How can we take shelter of Krishna when the sexual urge troubles us while we are resting in bed?

Day time is not a problem for the most part – it is easy to do so many activities and engage. However, when Sexual urge strikes when we lie down in the Bed – what activities can we take shelter? Most of the days, due to being tired we immediately go to Bed but some nights the Draconian mind does not let go. We are too tired to get up and do something. The only activity left is to Chant while lying down which sometimes works and sometimes does not.

Do you have any pointers in this regards?

Transcript

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Question How do we counter the sexual urge when we are, when we lie down in the bed at night? What activities can we take shelter of? Daytime is not a problem for the most part.
It is easy to do so many activities and engage ourselves. But at night, most of the days due to being tired, we immediately go to bed, but some nights the draconian mind does not let go. We are too tired to get up and do something.
The only activity left is to chant while lying down, which sometimes works and sometimes does not. Do you have any pointers in this regard? Answer Yes, it is a universal challenge which all of us have to face and there is no quick fix solutions to this, but there are general principles which we can apply. First and foremost is, as you have yourself mentioned, we focus on trying our best to engage ourselves beautifully in devotional service throughout the day by which we will be exhausted.
Prabhupada would say devotees should be so tired that as soon as they lie down, they fall asleep. So that is we keep ourselves adequately engaged, not just so that we are tired at night, but also so that we do not let our minds dwell on temptation in the daytime. Because if you dwell a lot of time, dwell unnecessarily or inordinately on temptation in the daytime, then the result of that is when at night naturally the mind does a flashback and goes to those sort of thoughts.
But if we are not dwelled too much, then the mind will not go to such thoughts. At least it will go lesser. But still, that’s the first thing, keep ourselves adequately engaged.
Second is, we can always have some sorts of devotional engagements while we are sleeping. We can have some sort of hearing device where we can have some lecture going on and we can hear the lecture while we are going to sleep. And also, we can use earphones if others are going to be disturbed by that.
But beyond that, for specific problems if we are facing, then we can select certain passages from scriptures. We can memorize certain verses and maybe recite those verses ourselves. There are many sections in the Bhagavatam which talk about the futility and the illusory folly of unrestricted sexual intelligence.
There is the Yayati section, the Purva Rava section, Shobari Muni section, Ajamil section. So, we can memorize some verses from there or maybe select purports from there. And if we memorize, then we can recite those verses.
Or sometimes, we may feel so agitated, we may not feel like reciting those verses also. Then, we can also, if there are certain passages that we have read from Srila Prabhupada’s books, from Sri Satcharita’s books, or from what we have heard from different devotees, then we can note down those passages, put them in a small pocket diary and read them to calm the mind. Or we can even record, keep recordings of special sections from the lectures that we have heard or special passages from the scriptures that we have read, which deal with the temptation and which help us understand how this temptation is illusory.
And that way, if we replay that at that time, that will deepen our philosophical conviction also. And because we have, because this is something which has inspired and convinced us, we will be able to connect it with, connect with it easier also. Or we can try to have some recording of Vaishnav songs, which we like very much, and hear those Vaishnav songs, maybe not necessarily the full song, also certain passages from the song, which create a prayerful mood of dependence.
For example, Gopinath, Mamadi Vedant, Sunnah, or other songs like that. So, basically, it’s a war. And we have to find which weapon works in a war.
It’s not that because the enemy has come, we just have to accept that now I’m going to be wounded and I’m going to be defeated. No, we find out which weapon works. And when we say the holy name sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t work.
All that, if the holy name can always work, but sometimes we are not able to muster the conviction to take shelter of the holy name. That’s why we may need to use other weapons also. And devotional service offers us a different gamut of, a whole gamut of weapons from which we can choose.
And if we pray to Krishna and we show him our sincerity by endeavoring in these ways that you’ve discussed, well, surely we will be able to deal with this. And over a period of time, the agitation will subside and it will go away. So we have to find out which weapon works for us and use that weapon.
The more we use that weapon, the more we’ll become seasoned fighters. And we’ll be able to counter and curb the draconian mind. Thank you.
Hare Krishna.