Gita 16.10 – Differentiate between kama as an enemy and kama as a purusha-artha

Transcript

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Thank you Bhagavad Gita 16.10 Bhagavad Gita 16.10 thinking unclean thoughts Kama Dushpuram so Krishna has talked about Kama here and he is using the word Dushpura to qualify Kama now interestingly Krishna has used Dushpura earlier also by talking about Kama in in the third chapter in response to Arjuna’s question so Arjuna had asked what is it that impels us to do the spiritual activities even against Arjuna Krishna has responded Kama, Isha, Krodha, Isha in 3.77 he said it’s lust only which impels one to do to act wrongly and then three verses later in 38, 39 two verses later in 39 he says avatam jnanam ityena jnanam ityavayena kamarupena kaunteyanam dushpurena na nitya that avatam jnanam ityena discovers over one’s knowledge and it is eternal and ityavayena kamarupena kaunteyanam so kamarupena known as dushpurena na nitya dushpurena means a Shiva like fire burns like fire so after characterizing Kama as dushpurena then Krishna goes ahead and classifies Kama in other terms also other terms means he says in the 7th chapter in that dharmavirudhobhuteshu kamausminivartakshabha that dharma avirudhobhuteshu that that Kama which is not contrary to dharma that I am so where is one labeling of karma as eternal enemy and where is another labeling of karma of kama sorry not karma of kama as a manifestation of the divine Krishna is our eternal friend his gurudamsa is our root of dharma so how can the same karma be talked about as the eternal enemy and also talked about as the manifestation of the one who is our eternal relationship in both concepts what is central is the understanding that the kama which is talking to places is not the same so that means the kama which Krishna is talking about here in the 7th chapter is dharma is the part of dharma or the kama and this kama is considered to be one of the purusha arthas purusha artham means the purpose or the purposes of life it is definitely not being negative in fact if you look at Krishna’s life itself or Krishna and Arjuna Arjuna was attracted to Subhadra and Krishna himself did tell Arjuna that you should throw this you should remove this Krishna acted as a matchmaker in fact quite a wily matchmaker Krishna had told Arjuna to overcome the opposition of Balram and attain a proper situation now moving forward if we look at the understanding that kama in terms of the desire that is righteous that is within the according to dharma that is good but when Krishna talks about kama again in the 3rd chapter here so kama is there but when I say the shelter of dharma the kama is still regulated but when I say shelter of kama then kama becomes insatiable take shelter of kama means that normally we take shelter of something say if it’s raining and we take shelter of a tree or say the outer we cover the outer area of a house or whatever or an umbrella at the very least then we put ourselves under it so kama should be shuram now in this conception of kama predominant idea is that there is nothing we can do to make there is nothing considered higher than kama and the whole purpose of life is seen to be the fulfillment of kama and Krishna has talked about that mentality a few verses earlier in 16.8 he says there is desire which is the purpose of life which is the purpose of existence itself is a gratification of desire and there is of course desire is a material desire what is the central desire self is desire so kama should be the shuram such ashray is a raw ashray kama is not something that we can or should take shelter of if we take shelter of kama we get ourselves into endless trouble because we put ourselves in a situation wherein we cannot easily disentangle ourselves because the real problem we indulge in kama especially outside of the schemes of dharma when the shackles of kama become stronger and stronger and stronger and as the shackles of kama become stronger and stronger the chance of not only the chance of getting free becomes less and less but the chance of being dragged down and down through lower and lower activities becomes more and more so the indulgence means degradation more and more probable and as Krishna concludes this verse by saying ashuchi vrataha ashuchi vrataha means unclean vow which a person takes unclean vows means a person takes the vow of not being able to ever get free from or rather ashuchi vrataha means a person becomes now vow vrataha is considered to be something very forceful very difficult and naturally people take vrataha vows to do things which are difficult to do but which are as simple as good to do so ashuchi vrataha in contrast means that people take a vow to do unclean things inauspicious things undesirable things this is how we become bound when we have a fragmented understanding of our life when we see ourselves as as an isolated being when we see ourselves as fragmented disconnected from the lord as meant to seek pleasure in the senses without the consideration of regulation and all these even if people don’t think of this in a consciously contemplated way these become the before assumptions that go along with a materialistic worldview so when there is nothing higher than matter then material enjoyment becomes the very goal and purpose of life and then even if some service is paid to morality still that service is the very little serious intellectual foundation to the call for morality after all if pleasure is the purpose of life and if the only real pleasure that is available is material pleasure then and this life is all that we have for seeking that pleasure also then why should we at all going for any kind of regulation in the pursuit of that pleasure regulation would seem like deprivation and whoever can mint the maximum enjoyment out of the body that person is the most successful and that’s whom everyone else should imitate so that becomes the conception of most people so here the important thing this situation the Bhagavad Gita which is called the divine and demoniac natures so this chapter Krishna is outlining the characteristics of the ungodly and he cautions us not to let karma become dushpur by taking shelter of it karma is one part of life but when we take shelter of it we make it the only purpose of life and then it becomes insatiable and then it becomes ruinous but when we take shelter of Krishna and with the shelter of Krishna we as Krishna does towards the end of the Bhagavad Gita in 18.57 we take ashram of Krishna with our intelligence then we can not only keep lust under regulation keep karma under regulation but also harmonize karma with the ultimate purpose of life that rather than seeing karma as the only purpose of life you see karma as a part of the arrangement of the lord for the perpetuation of the human grace as a part of the arrangement of the lord for the connect for serving as serving as for living the harmonious life which will eventually take us beyond illusion and the shelter of Krishna is what will not only add to the protection from the degradation that karma can cause but it can also the shelter of Krishna as a pathway for us to go to rise beyond the illusion and temptation of this world towards supreme liberation in eternal ecstatic love for