Gita 18.34 When one worldly desire trumps all other material desires, what results is determination in passion

Transcript

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Bhagavad Gita 18.34 That which is sought that determination Krishna is talking about determination in the mode of passion over here and describes its characteristics So when someone seeks dharma, kama, artha when one wants kama and artha and one wants pleasure and one wants wealth and for that purpose one practices dharma and one determinately becomes determined for this purpose with great attachment and one starts craving for pleasure then the the point being made over here is that actually none of us can possibly deal with life’s various issues without determination whether those issues be our spiritual growth or even our material growth so when the power of our desire is directed materially and if one desire becomes very strong it becomes our defining desire then we move onwards and we are enabled to process life’s difficulties without giving due opportunity for ourselves and others for elevation that means if we don’t understand that we are at our core spiritual being not material creatures then we will pursue pleasure but we will pursue it in a way that is not harmonious with our entire being we will pursue it only for our material welfare and not even welfare actually we will pursue it for our material pleasure is there a difference between material welfare and material pleasure yes there can be a significant difference between the two because sometimes that which gives us material pleasure may not promote our material welfare for example while eating food if we eat food that is enjoyable but not healthy so a person is diabetic and they take a lot of desserts they take a lot of sugary food then they will hurt themselves so they will not be promoting their material welfare material pleasure can work against even material welfare what to speak of spiritual welfare naturally when we get infatuated by worldly pleasures we don’t have the clarity or the focus to move onwards in our life towards considering what is conducive for our spiritual growth we get so captivated by the desire for material pleasure and the fear of not getting material pleasure or fear of losing the material pleasure that we have got that our consciousness is no longer available for perceiving spiritual reality leave alone meditating on spiritual reality or the supreme spiritual reality Krishna of course sometimes those seeking material pleasure may also meditate on Krishna but they will meditate for the purpose of not for getting attracted to Krishna but for begging to Krishna to fulfill their desire dharma is also one of the factors mentioned over here in dharma there can be aparadharma and paradharma paradharma is transcendental dharma that dharma which is practiced for the purpose of raising our consciousness above matter and getting our consciousness attracted towards Krishna aparadharma is that which is practiced for the purpose of worldly indulgence so for getting more and more worldly things basically getting artha and kama now sometimes for doing the dharma by which one will get artha and kama some vrata may be required some people may decide to fast in a particular month from particular foods because they think that by that a particular desire of theirs will be fulfilled so now fasting requires determination dharma so there is dhrityadhara ite but the dhruti determination which is assumed that is prasangena phalakamshi one is very strongly attached to the fruit that is why they strive to work their determination is fueled by their obsession, material obsession similarly same thing kama sometimes when one person becomes attracted to another person then to get to that person people may go to extreme lengths the example of Bilwamangal Thakur who was ready to risk his life in a deadly stormy night he mistook a corpse to be a boat he mistook a snake to be a rope and he climbed to Chintamani’s house somehow because he wanted to get to her in today’s world people are very conscious of their figure their weight sometimes in order to attract a particular person people may starve and lose weight which normally they will find very difficult to do but they will effortlessly lose weight not effortlessly, effortfully of course but they are able to put in that effort which people would normally find very difficult so they are actually not renounced one material desire can sometimes become so strong that may trump other material desires so the desire to look attractive and the desire to attract a particular person may be so strong that the desire for good tasting fatty food may be overcome by that similarly Artha sometimes when people want to grow in their career they may work for 12 hours, 14 hours, 16 hours some people even practically live in their offices they work extremely hard to get money so for Artha they have enormous dhruti for getting wealth they have enormous determination so such determination is said to be in the mode of passion it’s definitely determination but that determination doesn’t lead to any elevation of consciousness it doesn’t lead to disentanglement from the material world rather so attachment can also engender determination in fact we could say that attachment itself signifies determination if an alcoholic is attached to alcohol they will go to any extreme to get alcohol of course alcoholism will fall in determination in the mode of ignorance which is directly self hurting which we will discuss in the next verse but somebody is detached to gaining wealth somebody is getting very attached to gaining sense pleasure somebody is very attached to having a reputation of being very pious and all this can make them very determined so normally we think determination is a good quality and yes it is good but for what purpose it is being used is also important if we use our determination for material growth only then we underutilize the potential of our determination that determination which could have given us lasting spiritual fulfillment ends up giving us some fleeting material enjoyment so that in general the mode of passion rajasastu phalam dukkham in the 14th chapter when we live in passion we work very hard to get some pleasure but after the pleasure is over then there is frustration there is disappointment there is dismay because one is not perceiving anything eternal one is not perceiving spiritual reality and thus determination in passion underutilizes the potential of determination the potential of what we could get by determination