Gita 03.40 – Lust has taken over our knowledge-acquiring mechanism

Thank you.

So this is Bhagavad Gita 3.40. Indriyani Mano Buddhir. Indriyani, senses, Mano, the mind, Buddhi is the intelligence. Asya Adhishthanam Uchchate.

Asya Adhishthanam. This means, Asya is this lust, Adhishthanam, this is where it is situated. Uchchate, know this to be the places.

Etair Vimohayatyesha, and from here Vimohayatya, from this way. Asya, this lust deludes people from here. Jnanam Avrtti Dehinam.

Again, the previous one started with Avrttam Jnanam, and this one ends with same point. Jnanam Avrtti Dehinam. That is the emphasis, how lust is the enemy, how it acts, how it wounds us, how it ruins us, it is all through this particular point, that Avrttam Jnanam.

So, that's why Krishna is emphasizing this. So, Avrtti Dehinam Dehinam, of the embodied living being. So, how the knowledge gets covered.

Now, covering knowledge, what Krishna has talked about in the previous verse, Avrttam Jnanam, that naturally raises, how can knowledge be covered? We can say that, my capacity to acquire knowledge can be covered. So, for example, if somebody puts a blindfold on my eyes, then I cannot know where I am. So, my seeing is covered.

But, I do still have knowledge which I had in the past. But how can my knowledge be covered? Krishna is saying that actually, lust takes over the instruments of not just acquiring knowledge, but also processing knowledge. So, we acquire knowledge through the senses.

So, Krishna says, lust is present in the senses, Indriyani. And then, after acquiring knowledge through the senses, we process that knowledge. And that is done in the subtle bodies with the mind and the intelligence.

So, Krishna says, lust takes over that also. Now, when we say that lust is situated, Asya Adhishthana Mucchate. So, is it that lust is ruling these? Yes, in the condition stage, quite often lust takes over our intelligence, our subtle body as well as the senses.

And that is why our senses get spontaneously attracted to sense objects instead of getting attracted to other things. So, what we need to do is protect our senses from this sabotage. Sabotage means that actually what is happening is that we are in a situation where we ourselves can't see the truth.

So, if the senses are what are taken over by lust, then that means if we go into a room, the senses can see so many things. Senses can see the color of the wall, they can see the color of the tables. But if there is a sense object, the senses will immediately zero in on the sense object.

So, that's how if an enemy, say, takes over a particular station, then what will the enemy do? Suppose we have got guns at that station and the guns were actually meant to attack the enemy, but the enemy will turn around those guns and fire those guns at us itself. So, similarly, what happens is that when lust takes over our senses, then it directs the senses towards those directions where it will cause self-destruction for us. So, that's the meaning of senses.

Quite often in the conditioned state, they just zero in on the sense objects. And then after that, when the mind is also taken over by lust, that means the mind immediately starts imagining. Oh, how can I enjoy? Scheming.

Actually, the mind goes on wild imagination. It goes on a riot. And, of course, nowadays, technology makes the rioting imagination of people publicly depictable and available to everyone.

So, for example, when there are obscene videos, so essentially, one person's imagination goes in dirty direction. That person's mind is conquered by lust and that person's mind goes off in a fanciful direction. And then that person envisions it and then that particular director shoots a movie and executes.

So, what is that dirty imagination inside becomes a video that is shot and then that is depicted. So, what happens is we not only have our own mind's rioting imagination to deal with, but we also get people's lowest imaginations, worst imaginations, people's imagination in the riot comes in and that also fuels our imagination. This is how the mind becomes all the more empowered in its wild imaginations.

And that's how we get trapped more and more. Often we find that mind starts imagining things so quickly. Sometimes when we want to do some good activities, the mind seems to become super lethargic and doesn't imagine anything at all.

It just stays frozen and inactive. Now, the way or the way ahead of the solution to such a situation is what will be discussed in later verses. But here let's focus on the Buddhi part also.

Now, in general we think of the intelligence as the means to deal with lust, as the means to counter lust. but here Krishna is saying that lust has taken over the intelligence also. Now, what that means is when lust has taken over the intelligence, that means when the senses taken over by lust zero in on the sense objects when the mind taken over by lust starts imagining about how I can enjoy the sense object then the intelligence taken over by lust starts planning how I can enjoy in a way by which I will get maximum pleasure and I will get into minimum or no trouble at all.

So, for example, if somebody decides one starts imagine one sees the sense object one starts imagining and then one wants to get some further titillation so a person decides that I will go on the net and surf but while surfing one may get caught therefore I will use private mode I will be invisible or that way I will use a proxy server or whatever there are so many ways by which people who have intelligence about how the internet tracking is done and they try to cover their tracks so often they think they are so clever they are not getting caught and even if they are not getting caught by anyone but actually they are getting caught by their own desires the desires grip on them is becoming stronger and stronger and stronger and that trap is actually such a deadly trap it may take several it may take a long long time to come out of that trap Asha Pash Shatair Madha as Krishna will say later in the 16th chapter when he speaks about lust about material desires in general he says there are hundreds of desires which are like nooses which are like ropes which tie tightly Shatair Madha so in this way lust entraps all of us by taking over the senses the mind and intelligence so so in general we acquire knowledge through these three things we see a particular object say if I see a say we see through our eyes actually we see through our various perceive through our various senses all this is integrated and it's processed at the level of desires and memories in the mind and it's further processed at the level of analysis and deliberation and decision making at the level of the intelligence but all that is captured by lust and that makes our situation extremely dangerous so it's like suppose a person is fighting a war and then there's a ship out in the ship or an aircraft out in the war field fighting against the enemy and this pilot has to be guided by his own his own superiors his own comrades say they are at their tower or their other place but suppose that very intelligent signal gets interrupted so say suppose Indian is fighting with Pakistani the air fight going on but when the Indian is supposed to get signals from an Indian but if instead the intelligence is cracked and a Pakistani starts giving signals to an Indian impersonating as an Indian then the Pakistani will mislead the Indian right into the enemy fire and Indian will be killed so it is like that when not only is there external danger because of the presence of external sense objects but our internal knowledge acquiring mechanism itself has been sabotaged and that's why we need to conscientiously acquire knowledge from a pure source from scripture from Guru Sadhu Shastra when we acquire knowledge then our perspective stays clear and then we are able to avoid the sabotage of our knowledge acquiring mechanism and then with the pure knowledge that we get from Guru Sadhu Shastra we can combat and eventually conquer lust.