Gita 03.43 – Use intelligence to pursue transcendence and subdue lust

Thank you in this way using your intelligence knowing yourself to be transcendental situate yourself situate the situate the mind on the spiritual level on the self on the soul conquer over the enemy Arjuna you are famed as a great warrior with powerful arms your true glory will be in conquering a truly formidable enemy such a formidable enemy is lust conquer it it's a formidable enemy difficult to conquer Arjuna strive to conquer this enemy so here the focus of of Krishna is on conquering the enemy by becoming spiritually situated so the previous was talked about the hierarchy and once we understand the hierarchy then we direct the consciousness upwards towards the soul instead of letting it direct downwards towards the sense object so evam buddhe using the intelligence know yourself to be transcendental param buddha evam buddhe param buddha knowing yourself to be transcendental so this is very important in the sadhaka stage it is our buddhi which will keep us at the spiritual level in the siddha stage that means when we have realized ourselves to be souls at that time it will be priti perfection for Krishna our devotion to Krishna that will keep us at the spiritual level but at present it is our buddhi that we need to use carefully that will keep us at the spiritual level and therefore Krishna says evam buddhe param buddha now if our intelligence is not sharp then we will not be able to differentiate between matter and spirit and if we don't differentiate between matter and spirit then we will not be able to know what to do and what not to do we will think that material things will give me pleasure and therefore we will think that there is no need for me to look for any higher happiness in life and by thinking like this that material pleasures are enough for me that is all that I need in my life we will stay deluded shackled by lust so buddhi is what we use but intelligence or analysis alone are not enough intelligence should lead to implementation analysis should lead to application and that application Krishna is telling is samsthabhyatmanamatmanam situate the mind mind here refers to the seat of consciousness the the the thing we are conscious of normally my mind has gone somewhere else that means what the place where I am the thing that I am conscious of is something else it's not here so the mind is usually the we often refer to the mind as the object of our conscious we often use the word mind in the sense of the object of your consciousness where are you that means where is your mind my mind is wandering that means what when we say the mind is wandering that means we are saying that the mind is the object of consciousness and that is that means where the mind is that is what I am conscious of and that is where I am going so that is what I am I stay conscious of my mind wanders means my consciousness wanders here and there so when we do this when we recognize that the mind is this object of consciousness then we turn the mind and focus it on spiritual truth on spiritual substance samsthagya atmanam atmana and when we do that then we will actually experience spiritual happiness because when the soul becomes situated on the spiritual platform that means the soul starts realizing higher happiness the soul starts relishing higher fulfillment because when we actually the atma itself is satchitananda and when we the more we become conscious of our spiritual nature there itself we experience higher happiness and beyond that when we go further and experience the connection with Krishna that is even more fulfilling the connection with Krishna enables us to relish supreme spiritual happiness just as Krishna is supreme the happiness coming from him is also supreme and the happiness coming from him becomes supreme when we realize that happiness to be supreme it becomes supreme in our estimation because right now that happiness is simply a theoretical thing for us but when we practice bhakti practically then we relish the higher happiness and experientially we verify yes this is actually higher so now what situating oneself on the spiritual platform samsthabhyatmanam atmana it can also the atma can sometimes be referred to as soul also situate the soul on the spiritual platform that means live spiritually essentially either way whichever whether we use the atma to refer to the mind or the soul the point is live at the spiritual level so use your intelligence to know that param buddha that you are transcendental that means if I am transcendental if I am spirit how can matter provide me happiness no matter can't provide me happiness therefore let me turn towards spirit let me seek happiness in spirit when I understand that and when I seek happiness in spirit then when I experience that higher happiness that will comprise the jahishatru mahabahu that will comprise the conquest over lust even before we have experienced that higher happiness at least the knowledge that I am a spiritual being that will begin our spiritual journey and that will direct our consciousness towards spirit rather than directing it towards matter and that is also a significant step forward for us because if we direct our consciousness towards spirit then that redirection of our consciousness enables us to start seeking spiritual happiness because lust keeps us perpetually in seeking sensory happiness but the purification but the education of our spiritual nature the awareness of our spiritual nature that causes us to redirect the search of our happiness towards spirit and that itself can become a dis-impetus for us to seek material happiness which lust is promising us so the decisive conquest over lust which Krishna is talking about here is becoming situated on the spiritual platform that essentially means becoming self-realized now we may say that is a long long shot off yes it is but then we shouldn't think of self-realization as a one zero process like a digital logic it's an analog process it's incremental you know every time we choose every moment you know we can choose to become self-realized or we can choose to be self-deluded choose to continue to be self-deluded that means every moment we seek to remember Krishna connect with Krishna serve Krishna then we are going towards self-realization every moment that we choose sense gratification that we choose to indulge in the sense of objects then we are becoming self-deluded we are choosing to become self-deluded so it's like an analog an analog meter the digital the hand which is there which moves from say zero to one that slowly it is moving towards one and incremental incremental it's incremental but although the progress is evolutionary eventually the result will be revolutionary the result will be the slow incremental evolutionary steps the hand will come from zero to one so like that with every choice that we make every moment every minute every hour we choose to turn away from samaya we choose to turn towards Krishna and by such choice we are actually moving closer and closer to Krishna and although it may not seem to be like a big choice and sometimes not thinking of it as a big choice becomes a big plunder because what happens that we are not going to move towards Krishna by a huge quantum leap sometimes it may happen that we get a big crisis in our life and we said oh I just want to surrender to Krishna but this crisis will come and after sometimes the crisis will go away and if the crisis alone remains our impetus for surrendering to Krishna then that impetus will go away and again we will lapse back into our Mayik way of living living in Mayik but if you want to move towards Krishna in a sustainable way then that has to be by consistent choices so every time we choose Krishna it is a big step forward it is a big step forward not because we are going a big distance towards Krishna yes we are going a significant distance towards Krishna by every moment that we spend in remembrance of Krishna but it is a big step in the sense that we are making a habit of choosing Krishna so before we can reach Krishna we need to choose Krishna and not just choose Krishna because choosing Krishna is not a one time effort our struggle with lust will decrease if we can replace our habit of choosing lust with the habit of choosing Krishna and the more we become habituated to choosing Krishna the lesser will be our battle and the smoother will be our progress so in that sense it's like an analog meter in which with every choice we are moving closer and closer towards the one stage from zero stage is Maya towards the one stage which is Krishna but the wonderful thing is that the closer and closer we come to one actually the resistance in one sense becomes lesser not because the temptation is not there but because the inclination to choose the temptation will go down and by this steady incremental choices by situating ourselves on the spiritual platform continuously or if we can't do it continuously then consistently if it goes off we bring the mind back again so we may not be we cannot be constant but we can still be persistent once the mind goes off but again we bring it back mind goes off again we bring it back and that way more and more frequently and then ultimately steadily we can bring the mind on Krishna and we can conquer lust.