Gita 02.69 – The darkness will not end if we don’t end our dark desires

Thank you this is Bhagavad Gita 2.69 Krishna is speaking to Arjuna and Krishna is telling about the difference in the values of the materialists and the spiritualists and he uses the metaphor of the night and the day and the key thing for us to understand through this metaphor is that there is no difference between life and the joy of living with respect to materialists because for materialists although their lifestyle may be purportedly different their dress style may be purportedly different their professions may be purportedly different but essentially they are all focusing on the same single one point of seeking sense gratification and the pursuit of sense gratification ultimately makes a person ordinary it is the pursuit of spiritual life that is truly extraordinary as long as the person is pursuing sense gratification no matter what else that person does everything else is boiling down to that base desire now the desire is considered base not necessarily because it is always sinful but rather it is considered base because it involves the desire to be able to get gratification using the body which is what all the animals are doing and for humans who have the capacity for higher happiness to pursue lower happiness is the way of illusion and bondage is the way of degradation is the way of disappointment and entanglement disappointment because bodily happiness can never live up to our hopes for happiness and entanglement because whatever little happiness we get over there we get attached to it, we want more and more of it and in the pursuit of more and more such happiness we lose the opportunity to come closer to Krishna we lose the opportunity to attain Krishna and wherein actually we can have the highest happiness so the variation of darkness and light which is given in this metaphor in this particular verse metaphorically refers to how things which are obvious obvious and apparent in light are invisible in darkness so like that the futility of sense gratification is obvious for spiritualists but it is completely invisible to the materialists and conversely the glory of spiritual happiness is obvious to spiritualists but it is invisible to the materialists so materialists think what is the point in working so hard for something which you can't see for a god you don't even know whether he exists or not for some happiness that you think you will get after you die whereas spiritualists they ask materialists what is the point in looking for something which you have struggled to get for so many lifetimes and which has never satisfied you why don't you aim for something which will actually bring satisfaction to you now the peculiar thing about this darkness and this light is that the darkness and light keep alternating in the sense that the normal darkness and light which we see the day gives rise to night and the night gives rise to day of course it is not that the day produces night and the night produces day rather it is the movement of the celestial body with respect to each other that causes the alteration of day and night but unlike this alteration of day and night with respect to the day and night gratifies the materialists actually the sense what is day continues to be day for the materialists and what is night continues to be night for the spiritualists that means the transition from day to night does not happen automatically it has to be done conscientiously so materialists who are thinking of sense gratification to be obvious like day I can see so many beautiful sense objects and I am going to enjoy them why should I not enjoy them nothing seems more obvious than the pursuit of sense gratification but that will all that is seen to be day and spiritual advancement and the happiness thereof will seem like night and how long will it seem like that till that person actually recognizes actually turns away studies scripture and decides to change one's desires and as long as the change of one's desires is not done the new positive thing will not be realized and that's why what we need to do is we need to learn the way to move forward in our spiritual life is to although we may still feel the spiritual life to be like night and material life to be like day if we expose our heart and head to scripture then the scripture will illuminate the spiritual life to us and will show how it's paradoxical that the illumination of spiritual wisdom will reveal the darkness of sensual gratification and that way we will turn away from it recognizing that it is pointless and thus we can when we study scripture because if our heart is in sensual gratification and even if we try to chant Krishna's names we will not be able to delight in chanting those names because we will feel it all pointless what is this chanting going to give me so only when we feel inspired by our intelligence by our determination to redirect our desires then we will see the darkness of material life and sensual gratification and then we will see the brightness of spiritual life and devotional satisfaction in loving service to Krishna.