Gita 02.67 – Be swept by the wind of spiritual desire, not material desire

Thank you. So, here Krishna is giving an example to illustrate how, while living and acting and moving in this world, if you are not careful, your senses can drag us away. So, this verse is part of the answer to the question, Prajetakim, how does such a person walk about? How does the person move about in this world using the senses? So, the example is Indriyanam, Icharatam.

So, while the senses are moving around, Yanmano Anubhidhiyate, when the mind fixes on something, whatever the mind concentrates on, among the various objects, roaming senses are perceiving. So, Dasya Harati Pragyam. Dasya Harati, Harati means to carry away.

So, earlier the word was used Haranti in 2.60. Haranti Prasabham Manaha. Prior to that in 2.44 also, Appaharit Chetasam, there also the root Har had come. So, Har means to steal away.

Harati Pragyam, Dasya Pragya Pratishthita, that was a common chorus that was coming in many verses here in this chapter, in this section especially, 55 onwards, 54 was when Arjuna introduced the word. So, Dasya Harati Pragyam, Pragya, the intelligence was stolen away. An example is given, Vayur Navam Iva Ambasi, just as the wind, Vayur, Nava, boat, Iva Ambasi.

Ambasi means on the water. This is a boat on the water is swept away. Now, this is the second metaphor from nature that Krishna is giving in this section.

There are many metaphors still now. There is a metaphor of the well, which was more from a rural setting. And then there was a metaphor of the tortoise, the well and river metaphor was in 2.46, then 58 was, Kurmo Angani Sarvasya, of a tortoise withdrawing its lips.

That is for how to control the senses. This metaphor in 2.66 is for how, or 2.67 is how sense control may be lost. And here, Krishna essentially states that the sense control is lost when the way wind sweeps away a boat on water.

Krishna will use the metaphor of Vayu again, or rather Arjuna will use it to talk about how the mind is restless. Vayur Iva Sudhushkaram, that will come in 6.35. So, 33, 34 it comes actually, that section, 33, 34, 35, there Arjuna asks about how to control the mind. It is very difficult.

So anyway, here Krishna is talking about external sense objects, creating a wind of passion that drags us away. So, now, a boat is designed to move smoothly on ocean or on any body of water. But that same boat can be tossed away and tossed away utterly and devastatingly by a stormy wind.

And the boat is practically helpless at that time. After all, what can anyone do if one is just being swept away? Similarly, it is almost impossible to deal with situations wherein when the force of passion comes in through the senses into the mind and just sweeps us away, sweeps our intelligence away and then sweeps us away. So, now in a boat, there are many things that can be done.

First is, of course, they try to do some, the skilled boatsman tries to get some sort of weather forecast, either by personal experience of observing the sky and the wind patterns, or by using some technological surveys to know about the weather pattern. And then they, first of all, try to avoid storms as much as possible. And secondly, even when storms come, how do you deal with the storms? Actually, if one is expert, then one can weather the storm.

That means, one tries to move out of the area of the storm or one tries to go into within the storm to the area of minimum force. And by placing the boat at particular angles, an expert boatsman knows how to not be blown away by the storm. But best, of course, is avoidance.

If avoidance is not possible, then there is endurance. And if endurance cannot be done, then there will be destruction. So, now, similarly, best is that we do not allow the storm of passion to come.

That means, we do not go into the area where the storm of passion is going on. So, for example, now, how does the storm of passion generated? That is, the sense objects are outside and we have senses and then the senses come in contact with sense objects. And then through the perception that enters through the senses, if the mind contemplates on it, then that invokes a gust of desire, wild desire.

And when that wild desire actually took away, it takes away our intelligence. It is like the storm takes away the boat. Now, it is best to, if we know there are some tempting sense objects in a particular place, we try to avoid going there.

Now, if avoidance is not possible, then there has to be endurance. That means, you know, we may have to, the senses may come in contact with sense objects. We cannot go around walking in the world with closed eyes.

But we can avoid exposing ourselves, we cannot avoid, we can avoid contemplating on them. Because when we contemplate, the desire becomes stronger and stronger. The more we contemplate, the stronger the desire becomes.

Till eventually, the desire may well become irresistible. So, the way to endure all this is by minimizing the contemplation. So, the point here is, when there is focus, when whatever the senses are perceiving, when there is one focus on them, and now yen mano anuvidhyate means, actually any of the senses which are wandering, if one focuses on them unguardedly, then one can get misled.

So, we have to be careful about not letting ourselves be carried away by the senses. Now, the way to avoid this is by not dwelling undiscriminatingly on the senses. As soon as we find, oh, this is a tempting sense object, which will agitate me, minimize contact.

And then the wind is not allowed to get generated, or at least the wind that is generated is not allowed to enter into our consciousness. Once it enters, the more momentum it gathers, the more difficult it will be to resist it. But if it has not been allowed to gain momentum, then it is much easier to check it and to counter it.

So, therefore, the important thing is to avoid counter, to not allow it to gain momentum. And the way to ensure that it doesn't gain momentum is by minimizing contemplation. And the important thing to recognize is that even if a storm blows away the boat, still, actually, we don't sink, the soul is eternal.

And we can always get up and we can come back into the boat and again keep going on. But it is extremely troublesome. We don't know how long it will take, how much trouble it will be involved.

So, it can be very painful. So, best is to avoid it. Now, there is a positive principle to this also, that in the Bhagavatam, there is a verse, nirdehamadhyam sulabham sudurlabham plavam sukalpam gurukaranadharam mayanukulena navasveteritam pumanbhavabdhinna taretsatmah.

So, there, it is an elaborate metaphor about how the human body is like a boat, spiritual master is like a captain. The favorable winds are the Vedic literature. So, I will just focus on that part over here.

So, just as sense objects can generate the wind of material desires, similarly, spiritual sense objects like scriptures can generate the wind of spiritual desires. That means, when we study scripture, we understand the glory of Krishna, we understand the glory of spiritual happiness, and we feel inspired to pursue spiritual life and pursue spiritual happiness. And in that way, the wind of spiritual desire is generated, which can take, which can push us towards Krishna instead of being pushed away from Krishna by the wind of material desires.

So, similarly, actually hearing classes, singing kirtans, and doing various devotional activities, taking darshan of deities can also generate the wind of spiritual desires. And there actually, we should do manu-anuvidhyate, when we are using the senses to pursue the sense objects, we should do manu-anuvidhyate and by that manu-anuvidhyate, we will be able to have spiritual desires in our consciousness and will be propelled onwards towards Krishna. Thank you.