Gita 18.08 Desire for bodily pleasure and fear of bodily trouble both keep us in the cage of bodily consciousness

Transcript

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Thank you. This is Bhagavad Gita 18.8 Krishna is speaking and he is speaking over here about renunciation in the mode of passion. Normally we consider that we have to renounce the mode of passion.
It is the lower mode of passion and ignorance that entangles in the material world. And we would think that renunciation means that we go beyond the mode of passion towards goodness and ultimately transcendence. But here Krishna is making the point that actually renunciation is not something which comes off.
It comes automatically. It has to be cultivated conscientiously. And if our predominant mode is the mode of passion then that mode of passion will determine or drive all our activities including the activities that we may do apparently for the sake of renunciation.
That is when we work for purifying ourselves at that time if we are not careful then the mode of passion will make us stay in the same bodily consciousness that makes us go towards worldly enjoyment but now will make us go away from that worldly enjoyment. When we are in bodily consciousness we want bodily pleasures. And simultaneously we dread bodily pains.
So actually speaking we would very much like to have bodily pleasures and we would very much like to avoid bodily pains. So how do we go about doing either? Actually speaking we need to work for purifying ourselves in whatever situation we find ourselves in. So if we are in bodily consciousness that bodily consciousness will express itself in two ways as the desire to get pleasure at the bodily level and as the desire to avoid pain at the bodily level.
And when something causes a lot of pain we may be ready to give it up just so that we can get some pleasure or at least just so that we hope that we can get some pleasure. So in this way the hope of pleasure drives us in the mode of passion. Similarly the fear of pain also drives us in the mode of passion.
And the hope for pleasure may drive us towards bodily enjoyment and the fear of pain may drive us away from bodily enjoyment. But in both cases we are still driven within material consciousness. We are still within bodily consciousness.
If you consider say some animal that is trapped in a cage and in one corner of the cage some food appears over there. Say there is some window or something like that through which food appears. And animal goes eagerly to get that food in that corner.
And suppose in another side of the cage or sometimes in the same side of the cage only later say electric current starts appearing causing a shock. And actually the animal wants to move away from it. In either case the animal is either moving away from something or moving towards something.
In both cases it is still staying inside the cage. Renunciation is actually meant to get us out of the cage of bodily consciousness. And to get out of this cage what we most need is spiritual.
There is a spiritual understanding and a spiritual purpose to life. To the extent we have this spiritual understanding and spiritual purpose to that extent we move forwards. Otherwise we can get ourselves into a lot of trouble unnecessarily.
Thinking that we are renouncing but we are staying in the same consciousness. So at one level it is healthy to have a fear of material existence. It is healthy to have a fear of the entanglement that results when we get captivated by bodily enjoyment.
It is healthy to have fear of the many ways our body can torment us through diseases and through various kinds of afflictions. At the same time we need to be clear that our purpose is not our spirituality. We cannot afford it to be fear driven.
It has to be purpose driven. And that purpose has to be that we want to realize our higher side. We want to realize our connection with our source and Lord Krishna.
We want to relish higher happiness. And that requires rising out of bodily consciousness. Coming out of the cage of material consciousness.
And that doesn’t happen as long as we are conscious of the trouble that we might get at the bodily level. So, naiva tyaga phalam laghe means that the phala in terms of tyaga the phala is if we actually develop renunciation then we get out of bodily consciousness. But if we are fearful of bodily pain then we are still in bodily consciousness.
And if our renunciation doesn’t lead us to any higher purpose then we still stay in that cage. So, in that sense fear of bodily pain can be a good starter for our spiritual life. But for to have a sustainer in our spiritual life we need something more positive.
And that is either best is if we have a devotional attraction towards Krishna or if not at least we have a philosophical conviction that there is something higher to life and that we want to achieve that higher reality. And only by achieving that higher reality can we find happiness in life. Without achieving that higher reality whatever we do we will stay entangled in the world.
We will not be able to move ahead towards inner fulfillment. Towards realizing and relishing the sweetness of devotion. So, नईव त्याग फलम्लभेट, the phala of taagod will not come if it is motivated by कायकलेश भय.
Only when it is motivated by the desire for सर्कृष्णप्रेम or the desire to know कृष्णतत्व then it will take us towards spiritual growth.