Gita 03.40 – Don’t mistake inner misleading propaganda with reality

Thank you, Krishna is delineating the places where lust resides, and he describes the senses, the mind, and the intelligence, they are situated over there, and through these they delude, so this lust covers the knowledge of the embodied soul, now we are often at the, but at the receiving end of aggressive propaganda that is meant to make us think in particular ways, for example say advertising, so now advertising we know is clearly meant to make us purchase a thing, by molding our thinking in a particular way, so we protect ourselves from that, at least we try to, especially when we are intelligent and discerning, and we ensure that our energy is, our time, our money, our energy, are fruitfully utilized for the things that are important for us, and not just the things that are foisted on us by others who want to exploit us, just as we are discerning about external influences that may misdirect our energy, similarly we need to be careful about internal influences that may misdirect our energy, so such misdirection can happen because of the anarthas that are present inside us, and the most prominent among such anarthas is the anartha of lust, it's not necessarily the most foundational, but often it's the most active in terms of the triggering that happens of our desires due to it, so in a general sense it is not only lust, it is also all the anarthas which are present in the senses, the mind and the intelligence, so significantly these three are actually our means of knowledge perception, we perceive the outer world with our senses, so say for example right now you are hearing through your ears, and the subject is going to the mind, and the mind is going to integrate the input and put it for scrutiny by the intelligence, and after which the intelligence will along with its recommendation for just a course of action, that will be either approved or disapproved by the soul, and then the command will come down the chain, so in this hierarchy of command there is a soul, below that there is the intelligence, below that there is the mind, below that there are the senses, and below that there are the sense objects, so that's how the senses act based on whatever input it gets from those who are above it in the command, now although the soul is at the top, but in principle or an ontological reality, but all of us are susceptible to persuasion, so you may decide one thing, but if somebody else is a very aggressive or convinced, convert or propagandist, propagator of a particular idea or thought, or point or speaker or subject, then that person on our side, especially if we are alternating with one of the issues that are of concern over there, then that can help us present ourselves more positively, in a more intellectually respectable way, and that way we can have greater chances of influencing others, so similarly in the chain of the command, the intelligence is a critical deciding factor, if the intelligence can be won over, if it's won over by temptation and the person rationalizes and acts according to one's whims in order to, and rationalizes things, but when the intelligence is on the side of the soul, on the right side of reality, then the intelligence helps us to reject such misleading propaganda and stay fixed on the path of integrity and of spiritual integrity and ultimate spiritual success, so now when we try to remember Krishna through chanting, through scriptural study, through deity worship, at that time we need to actually bring our intelligence into picture, so that we can focus on whatever we are trying to do, by knowing that the intelligence can either sabotage or strengthen our effort, we can ensure that the intelligence harmonizes with our higher self than with our lower self, now ideally speaking the intelligence should be always vigilant to protect, but when the intelligence lapses, or rather when we depend too much on the intelligence and the intelligence gets taken over by lust, then we fall without even realizing what is happening, that's why while intellectual alertness is important, even more important is devotional absorption, devotional fullness, so if we are, or devotional busyness, if we are absorbed in Krishna and we take up not just absorbing, but also challenging services for Krishna, those challenging services force us to bring out all our best faculties in order to execute those services, and that enables us to attempt to engage all our faculties and do something which is otherwise difficult to do, that attempt taken positively enables us to absorb ourselves in Krishna, or at least to engage all our senses and to keep our intelligence also engaged, so we are remembering that our inner resources can also be sabotaged, can also be taken over, jeopardized, we can actually refocus ourselves whenever we don't feel like doing devotional activities, knowing that such feelings come not because bhakti doesn't give taste or because we are too sinful, it is just because our coupling and subtle body has been taken over, has been taken hostage, taken, abducted by some forces that are contrary to devotional principles, and by persevering in the process of bhakti, we will be able to drive out those inimical forces, and then we will find that we will be able to relish Krishna consciousness wonderfully.