How can we overcome lust?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
overcome lust actually this is a struggle which all of us face and there are no shortcuts Krishna talks about this in 3.36 to 3.43 in the Bhagavad Gita and we could say that this involves the major steps which we could classify, that is there is at the physical level, there is at the mental level, intellectual level and the spiritual level, so physical level, we all have certain triggers which we need to deal with ourselves that means that as I said, if a person is a drunkard if a person is alcoholic and is trying to recover from alcoholism then they need to they need to avoid the trigger which is there for their alcoholism and that trigger may be, if they see a bar, if they go to a bar where they have frequented earlier or the associated people with whom they have drunk earlier, so if they have certain triggers which make the desire very strongly come within them, then they have to take the responsibility to minimize the exposure to the triggers so now we can’t blame the triggers alcohol, the drunkard, the alcoholic cannot blame the bar for succumbing to alcohol so we cannot blame but we have to regulate our exposure to the triggers, we need to at a physical level, we find out what our triggers are and we try to minimize our exposure to those triggers at a mental level we can focus on finding out that those things by which our mind can become constructively absorbed it is the idle mind that is the devil’s workshop and lust is one of the primary ways in which the devil attacks so to the extent we, our mind is idle to that extent we become vulnerable to the to the fantasy that lust induces within us so if we can keep our mind purposefully engaged the mind’s function in this case is imagination even when we encounter a sense object it is not the sense object itself is dangerous, it is when when the sense objects triggers our imagination that it becomes dangerous, so imagination is the function of the mind which is often monopolized by lust and similar over desires so we need to release free our imagination from the monopolized occupation by lust and we have to direct it constructively so for example if we are engaged, if we can absorb ourselves something constructive and we have, we let those constructive services spark our imagination that means we we imagine okay I am going to do this thing, I am reading the Bhagavatam and if I just read everyday for one one hour, just in three years I can complete the whole Bhagavatam, how wonderful it will be if I can complete the Bhagavatam or whatever it is that we find ourselves attracted to, so we we find what it is that our mind gets attracted to in a constructive direction and we give a constructive direction for the mind’s imagination, because the mind needs to imagine something, so it has to imagine something which gives joy and if it doesn’t find something higher to imagine something joyful then it will find something lower to imagine something joyful and that’s how we will get caught in we will be dragged down that’s at the mental level, then at the intellectual level at the intellectual level Jiva Goswami explains that the sadhaka and the siddha, those who are realized souls, they stay at the spiritual level because of their priti priti is their love for Krishna but at sadhaka stage we can stay at the spiritual level primarily by our buddhi not our priti, buddhis are intelligence, so we need to keep our intelligence strong so why is it that we want to fight lust, it’s simply because that will create a bad reputation if we indulge in it, it will create a spoiler reputation in society that is only the thing, then we may think that ok, if nobody comes to know that I indulge, that’s not a problem, so we have to go inwards and check our own convictions and we have to find out that reasoning those scriptural points that analysis that most convinces us about why we need to fight lust and overcome lust so to the extent we use our intelligence so intelligence is a weapon, just as a weapon has to be hit at a particular target to make the enemy fall, so like that we have to take the weapon of the intelligence there is so much scriptural analysis that is given, we have heard so many we can hear classes, we can hear talks on this topic, and we have to find out those weapons which particularly counter our misconceptions so that way when we are using our intelligence to resist and to reject the temptations, then we will be intellectually buddhi, evam buddhe, Krishna says so now the intelligence is alone not enough but intelligence is essential as a foundation, in maths we have necessary, not sufficient condition so intelligence is essential and Krishna also says in 2.63 that buddhi nasha pranashyati the intelligence is destroyed, then we fall back so our intelligence is our primary guard, but the intelligence is to be used not just to analyze why lust is bad why I should not indulge in lust the intelligence is to be more importantly constructively used to focus on something positive to focus, to engage ourselves in something more more positive, more fulfilling and that ultimately is devotional activities so it’s like a person who has got diabetes, that person should not eat sweet food, but they cannot live without food, so they have to use their intelligence to remind themselves of how dangerous sweet food is or sugar is basically for them, but along with that they also need to remember that they also need to use their intelligence to find out a diet for themselves which is healthy, which is nourishing and which also is reasonably likeable for them so they have to use their intelligence to find a positive diet and then once they get a taste for that positive diet, then the unhealthy diet, they will be able to give up more easily it is said in the Bhagavad Gita that when we just give up things, we don’t feel we still feel dissatisfied, but when we get something higher, then we become satisfied and that brings us to the spiritual level the solution of the spiritual level is we are souls and as souls, we are parts of Krishna as parts of Krishna so to the extent we render service to Krishna to the extent we connect with Krishna to the extent we learn to love Krishna, to that extent our emotions our thoughts and our whole life will get directed towards Krishna and that connection with Krishna will purify us, Krishna is supremely pure and he is supremely purifying to the extent we connect with Krishna to the extent we learn to direct our desires, direct our love towards Krishna to that extent we will be able to move closer towards Krishna and the quality of our desires themselves will change so at the mental, at the physical mental, intellectual level, essentially we are curtailing our desires and directing our desires in a different way but it’s not just directing we want to change the inclination of our desires itself, that is what is purification so that means if the floor is say inclined in this direction, then when water falls on it, it will naturally go in this direction, now if you don’t want it to go in this direction, we will have to use some mop or something by which you push the water in the other direction so presently our consciousness is inclined towards materialism and that’s why as soon as we leave our consciousness idle, then it will just as water will slide down in the direction of inclination, similarly our consciousness will go towards worldly objects but purification means we change the orientation of our consciousness, purification means that we redirect ourselves, that the quality of our desires itself changes the mental flooring changes and that can happen only by connection with Krishna, by the practice of bhakti yoga, our conception of happiness itself changes as long as you are thinking oh in lust there is so much pleasure and I have to give up that pleasure you will not be able to give up later sooner or later you will relapse into it, but when you start connecting with Krishna regularly, when you start experiencing higher happiness in relationship with Krishna, then by that experience of higher happiness overall we will realize the mind is getting so agitated about this but there is much more fulfilling happiness available over here why am I going over here and in that way we will become more purified and purified means the inclination of our mental flooring changes then our thoughts will naturally move towards Krishna and that is the situation where we will become peaceful and joyful in our bhakti practice so to overcome lust everyone is struggling in this and I am also fighting I am not speaking this as a pure person but whatever the scripture talks about I just analyzed in four level framework at a physical level we resist we protect ourselves from the triggers, at the mental level we try to avoid imagining based on whatever stimuli we have rather we try to imagine try to find out something in which we can absorb ourselves and direct our imagination that way, thirdly we can at the intellectual level we have to find out that philosophical analysis that scriptural teaching that convinces us about not only the need to overcome lust but also the need to direct our desires towards Krishna and at the spiritual level we engage in devotional activities thereby gaining thereby we gain higher happiness and then our inclination of our mental flooring itself will change and then our thoughts will naturally go towards Krishna the way presently they are naturally going towards sense objects and at that time, at the natural flow of consciousness going towards Krishna, that is when we will become joyful