way female dress or don’t dress a male may see a female and may get provoked now that same female may have a baby in her arms and the baby may be touching the private parts of the female that baby doesn’t feel agitated so if that lust were present just in the female form then the baby would also feel agitated the baby would not feel agitated because lust is not present in the form lust is provoked through that form but lust is present in our own mind, intelligence and senses so we can’t blame others if we become lusty that lust is there within us so there is this very sad phenomena called blaming the victim blaming the victim means that if a woman is violated people say that woman she dressed like that, she went here, she did that that’s what she deserved no no matter how a woman dresses the responsibility for wrong doing if some wrong is done that is primarily if the male has forcibly violated a woman then the responsibility is on the male not on the female the character of the female doesn’t matter even if a woman is a prostitute prostitutes are meant to be paid they are not meant to be forcibly violated so the point is that we can’t wash off the responsibility, people dress like that that’s why, what can I do but that doesn’t mean that gives us licence to do whatever we want lust is within us so having said that there is also another perspective the other perspective is that the way we dress the way we behave sends messages about us to others that’s the way people perceive us that’s natural and that’s inevitable so if women wear clothes that are revealing women wear clothes that are provocative then by that they are sending messages that we want to be seen as sex objects so we want to be seen as sex objects now women also have to ask this question is that the message that I want to send out to people if that’s not the message that I want to send out if that’s not the message I want to send out then I shouldn’t dress like that so it’s like if a person is walking through a dark alley in a city a dark lonely alley and that person has thousand rupee notes coming out of the pocket 15 notes from here, 15 notes from here 15 notes from here, 50 notes from here and then some people come and pounce on that person and rob that person and take away the money and then the person goes to the police he says I was robbed the police asks him what all happened he says this and that happened why did you have to keep the money like that he says no, but that’s my right it’s my money I can keep it whichever way I want now it’s not a question of legal rights over here it’s a matter of legal rights whether the person is exposing the money or concealing the money if somebody else forcibly takes the money the thieves are wrong and the thieves have to be punished so from the legal point of view whether the money is concealed or revealed doesn’t matter if somebody is forcibly taking the money that person is forcibly taking the money is a criminal so the point is not whether it’s criminally culpable or not the point is it’s just a matter of common sense is this what I want is this what I want if I want to reveal my money then people are going to look for opportunities to rob me so by making this common sense issue into a complicated moral rights issue a rights issue we just muddy the whole field of discussion so similarly women when they dress if they are going to just like a person showing the money that a person has similarly if women are going to dress in such a way that they reveal the provocative bodily parts the result of that is going to be that people are going to be agitated so basically the person who is exposing the money is sending a message there is a lot of money available it’s easily available come and take it and now somebody says no I don’t want to send that message but this is the way I want to keep my money no that is not going to work if you are going to keep the money showing out of the pocket like that that is the message that people are going to pick up whether we want it or not similarly when women dress in clothes that expose their own bodily parts in provocative ways then that they may not want to send that message of course many women may want to send that message also women may think that I want men to be attracted to me but they shouldn’t touch me they should be amazed at how beautiful I am I like to see how big their eyes mouths fall open, eyes open I want to attract people’s attention but they shouldn’t touch me if we dress in particular ways certain messages will be sent and those messages when sent people are going to respond in that way so here Krishna is saying so that means we have to understand that lust is not just situated in the male senses lust is situated also in the female senses so that is with respect to that just as men have to regulate their senses women also have to regulate their senses and the way women regulate their senses is by concealing their body properly clothes that are that are meant to be modest they are meant to be non-provocative so in this way the responsibility is on both sides otherwise essentially what is going to happen is that the person is going to get provoked and the person is going to fall prey so lust is situated in the senses mind intelligence and it has to be one has to be freed from that influence so how do we free from here Krishna is going to say that it is situated in the mind intelligence and senses the next verses he will start telling from 41 to 43 how one can control and conquer lust that we will discuss in our next class thank you very much Hare Krishna.