Even after practicing bhakti why do we still have worldly desires?
Why is it that even after studying Shastra and starting Krishna Consciousness we still have a desire to enjoy materially why do we still think that we can be happy in this world there are two different things over here first is the purification that happens through bhakti and the second is our expectation of what should happen by bhakti the two are not always the same bhakti whenever we start practicing it purifies us so every mantra that we chant every Shastra sentence in Shastra that we read every sentence that we hear it is all contributing to our spiritual purification it is a contact with spiritual sound so we are growing by that but the problem often comes is that we have an unrealistic expectation we think that because I am practicing bhakti, material desires should disappear worldly desires should disappear no, that's not what Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita in 5.22 Krishna says Arjuna Arjuna that worldly enjoyment will lead to misery therefore intelligent people do not indulge in this worldly enjoyment then Arjuna gets a question he says Krishna I know that worldly enjoyment will lead to misery but still the desires won't go away what should I do so Krishna says he says he says Arjuna it is possible for you show room, tolerate it tolerate the desire the urges which are born of lust and anger, tolerate them and he says if you tolerate them such a person is well situated such a person is happy so what Krishna is saying is he is not assuring the disappearance of material desires he is calling us to tolerate material desires what this again means is that by the practice of bhakti what will happen is not that the desires will disappear immediately but they will become tolerable but we do have to tolerate them so as I told you temptations will come we don't have to welcome it is not that when a temptation comes we should show a red flag not a red carpet so sometimes because a temptation has come now I have to indulge in it we don't do like that just because a temptation has come I have to indulge in it no, temptation comes we can tolerate it and the easiest way to tolerate it is by redirecting our consciousness towards Krishna so what will happen by the practice of bhakti is two things if we keep practicing bhakti our consciousness will move more easily towards Krishna more habitually, more naturally towards Krishna and secondly the temptations will not seem so tempting they will not seem so difficult to resist but the temptations will be there there is a famous verse of Yamanacharya where he says that when I get material desires I spit at the thought so now we often hear this verse the important point is Yamanacharya is a pure devotee and even he is saying I get material desires so even a pure devotee can get material desires but what is different is the response you know if we get material desires probably we don't spit, our mouth starts watering so if we are in this world there are nobody can move around with closed eyes there will be perceptions which will come in and the perception may temporarily trigger some desire but we can moderate our response so a simple example will illustrate this suppose a person is trained to become a firefighter and you know a young firefighter goes for the first time has just joined the firefighting team and there is a call, there is a fire over there the person goes there and suddenly there is a huge fire and the person just picks up the fire drops it in horror and becomes panicky what has happened the first perception over there that has just caused panic now if the fire is huge it's alarming, even a trained firefighter may feel a few moments of panic but as there is more and more training, as there is more and more experience then the panic time decreases and the right response becomes faster the right reflexes are established so immediately the panic will be suppressed and the training that is there, that will substitute immediately the person will pick up the hose and start pouring the water and extinguish the fire so material desires are like fire dushpured anulincha like fire that burn our consciousness so when they burn our consciousness when we initially come to bhakti we have the firefighter we have the Hare Krishna Mahamantra we have the feedback but when temptation comes, we drop the feedback but the difference is if the fire is there, the fire can get lit in anyone's consciousness but then when there is a seasoned firefighter the person immediately picks up the hose and starts pouring the water so similarly as the devotee becomes more trained as the devotee becomes more seasoned more experienced then immediately when that fire comes, that doesn't mean that I let the fire burn but I immediately take the hose and pour water Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Ram, Hare Ram Ram Ram, Hare Hare and if we like this take shelter of Krishna not only will the temptation get extinguished but also our own faith in the potency of the remembrance of Krishna to free us from temptation will increase and that way we will grow in our spiritual life so bhakti is purification happening but we should not have the expectation that there will be no more temptation rather what we can expect is we can get shelter from temptation if we turn towards Krishna so if we do that then we will be able to.