Daily-Bhagavatam 66 – 11.07.56 – Counter temptation by intelligence, vigilance and diligence

Shreemad bhagavatam 11.756 yam yam vanchati sa rajan tarpa yantyan kampita tam tam samanyat kamam kuchre napya jitendriyaha yam yam vanchati whatever was desired sa rajan sa is by her her refers to the sheepy jinn rajan is the king so the brahmana is speaking to haraj yadur tarpa yantyan kampita she would please at pleasing glance she would satisfy him anukampita she would invoke his chivalrous merciful desire tam tam samanyat kamam and whatever was desired the husband would arrange for her whatever she desired samanyat he was brought kuchre napya jitendriyaha even if it was very difficult kuchre napya ajitendriyaha senses were uncontrolled here brahmana is talking about the nature of worldly illusion bhaktiswami dhakur in his commentary to the gita talks about how by the hope for material pleasure everybody gets entangled so rather than seeing this as the woman attempting and entangling the man he sees it as the souls who have enjoyed mentality being seduced by the hope for material pleasure and thereby laboring to get and getting themselves entangled more and more in general our pleasure seeking propensity is what drives us now depending on our intelligence depending on our vigilance depending on our diligence that pleasure seeking propensity will be directed either towards material things or it will be directed towards Krishna intelligence with vigilance and diligence intelligence means we philosophically know what is the actual source of pleasure and what is the source of bondage what will lead only to promised pleasure but will lead to misery so studying the philosophy helps us to understand this and then when the illusory energy through her various manifestations tempts us to seek pleasure at that time we can say no by turning towards Krishna and absorbing absorbing Krishna sometimes the power of illusion is so great that once we have got entangled in this material world once we have become attached to some object then even if it has not given us any pleasure for a few moments we may feel for a brief while after indulgence we feel that there is no pleasure here let me forget it but after sometime our mind makes us amnesiac we forget about the emptiness we forget about the misery that came because of our indulgence and all that we remember is the little pleasure that was there and we become excited agitated, tormented by that desire so along with intelligence we need vigilance vigilance means we have to observe our consciousness carefully and not let ourselves be misled by the false promises of the mind so for all practical purposes maya can be equated with our mind because maya acts through our mind so just as the wife is promising pleasure over here the mind promises its pleasure internally so vigilance enables us to not naively trust the mind and do its bidding but rather it enables us to critically examine the mind's proposals and check whether they deserve to be acted upon vigilance means being on guard if a guard is not vigilant then say in an airport terrorists may come and blow up the place similarly if we are not vigilant then anti-spiritual desires will come into our consciousness and they will blow up our bhakti so therefore we need to have vigilance and with that vigilance if some non-demotional desires start coming in, we say no to them but vigilance alone is not enough because the desires will keep coming again and again so we need diligence diligence means that we have to keep saying no again and again and again no matter how many times the proposals for enjoyment come up we keep saying no consistently and by saying no thus gradually over time the mind will realize that this person is not going to say yes to what I am asking therefore there is no point in making propositions and we will ourselves see that some things we might have been attached to earlier, for example say we may be attached to drinking tea or eating non-vegetarian food and the mind doesn't even make those propositions so that's because we decided on a no and stuck to that no and then that has led to the mind recognizing that it is not going to get a yes and then the mind becomes silent about that now of course there are many pleasures for which the mind doesn't become silent so easily that's primarily because we keep we sometimes say no to the mind and sometimes say yes and that's how the mind keeps coming back to us repeatedly proposing things now to the extent we become firm in saying no to that extent the mind will become silent so that is why we need diligence so by this combination of intelligence to know what is actually pleasurable and what is miserable with vigilance to not let the unhealthy the unwanted desires to slip into our consciousness unnoticed and diligence to keep saying no persistently to them and to more importantly keep saying yes to Krishna consistently when we thus stay fixed in Krishna then we soon realize that there is far higher happiness available in relationship with Krishna and then the lower desires start becoming pale and stale and they lose their appeal and then we can joyfully move forward in our march towards Krishna and to the everlasting happiness thereof.