Gita 14.09 The longer a pleasure lasts, the greater its lure

Transcript

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thank you sattvam sukhe sanjayati rajah karmani bharata jnanam avrtyat tamah pramadye sanjayatyutah krishna is speaking here in the summary the three verses that he has spoken till now he is repeating his description he is summarizing what he has spoken sattvam sukhe sanjayati so the mode of goodness binds through feeling of happiness rajah karmani bharata the mode of passion binds one to hard work action and jnanam avrtyat tamah pramadye sanjayatyutah covering knowledge ignorance binds us to pramadya madness so essentially krishna is talking here about how these different modes bind us so he started this description in the fifth text by saying sattvam vrajasthamaiti gunaha prakriti sambhava nibadnanti mahabaho dehe dehinam avyayam nibadnanti they bind and there are different kinds of bondages that are possible the most common bondage is physical bondage when a person is bound by one’s own person is bound with ropes but there can be other kinds of bondages and the less visible a bondage the more more sinister the more binding it can be because normally when we are bound we human beings don’t like to be bound and thus when we are bound we try to fight back the bondage but if we don’t even realize that we are bound then we can’t actually fight the bondage because we are in a situation where we are bound that’s all that we but we are not realizing it so Krishna is stressing here that these three bonds bind in a way that does not appear binding freedom is never taken away as effectively as when it is taken away by giving the illusion of freedom so here Krishna is speaking that actually we are bound in different ways by the three modes sattvam, sukhe, sanjayati in a sense all the modes bind us by alluring us with something so for example even laziness it allures us with the promise of not having to work so it’s not a positive promise of pleasure we could say it’s a negative promise of avoiding discomfort either way the essential premise remains the same that we are bound we get bound even the mode of passion promises pleasure when we are allured by certain sense objects we do feel as if pleasure is just waiting for us around the corner and if we could just move forward then we could get the pleasure but we are unable to move forward and to get the pleasure because sense objects also promises pleasure but the difference is when sense objects promise pleasure the pleasure requires some effort usually sense objects are not easily available and we labor to get the pleasure so in that sense the mode of passion binds us to the mode of labor by which we end up struggling we end up laboring hoping that eventually we will get the pleasure so similarly so the pleasure is definitely the promise the pleasure it can be in ignorance the pleasure is the promise of avoiding trouble in passion pleasure is the promise of getting the sense objects in goodness the promise is of getting an even more positive a way of living that seems to be pleasurable when a person reads a person observes nature a person lives in proximity with things that bring peace, that bring serenity that bring joy then the pleasure that one experiences is at a much deeper level and that pleasure is something which we all can slave to have can strive to have and if we don’t get it then we then we also learn to adjust ourselves cause in the goodness one is not craving in a desperate sense, one learns to philosophize, to observe to harmonize so that makes one feel that I am fine sattvam sukhe sanjayati so sukha is the allure that drags that binds everyone the promise of pleasure is the lure with which material nature catches us in all the modes but that lure actually dangles in a most prominent way in the most pervasive way in the form of goodness cause in passion it is primarily the interaction of the senses of the sense objects that promise pleasure and those interactions no matter how profusely available the sense objects may be those interactions can’t be for long they come and they go it is only in goodness that the sense objects and their interaction that is not the basis of one’s pleasure it is one’s thinking, one’s living and this can be persevered with if somebody develops a habit of reading books and not just fantasizing sensual pleasures by reading romantic or erotic novels but just the joy of reading and learning then that is something which can endure for a much longer time and thus the mode of goodness can appear to be alluring in its own way and to resist the lure of that mode of goodness one needs something higher and the higher thing that one needs is transcendence ultimately it is Krishna it is only when one gets a taste for the deep fulfilling and unparalleled joy of remembrance of Krishna of absorption in Krishna it is only then that all other pleasures become pale and stale in comparison it is only then that we can march forwards towards Krishna without falling for the temptation of the mode of goodness that the mode of goodness is also tempting is something not so easy to realize if we have not experienced something higher it is also a distraction it is a temptation, it is a distraction that we may not realize so the mode of goodness is good when we compare it to the lower modes but it is also binding when we feel that my overall life is joyful now the problem is if my life is joyful then why do I need anything higher to consider but the problem is that even with the life in the mode of goodness, it is not permanent it is ultimately temporary everything in the material world is temporary even the mode of goodness is temporary and because the mode of goodness is temporary so therefore whatever we achieve in the mode of goodness material existence itself is temporary so whatever state of being we experience in the mode of goodness that is also temporary that temporariness is not as short term as say the pleasure of sense gratification but still ultimately from the perspective of eternity it is temporary so we need to raise ourselves to a higher level of consciousness and in order to raise ourselves to that higher level of consciousness we need to purify and elevate ourselves and that purification and elevation of our consciousness is what is provided by the process of bhakti so the mode of passion Krishna says binds with so so the mode of ignorance covers the knowledge and so when the knowledge is covered then we don’t know what is to be done, what is not to be done and as we do things just being lethargic or being intoxicated we think that because we don’t know of any higher pleasure so we think that is the only pleasure in my life and that is what we end up pursuing so we can surely do more, we can surely do better but it is only when we realize that there is a better life to be had and that better life to be had is the life of bhakti so otherwise in trying to just be lazy in trying to run away from life’s realities through intoxication we delude ourselves and thus we stay bound so in this way Krishna has talked about the bondage of the three modes first in one-one verse each and then in one summary verse which describes the bondage because of all the three modes