If We Are Defeated By Temptation It Doesnt Mean We Cant Winit Just Means We Cant Win Alone 15.7

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
If we are defeated by temptation, it doesn’t mean we can’t win.
It just means we can’t win alone. Suppose we resolve to give up some temptation but succumb to it and succumb repeatedly to it. We will become discouraged thinking I can never resist this temptation.
That conclusion would be true only as long as we are trying to fight against the temptation alone. But we don’t have to fight alone. In fact, we are never meant to be alone because we are souls who are eternal parts of the all attractive Supreme Krishna and He is eternally the whole.
By connecting lovingly with Him, we can relish unlimited satisfaction. When we become disconnected with Him, we come under control of our mind and senses which tempt and torment us with various worldly pleasures. In fact, our very vulnerability to temptation is meant to remind us of the futility of our need for Krishna.
If we could resist temptation on our own, we may think that we are well situated and spiritually advanced while missing the essence of spiritual advancement that is absorption in Krishna. So when we are tormented by temptation, if we focus not on saying no to temptation but on going close to Krishna by remembering Him, by serving Him, by connecting with Him through the practice of Bhakti Yoga, then we will soon realize that the higher purpose and pleasure we get by connecting with Krishna makes lower pleasures resistible. We realize mamai vamsho jeeva loke jeeva bhuta sanatana nashasthani hriyani prakatisthani karshati.
At the karshati, the torment because of temptation will decrease when we increase our aakarshan, attraction to Krishna. And thus we can, by being with Krishna, stop being tormented by temptation. The Bhagavata says that if we surrender to Krishna, ma me vaye prapadyante maya me tam tarantite.
Now there is another sense in which we can’t do it alone. Bhakti is not just about me and Krishna. Bhakti is performed in association.
So when we, in the association of devotees, try to find a like-minded, trustworthy fellow devotee with whom we can share our struggles and they can act as our accountability partners. Knowing that we will have to report our lapses to them can keep us on track. And in our moments of weakness, they can help us see through the tricks of illusion and bring us back on track.
By remembering that our vulnerability to temptation points to the untenability of our isolation from Krishna and we correct it not simply by fighting temptation, but by connecting with Krishna, then gradually the war against temptation will become more winnable.