Gita 02.70 – Be filled with higher purpose to transcend lower desires

Ordinary and it ultimately turns out to be entangling and miserable thank you makami bhagavad-gita 2.70 one of the most well-known verses from the bhagavad-gita and it's also visually evocative verse again drawing a metaphor from nature so in this section itself 2.54 to 2.72 where krishna is talking about the characteristics of siddha prajna he has used several metaphors from nature this is the third the first was of a tortoise withdrawing its shell 2.58 then there was a boat being carried away by the wind why you're now imam hasi 2.67 and now here it is river rivers entering into ocean now krishna is answering in this section from 64 to 72 toward the end of the chapter the question of arjuna how can a self-realized person engage the senses in this world that means while acting in this world how can one stay unagitated and unentangled krishna answers with an example of how uh how rivers enter into the ocean but the ocean doesn't get agitated so apur yamanam so purda is full so apur yamanam refers to always being filled still it doesn't overstep its boundaries so the ocean doesn't flood over because of a river coming into it or many rivers coming into it also samudram in the ocean means apa water provision the other than water pours into the ocean the ocean doesn't overflow its boundaries tadvat kama yam pravishanti sarve so similarly kama yam unto this person pravishanti they enter all kinds of desires enter into that person so shanti maapnoti na kama kami similarly that person so shanti maapnoti person obtains peace now who is the person who attains peace one whom in whom desires enter but they don't cause that person to overstep its overstep boundaries so in this case there will be moral spiritual boundaries and so that person attains peace shanti maapnoti na kama kami now kama kami is a very profound phrase which also illustrates alliterations in fact repetition of the same word in slightly variant forms kama kami means desire one who is not one who is a desirer of desires for now um ocean because of its largeness because of its fullness with so much water it can stay unagitated even when more water comes in on the other hand there's a small puddle or a small lake or even a pond into which a river comes up then everything will get that will overflow and the nearby area will get devastated when the water will not stay in its limits similarly now the ocean here refers to our consciousness so when our consciousness is large and full that means within our consciousness we are holding on to a larger reality we are having a bigger purpose big purpose to our life and we are full with the fulfillment that comes from living according to that big purpose then the desires that come into our consciousness whenever we see any tempting objects don't those desires won't distract us because we are ultimately pleasure seeking and when we have a higher purpose that is enriching us then lower desires won't trouble us so when we are in this world and when we observe objects of gratification or tempting attractive objects now those impressions will enter from those objects through our senses into our consciousness we can't move around with closed eyes but these impressions are like rivers coming into our consciousness they will not disrupt us our consciousness is like an ocean if we are living for a higher purpose and that purpose fills us up as the ocean is filled with water then we will no longer will not be agitated by the entry of those titillating impressions now we all have experience of this that when we are filled with the purpose even for example a student has to study tomorrow is the exam and now suddenly a friend comes and says that hey i got an i got a cd of the i got the latest movie that's been released just a couple of days ago i got it on a pen drive come and watch no i can't i don't have time now i have to study the same student maybe exam is three months away or six months away and is studying the student is studying and suddenly a friend comes and says come on watch the movie yes why not so what has happened the same movie might be there the same friend has come it's the same time but the difference is the exam has created a sense of purpose an urgency that was not there that is not there at other times so just as when we are filled with any purpose it we are ready to say no to lower things even if those lower things are pleasurable the same principle applies to the highest purpose now different things we can fill our consciousness with we can make our consciousness oceanic by cultivating a sense of purpose which consumes our being which pervades our consciousness but these purposes if they are just based on our subjective subjective likes and not the waste on any objective ultimate truth and those purposes themselves will not enrich us for long so when we decide okay i want to become a software engineer in mnc that's and that goal may just fill me for throughout my education till i get a job and once i get there the goal is achieved but then i find there's nothing exciting and then i try to create a higher goal i want to go up in the corporate ladder up up up but then this sort of purpose at a material level does not bring much higher fulfillment and it turns out to be a chase after a mirage which actually promises fulfillment but never delivers it so we can have material purposes for for our life when we are in specific stages of our life so student can ensure desire to do well in exams a professional can ensure desire to do well at to perform well at the job and same with all our duties but these purposes cannot and should not be let be made the defining purpose of our life they need to be subordinated integrated under a defining spiritual purpose of life when we understand that i am a soul and i am meant to serve krishna and or the various duties and aspirations that i have in my life they need to be subordinate integrated with my service to krishna so when when our consciousness is filled with that defining purpose of wanting to serve krishna then our consciousness becomes strong and becomes truly fulfilled so krishna has earlier talked about in 2.61 fix your call make me the object of the control senses fix all your senses on me so that was he was when he was answering the question how do the person sit now here that same principle can be applied when we are moving about we move about not by this desire because of this desire and that desire but because ultimately we want to serve krishna and when service to krishna becomes the defining unifying fulfilling purpose of our life then whatever we do that gets subordinated integrated and if it cannot be subordinated integrated then we we eliminate it from our life and when we work to serve krishna we get such a higher fulfillment our consciousness becomes like an ocean and we are no longer agitated by lower desires because we understand it's not important this is not relevant they are not going to be fulfilling i can get far greater fulfillment by serving krishna so why should i fall for these trivial desires and we will see that whenever we do not cultivate or hold on to that sense of devotional purposefulness when we let our consciousness become empty then our consciousness becomes like a puddle and when the river-like desires come in we get agitated and sometimes we fall because of those desires so we need to keep that purpose strong in our consciousness so that it fills our consciousness just as an ocean is filled with water and then we will come to say one is not the desirer of desires that means external from the external to the internal sense objects may come in so kama kami the two words kami refers to the desirer kama refers to desire so that means desire comes in from outside to inside that refers to kama but kami refers to desire going from inside to outside so that does not happen so from outside to inside desires may come because outside there are objects that look desirable but when i have higher more desirable purpose to my life and i hold on to that purpose then the entry of kama from outside to inside will not create a reciprocal desire from inside to outside and it will not make me a kami and when i don't become a kama kami when i don't start when i don't start desiring anything and everything that i see but stay fixed in my purpose then that purposefulness will fill me internally with satisfaction and such a person who is satisfied with the higher purpose ultimately a devotional purpose to life such a person can be such a person can attain peace for arjuna this is the essential way krishna is telling arjuna you can attain peace by managing your desires by fulfilling yourself internally like an ocean.