​Learning to manage our desires – Gita 02.64-72

​Brahmachari class at the Bhaktivedanta Manor, London, UK

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna, so I’ll speak on the topic of basically a continual topic just speaking today morning about managing our desires and I’ll talk from 2.64 to 2.71 in the Bhagavad Gita and I’ll use two broad metaphors, the metaphor of a war and the metaphor of treatment to understand how the process of bhakti works and how we can make it work in our case. So now 2.54 to 2.72 in the Gita is called as the Sitapragya section, where Arjuna asked the characteristics of a self-realised person and he basically asked four questions.
Sitapragya se kaabhasha samaadhi sthahse keshava sthita dhīkiṁ prabhāśeta kim āsīta vrajītakiṁ. So when he asked these questions, Krishna is clearly, sorry Arjuna is asking these questions, so Arjuna is clearly using non-literal language over here, you know, he is not really asking which language does a self-realised person speak in, kaabhasha, nor is he asking how does he sit or how does he walk, he is not asking about a fashion model’s gait, how does he sit or how does he walk. So kaabhasha, Baldevi Devakushan explains it as bhāṣyate iti bhāṣya, that means bhāṣya in one sense means language, bhāṣya also means that which describes, so language is used to describe things.
So kaabhasha means what are the characteristics, how do we describe a self-realised person. So that is the first question, kaabhasha, how are the characteristics of such a person, kaabhasha samaadhi sthahse keshava, sthita dhīkiṁ prabhāśeta, means how does such a person speak specifically, speak means how does he respond by speak to life’s ups and downs and kim āsīta vrajītakiṁ, how does he sit and how does he walk. So kaabhasha, that is answered in the immediate next verse, 55, where he says that duḥkheṣv anudvīgnamana sukheṣyugatas pruha, no he has another verse before that, prajahāti yadā kāmān sarvān pārtha mano vata ātmanye vātmanātuṣṭa sthita prajñāspadocyute, duḥkheṣv anudvīgnamana sukheṣyugatas pruha, vītarāgha-vairpūda-siddhirvanyucyate.
So the person is equipoised, his characteristic is that he doesn’t seek happiness internally, he seeks happiness, he doesn’t seek happiness externally, he seeks happiness internally. Then kim prabhāśeta, how does such a person speak? That is answered in 56, 57. How does he speak? He does not praise when good things happen nor does he resent when bad things happen.
He accepts them with a steady frame of mind. Then kim āsīta, how does he sit? The ācāryas explain how does he sit means that how does he control his senses? How do self-realised people, sitting is the same, then the senses are not active. So how do they regulate or control their senses? So that is answered from 58 to 63.
And then last one is kim vrajet, kim vrajet means how does such a person move about in this world? Even the self-realised people cannot stay inactive, they cannot stay with closed eyes. So they also have to engage their senses. So how do they engage the senses? That is answered from 64 to 71, 72 we could say, 72 is like a concluding verse of the whole section.
So of course there are different ways of analysing this. I am giving one frame of analysis over here. So I will focus on this last section of kim vrajet.
Now how does a self-realised person engage one’s senses while functioning in this world? So this kim āsīta, the same word āsīta comes in 61. In this way, when a person is situated, that person will be happy. And this vrajet, another similar word comes in 64, which is āgar-dveṣu-mukta-iṣṭu-vishayān-indriyaiś-charan.
Charan is also signifying movement. This charan is different from the charan. Charan is feet.
Charan here is like grazing. Senses are grazing. Look at the sense objects.
So essentially, Krishna talks about how one can engage one’s senses while one is functioning in this world. So he starts by saying, he gives the first principle, rādhā-dveṣu-mukta-iṣṭu. Most of you have your Gītās? Okay, we can recite the verse then.
Rādhā-dveṣu-mukta-iṣṭu. Most of you know the verses? Or should we recite responsibly? Okay. You can try to repeat after me.
So, rādhā-dveṣu-mukta-iṣṭu. This is the 64th verse we are discussing now. That rādhā and dveṣu, this is attachment and aversion.
Mukta-iṣṭu, putting it aside. Vishayān-indriyaiś-charan. There is a normal movement of the senses toward the sense objects.
It’s natural. Vishayān-indriyaiś-charan. Ātma-vaś-śarīr.
One brings it under the control of oneself. Vidhe-ātma. How does such a person do it? Vidhi.
Vidhi is scriptural direction. By scriptural direction, one brings, one regulates the movement of the senses toward the sense objects and by this what happens? Prasād-madhi-vacchati. Such a person gets prasāda.
The word prasāda can mean mercy, the prasāda can mean purity. So, of course, mercy brings purity. So, this section is analysed by different ācāryas in different ways.
If you look at the literal flow of the Gītā, Krishna is primarily talking about karma-yoga, nishkāma-karma-yoga. If we talk it from a conclusive sense, Prabhupāda explains it that this section can also apply to bhakti-yoga. Then Prabhupāda gives a purport from the perspective of bhakti-yoga.
Either way, so if you consider from the perspective of bhakti-yoga, prasāda refers to the mercy of the Lord. If we take it from the perspective of nishkāma-karma-yoga, prasāda refers to purity. Just by living like this, one will attain purity.
So now, Krishna is basically telling regulation of the contact of the senses with sense objects. He’s not saying there should be no contact. We cannot avoid contact.
We cannot function in this world with closed eyes, for example. And even if we close our eyes, we can’t close our other senses. Ears, there’s no facility naturally to close the ears.
So you’re going to hear sounds which may there are smells. We can’t avoid those exposure to those smells, fragrances, whatever. So there’s regulation.
Now, for this higher regulation, we can take this metaphor of the treatment. So normally, whenever a patient is to be treated, the treatment is not just a matter of willpower alone. The willpower has to be coupled with a process for recovery to take place.
A simple example for this is, suppose somebody gets loose motions. I say, I have a willpower, you know, I will not respond to nature. It’s not going to work.
If there is a stomach upset, willpower should be used for what? For regulating the diet according to what the doctor tells. Doctor may take only soups now. For the next three days, you take only soups.
So that also requires willpower. But willpower alone is not the cure. Willpower has to be coupled with a process.
And when the willpower is used to apply the process, that leads to recovery. That’s why the important point in this verse is, vidheatma. The soul follows the vidhis given in scripture.
So when we follow the scriptural directions and regulate our senses accordingly, then gradually the recovery will take place. So for this, this is vidheatma. The process is given in vidhi.
Prasada is the recovery that happens. And our willpower is used for following the process given in scripture. So for that, I have to use my willpower to raga, dvesha, vimukta, isthu.
So what happens by this is, gradually we, so while practising the process of bhakti, there may be some things which we like, some things which we don’t like. Naturally, the things which we like, we will want to do more. The things which we don’t like, we may want to minimise.
That’s okay. But there are certain things which are vital in the practise of bhakti, we need to do them. Raga, dvesha, vimukta, isthu.
And by this combination of willpower and process, there is recovery. But sometimes, if we think that willpower alone is all that matters, then inability to control the senses is seen as a character deficiency. If you can’t control yourself, that means you are a good for person.
It’s not necessarily like that. The process has to work. So there are two, I’ll talk about the battle metaphor later.
But there has to be, in our approach to looking at ourselves, on one side, there has to be sternness or firmness. On other side, there has to be kindness and gentleness. That means what? That we have to be stern with ourselves so that we practise the bhakti nicely.
But at the same time, we have to know that our determination is also fragile. So we have to function in such a way that our determination, our enthusiasm to practise bhakti is nourished. It is strengthened, not that it is weakened.
So whichever way it works for us, we see that it’s not that yesterday I decided, okay, from now I’m not going to indulge in sense gratification. From today onwards, I’m able to resist everything. It may or it may not work out like that.
The important thing is not how much willpower I have, but the important thing is how much process I am following. If I keep following the process, gradually the purification will result. So our willpower, sometimes what happens, you may see sometimes that there are people who are born and brought up in sattva guna.
And if they’re born and brought up in sattva guna, for them, controlling the senses is not very difficult. Because they always had that habit of living in a relatively sense-controlled environment. And sometimes some people may even live as lifelong celibates.
Not because they wanted to pursue any spiritual path, just that, you know, maybe somehow their marriage didn’t work out. So in India, there are few people like that. Their marriage doesn’t work out, they live lifelong celibates.
And it’s not that they are having some affair or anything like that, they live lifelong celibates. How is that possible? See, go to the next slide here, that, you know, if somebody has a lot of wealth, now we understand the wealth has come because of some past janma, puro janma punya that person has. So similarly, if somebody has good looks, or somebody has good intelligence, all this is a result of past life piety, past life punya.
Same way for some people, renunciation may also be a result of past life karma. So by some people by their past life karma may be more inclined towards renunciation than others. But if they’re just as a wealthy person may become a devotee.
But just their wealth does not necessarily signify their devotion. And after becoming devotees, they may find their wealth also increases, that does not necessarily mean they have become better devotees. Just as increase in wealth does not necessarily mean increase in devotion.
Basically, wealth is not necessarily proportional to devotion. Similarly, renunciation is not necessarily proportional to devotion. Just because somebody is more renounced, that does not mean that person is a greater devotee.
So for some people renunciation may come easier, for some people renunciation may come tougher. And this does not mean that we cannot increase our renunciation level by practising in this life. But the point I’m simply making is, even if we all join the brahmacharya ashram, it is not that all of us start at the same point.
It’s not just the kind of conditionings we bring from this life, it’s also from our previous life. So just because somebody can follow more strictly than us or somebody can follow less strictly than us, we don’t have to necessarily feel inferior or superior. It is our relationship with Krishna that is important.
And just as wealth can be used in Krishna’s service, renunciation can be used in Krishna’s service. But renunciation is not equal to devotion. That means just because I am more renounced does not mean that I am a more advanced devotee.
And just because I cannot maintain renunciation does not mean that I am not a serious devotee. The capacity for renunciation in different people may also come from past life karma. This is not to again say, just like a person may not be born very wealthy in this life, but they can earn wealth.
So like that, especially, I’ll talk about another kind of renunciation that comes. So this is a renunciation that has come by purva janma karma. But the renunciation can come from another source.
One source of renunciation is purva, I could not say purva janma, just purva samskara, in this life or in a previous life. And the other renunciation is that which comes by the practise of bhakti. bhakti pareshanubhava viraktiranyatra ca vasudeve bhagvati bhakti-yoga-prayojita janaty asvairagyam jnanam cheda hai tukam, 1.2.7. So the bhagavatam.
So now, whatever way we get our renunciation, it can be a very valuable asset in the practise of bhakti. Because if we have renunciation, then we can be undistracted from many of the material world’s allurements and we can focus on the practise of bhakti. But if renunciation becomes our central goal in life, then when we get renunciation, we become proud.
When we don’t get renunciation, we feel disheartened. So we don’t have to be renunciation centred. We have to be Krishna centred and service centred.
And with this attitude, when we practise bhakti, so vidhe atma, vidhe atma is the vidhi that is given in scripture. Now in the scripture, there is vidhi given for the renounced order, there is vidhi given for the householder order. You see that it is not that when a devotee leaves the brahmacharya ashram and goes to the ashram, that’s not a failure.
That’s just that person is more suited for a different kind of treatment. And both are still in the hospital, both are taking treatment, but there are different kinds of treatment. And so this understanding that everybody is taking treatment and I have to take the treatment that is the most effective for me, that is the most sustainably practical for me.
Based on that, we can move onwards. So any questions till now, any questions or comments? Yes. So is there a difference between vairagya and virakti? So there are two different things over here.
In general, when we study scripture, terms have general meanings and terms have specific meanings. So for example, when we use the word Bhagawan in the context of Brahman, Paramatma, Bhagawan, at that time the word Bhagawan has a particular meaning. It is referring to the personal aspect of the absolute truth.
And the word Brahman has another particular meaning, that is it’s referring to the impersonal aspect of the absolute truth. But it is not that in all occurrences in scripture, these words always mean the same things. The word Bhagawan is also used for Bhagawan Badrayana, Bhagawan Narada, Bhagawan Shiva.
There it just refers to a very great saintly person who is devoted to Bhagawan. So there is a technical meaning of words within a particular context. And there is a general meaning which may not apply in that context.
So Brahman does not always refer to the impersonal aspect of the absolute truth. Brahman is a general term referring to spiritual reality. When we say, use the word Brahma Thato, Brahma Jijnasa, it is not referring to now enquire about the impersonal Brahman.
No, it is enquire about general spiritual truth, of spiritual truth. So in fact, Brahman can also be a describer for Krishna, for the absolute truth in general. So the point is that there are concepts and there are terms.
So I could say concept is like a suitcase. Concepts are mental and terms are like handles for carrying the suitcase. So term is a verbal tool for handling a concept or a term is a verbal handle to a mental concept.
And now, like two different suitcases may sometimes have exactly identical handles. Isn’t it? Exactly same handle which I have mentioned for a small suitcase, another for a very big suitcase. So the handle, just which handle is there is not as important as which suitcase it is connected to.
If I see, when we have this carousel, where we collect the baggage after we come by a flight, if I try to identify my suitcase only by looking at my handle, I might pick up somebody else’s suitcase because somebody else’s suitcase also has similar handle. So we have to look at words, we look at terms in scripture, especially when the Acharyas are giving some kind of analytical framework. Then at that time, they use the terms for specific means.
But it is not that every occurrence in scripture of that term will necessarily be with that meaning only. So having said this, now is there a difference between Vairagya and Virakti? I would put it this way that there are two kinds of renunciation. The renunciation that comes by Punya or the renunciation that comes by the practise of material processes of austerity, in Jnana, in Yoga.
So there is a kind of renunciation which comes by practises of piety. And there is the renunciation that comes by the practise of Bhakti. So there is a difference between the two.
So we could say in a particular context that Vairagya, usually the word Vairagya is associated with, it’s coupled with Jnana. And Jnana and Vairagya are considered to be the characteristics of the path of Jnana. So in that context, the Vairagya that comes is not so much from knowledge of the absolute truth.
That Vairagya comes from knowledge of this world. When one studies the world seriously and understands that, oh, this world is temporary. In the Uddhava Gita it is said that there are four ways in which a person can become detached from this world.
Shrutihi, by hearing from scripture. Pratyaksha. Pratyaksha means we actually see, we may meet a very wealthy person and that wealthy person, we think, oh, he must be so, he must be so happy.
But then when we go and talk with them, you know, maybe their daughter has run away with some man and their son is a drug addict recovering in some drug centre, their wife has filed for divorce and you know, they’re all alone, suspicious, miserable. Well, wealth does not need to lead to happiness. So Pratyaksha.
Shrutihi Pratyaksham Aithiha. Aithiha is Itihas. So historical narratives.
There are often, in almost all folk traditions, there are, not in folk tradition, in all regional traditions, there are stories about how greed leads to misery, how a person who is very miserly or very materialistic, they suffer and then they die. There are Aesop’s tales and so many tales like that. So from Aithiha also we can learn.
And Shruti Pratyaksham Aithiha, Anumane Shuchatushyam. Anumana. Anumana is inference.
Anumana, sometimes we use it negatively to refer to guesswork. But Anumana also refers to inference. So from what I have seen, I can infer.
Somebody may say, oh, I have seen so many marriages, nobody is happy. Therefore, I may infer that marriage doesn’t lead to happiness. Or I have seen so many wealthy people, they have their own anxieties.
In fact, more anxiety than others. Therefore, wealth doesn’t lead to happiness. That’s inference.
So in these four ways, Shruti Pratyaksham Aithiha, Anumana Shuchatushyam, Pramaneshwa Anavasthanad. Anavasthanad means, this world does not have a permanent avastha. It does not have a permanent situation.
It is temporary. Vikalpaat Savirajyate. And in that way, Vikalpa, when the world offers, hey, this is not enjoyable, but this is enjoyable.
Try this alternative. Try this alternative. No.
Virajyate, a person becomes detached. One does not pursue these pleasures. So here, when Jnana and Vairagya are coupled together, it is primarily by knowledge of this world’s temporariness that one gets detached.
Whereas, when one practises Bhakti, it is that by attraction to Krishna, one becomes detached from this world. So there is that difference between detachment that comes from understanding the nature of this world and how it is miserable, and there is detachment that can come from understanding the beautiful beauty of Krishna and therefore, one feels, what is this? What is there to enjoy in this world when Krishna is so relishing? So those two are different kinds of renunciation. So, yes, in that sense, there is a difference between different kinds of renunciation and in Bhakti, if we have the Vairagya about the nature of this world, that is good.
But that alone is not necessarily leading to Bhakti because sometimes Vairagya can also make us proud. You know, among all the six opulences, if we see, Jnana and Vairagya are the two which are most likely to be mistaken as signs of spiritual advancement. If somebody is wealthy, nobody will think that they must be very spiritually advanced.
Somebody is very good looking, nobody will think that that good looks are necessarily a sign of spiritual advancement. But when it comes to Jnana and Vairagya, just as wealth and beauty can come by past karma, similarly, Jnana and Vairagya can also come by past karma. Some people may just have a better intellectual level.
Some people have a better sense control capacity. Now, when that comes by past karma, that is favourable to Bhakti. Now, if a person is wealthy, they can use their wealth in Krishna s service.
Similarly, if a person is intellectual, they can use their intellectual capacity in Krishna s service. Similarly, like that, if a person is renounced, that renunciation can be used in Krishna s service. So, but that renunciation alone is not Bhakti.
But when we become focused on Krishna, absorbed in Krishna and that brings renunciation, that is actually the fruit of Bhakti. So, here in 1.2.7, Vasudeva Bhagwati, Bhakti Yoga Prayajita, Janetya Asubhairagya, what is that section doing in the Bhagavatam? That whole section is, Suta Goswami there is telling how the previous verse is Paradharma. Paradharma is Bhakti.
So, now he says the Paradharma is Bhakti. Then naturally, some people may get the question, but what about Jnana and Vairagya? Because traditionally, Jnana and Vairagya were considered to be very elevated spiritual states. So, then in that section 1.7.8.9.10.11, basically what Suta Goswami does is, he says how everything else is subordinate to Bhakti.
So, he says Jnana and Vairagya, no, they will come automatically when Bhakti is there. What about Varanashram? The purpose of Varanashram is to actually develop Bhakti. Otherwise, Varanashram is useless.
So, like that, he is analysing various things over there. So, in that context, when the word Vairagya comes, it is similar to the way the Vairakti is used in Bhakti Samaj Sindhu. So, it is the renunciation that comes from devotion and the renunciation that comes as the opulence of past karma.
They are two different things. Does that answer your question? Any other questions? Yes, Pramil. I want to just ask one question.
For example, if someone does not have such intellectual understanding. Intellectual? Intellectual of intelligence. Intelligence to understand which kind of this qualities help and how to just like realising it basically.
The qualities which is done would engage the intellectual consciousness. Because sometimes devotees have really nice and beautiful qualities within themselves, but they buy them because they are not enough intelligence. So, they cannot understand them.
So, if you are not intelligent enough to understand which qualities we have, and then so we are not able to use those qualities in Krishna s service. So, then what can we do? Is that the question? Yes. So, some of this like pramil recognises himself.
Yes. Actually, that is not necessarily a matter of intelligence. It is something which even if we have intelligence, that does not necessarily mean that we will be able to recognise which qualities we have.
That is a problem which everyone has. Most of you probably have seen this. These four windows, if you have a square, it is like, you know, you have seen this? Yes.
Known to us, known to others. There are some qualities which are known to us and known to others both. Or rather, you know, how do you put it? I will put it like, yes and yes, it is known to us and known to others also.
Or rather, this is yes, this is no. And this is yes, this is no. So, there are some qualities which are known to us and known to others.
There are some qualities which are known to others but are not known to us. There are some qualities which are known to us but are not known to others. And there are some qualities which are known neither to us nor to others.
So, for us, you know, just by just living in the world, we can see this is something which I can do well. This is something. So, then there are some qualities which are obvious to both.
So, we start with this. We start with this and use what is known to us and known to others in Krishna’s words. Now, this category, this is known to, known to, not known to us, known to others.
If we have friends, the friends will tell us, you are close with them, you are good at this also. I never thought of this. I can do this also.
So, we need friends to be able to tell us this quality. And this is something which is often the area where the ego acts a lot. I think I have many more qualities than what I have been able to show till now.
But we may have certain qualities which we have not expressed or which we have not yet, which are not yet manifested. Or we have not got the opportunity to do some things. Sometimes some person may be a very good manager, but they never, because they are young, they don’t get a managing service.
But when somebody gives them a managing service, then they are able to delegate. They can organise nicely. You do this, you do this, or you can do this at this time, this time.
Then others realise. It’s a very good service. They can do it very well.
So, sometimes if we, so if there is something in this area, then we need others who will tell us this. So, others help us to discover our qualities here. If something is there in this area, then we can in a humble way tell that I would like to do this.
Or sometimes when an opportunity comes up, we can do this. And when we do it well, others will notice it. And then they may engage us more in that direction.
And this category actually often takes, we have to go through some life experiences, sometimes some demanding life experiences, where we go to layers of ourselves which are deeper than the normal levels of functioning. So, it is said that adversities introduce us to ourselves. That is, I may think I am a very nice person, but when trouble comes, I start yelling and shouting and screaming at others.
Then I never knew that there was a side view also which could speak so nastily. But they understand Anartha is there within me. Or sometimes some person may seem to be a very nice person, gentle, simple person.
But some big crisis comes and still they stay so composed, stay focused. Then we understand, you know, despite that gentleness, you know, there is a frame of, spine of steel inside this person. So, then we all discover ourselves often when we go through, we all discover things about ourselves when we go through difficult situations.
So, this is something which is difficult to learn. And often some difficult life experiences are what is required to learn this. But basically, we start with what we have.
We start with what we have and use what we have in Krishna s service. And of course, more important, at least in the initial stages of our life, we just simply do what we are told to do. If we learn the principle of discipline and obedience, but while being obedient, we also observe ourselves, you know, this is a service which I can do quite well.
This service I find very difficult to do. So, see what happens? Initially, we learn the principle of obedience. We have senior devotees who will be guiding us, telling us do this, don’t do this.
But our long term goal should be that I should be able to find a service that I, that I will feel inspired to do lifelong, even if there’s nobody to push me. If a devotee can find a service that they can do lifelong, then they can go on lifelong practising Bhakti. So, for finding a service which you can do lifelong, of course, preaching is one service like that.
Wherever we go in this world, there’s so many people who don’t have Krishna. We can give Krishna to them. But we also should feel inspired.
So, while doing whatever services we are told to do, we keep observing ourselves. This service I can do well and this is a service I like to do also. And then we can, we don’t have to say, we don’t say that, you know, I won’t do any other service, I don’t do this service, not like that.
But we can try to train ourselves better in that service. Now our mood should be that let me try to become a more and more, a more, how should we put it, more useful instrument for my spiritual master, for the Vaishnavas. So, becoming a more and more useful instrument means that if I have more, if I have skills developed, I can serve better.
So, when we talk about, I think this question will come up later, so I’ll address it now only, that we all may ask about how do we discover our nature? What is my nature actually? So, that’s a very, it is, you know, trying to categorise into Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishnava is quite difficult in this age. What we could focus on is that when we talk about guna, guna refers to we feel internally comfortable while doing it and inner comfort and karma refers to outer competence. So, a Brahmana, when they are doing intellectual work, then they feel comfortable, you know, I am home, this is what I like to do.
And then you can see there are some people, they memorise verses, others take, you know, three, four days to memorise one verse. There are some people who memorise three, four verses in one day. So, they are competent doing it, they are happy doing it, they are comfortable doing it, they are competent doing it.
So, if we can find out what we are comfortable internally and what we are competent externally, we can understand that is what is a part of my subhava and we can try to do that service more. Not rejecting the instructions of our spiritual authorities, but rather within the perimeter that they are given, we can try to do that service. And over a period of time, we will gravitate towards that service more and more.
So, basically, start with what we know of ourselves and one aspect about knowing this or this or even getting to, revealing about, informing others about this, all this how to do, that will be a part of the dāmi buddhi yogam tam yena mām upayānti te. Krishna will give us the intelligence about how to come to Him. How to come to Him also means, you know, how to use more of the resources that we have, which He has given us in His service.
Does that answer your question? So, any other questions or comments? So, let us move to the next verse. So, prasāde, this is 2.65, So, this is a very interesting verse. Sometimes some devotees use this as a part of the prasādam prayers, you know, because the word prasāda comes over here.
Do they use it here also? No, no? I have seen some places where they, mahāprasāde govinde ade prasāde sarva-duḥkhāna phadurasya upajāyati. So, now the prasād here is talking about not exactly the food that we eat. Prasād here refers to purity or misery.
So, what is Krishna saying over here? Prasāde sarva-duḥkhāna phadurasya upajāyati. Hāni, hāni means destruction. When we become pure or when we get mercy, at that time we become free from misery.
What does it mean? Actually, if somebody is, say, a drug addict and the drug addict is, say, struggling to give up the addiction. Now, even if the drug addict understands how dangerous that addiction is, so when they try to give it up, the desires, they trouble them a lot. There are what is called as, especially when somebody gets into narcotic drugs, intoxicating drugs, when they get into, then there is what they get in their body, what is called as withdrawal symptoms.
You know, they start trembling and shivering and they start throwing up or all sorts of problems come up in the body and that can erode their determination to give up the drug. It is so painful. I can’t do this.
Better let me take it. So, what happens is, in any addiction, I am hoping to write a book on spirituality and addiction, but the point which is relevant is, initially people indulge to get high. People want to feel high.
They want to feel high initially, that’s why they take the drug. But eventually, they have to take the drug just to feel normal. Because what happens, initially taking the drug gives a little pleasure, but afterwards, not taking the drug causes so much pain that they have to take the drug to feel normal.
And the same principle also applies to other forms of sense gratification also. In sense gratification, quite often, it’s not that there is pleasure. When we indulge in the senses, what we get is not so much pleasure as temporary relief from the torment of the desire.
So, what does temporary relief from the torment of the desire? You have to enjoy, enjoy, get it, do it, do it, do it. It’s almost like when the desire starts getting control of our consciousness, it’s like somebody is ripping us from within. Or like for an elephant, there is a gourd, sharp gourd, it pierces the skin of the elephant.
The elephant just can’t tolerate, elephant runs then. That’s how the mahout, that’s why the elephant carrier controls the elephant. So, like that, when the temptation becomes very strong, when we are attached to something, at that time, the desire starts gourding us.
And when we enjoy, actually there’s no enjoyment. We indulge in the senses simply to get relief from the torment of the desire. So, now, when we get purity, when prasada gets, what happens? This torment goes away.
And just the desire itself, I mean, if a drug addict wakes up, you know, every day, every day, repeatedly, several times the drug addict is waking up with the torment of the desire to eat, desire to consume the drug. And suddenly, you say, the drug addict wakes up and there’s no desire within. Such a big relief.
So, like that, if you just keep following bhakti, process of bhakti, prasada, previous verse said that, ātmā visher vidhe ātmā. If you keep following the process of bhakti, what will happen? One day this torment of the desire will go away. And then a large part of the misery disappears.
So, we can see this, we can see some desires have disappeared even in our life. Some of us might have been eating meat before. Now, if say, we are travelling in a plane or a train and say, the neighbour opens some meat, how many of us feel tempted by the meat? Practically, no one.
At least, Yamunacharya says that, I curl my lips in distaste when he thinks of sex desire. Now, we may not curl our lips in distaste at the thought of sex desire, but at least when meat comes, we curl our lips in distaste. So, what has happened over here? We can see the process of bhakti working.
That prasāde sarva-duḥkhāṇāṁ hānyasyopajāyate. The desire itself goes off. So, sometimes when you are practising bhakti, we become disheartened because we see that again and again the same desire is coming.
Every day I am chanting, every day I am practising bhakti. What is the difference that is happening? So, if you start becoming disheartened like this, we can look at those of our desires, which are actually gone away. Say, by seeing this desire, I have such a common desire.
This desire was so common to me earlier, so commonplace to me, but now it’s just gone. There is one state where I have the desire, I control the desire. The other is I don’t have the desire itself.
So, when the desire itself goes away, then a large part of the misery will go. So, this is a great relief if we can get this. And then what happens? One becomes cheerful.
See, as long as there is a torment within going on, do it, no, I will not do it, do it, I will not do it, that torment is going on, we cannot really be very happy. But once the torment disappears, then we become cheerful. So, it’s interesting now, Krishna says that it is at this time that our intelligence becomes well established.
Till that time, you know, we have to live on borrowed intelligence. Borrowed intelligence means we have to regularly hear scripture, we have to regularly hear Guru Sadhu Shastra. And by hearing from Guru Sadhu Shastra, our buddhi becomes, our buddhi remains strong.
So, can this height go up? No, no, because then I am not able to write on this part at all, paper is getting wasted. Can I repeat your question? I think I got your question. The question is that among pure devotees, there is no desire at all, or in pure devotees also there is desire, but there is no inclination to act on that desire.
Is that the question? So, let me complete this. So, actually, there are, as I said, there are two ways of looking at it. In one sense, if you have a body, with the body, it says the desire to eat will be natural.
So, at one level, eating, sleeping, mating, defending, these are simply drives that are produced by the very contact with the body. Just as we can’t expect that just because somebody is a pure devotee, they will have no desire to eat, isn’t it? They will also have the desire to eat. And the desire to eat, they will regulate according to dharma.
You know, they will act according, they will eat only that which is offered properly, that is cooked properly. So, one way of analysing it is that these desires are simply biological drives that will come when the body is there. But a pure person will be able to, knows how to regulate the desire according to the principles of dharma.
So, for those in the renounced order or those who are devoted to the Lord, very purely devoted to the Lord, then there is no inclination to act on this desire. This is one way of looking at it. But another way of looking at it is that a pure devotee’s consciousness is so filled with Krishna that they see everything in relationship with Krishna only.
So, for example, a pure devotee, even they see a woman, they don’t see the woman as a woman, they see a woman as an associate of Krishna, as a Gopi. And this is also meant to be engaged in Krishna’s service. When they see it like that, see a woman like that, then there is no desire may also come.
And with respect to this verse, when Ramanacharya says, when I get the desire, at that time, my lips curl in distaste. So, now it could be, one way of it is, this verse can be used as an example to say that even a pure devotee who is relishing the mellows of Krishna, that they can also get a desire, but they don’t act on that desire. So, it can be taken as an example, as a reference to substantiate the first view.
But if somebody wants to hold on to the second view and say that pure devotees cannot have these desires, then we could say that this verse is spoken as an example for us, that actually they don’t have any desires, but they are telling us even if we have desires, we should not be eager for those desires, we should actually turn away from those desires. So, now Prabhupada also there is that story that now Prabhupada said that, it’s not that I don’t have lust, it’s that I don’t have any time for lust. So, we could say that Prabhupada himself is telling that lust can be there in everyone.
But another way of looking at it could be that Prabhupada is actually, he is a pure devotee, but he is coming at our level and telling us that, better that even if you have lust, if you give no time for lust, lust will not be able to act on you. So, generally when you are talking about Acharyas, it is always better to give them the benefit of doubt. That means that if they are making some statements, it is better to, which can be taken in one way, they are very pure, another way, they are, you can interpret that they are not so pure, it is better to always give them the benefit of doubt and say that they are pure and they are representing the position of conditioned souls through such verses.
But if somebody wants to take this as an example, that is fine. But in general, to avoid controversy, to avoid any, we may not have an offensive mentality at all, but any possibility somebody may think that very offensive, it is better to err on the side of caution over here. And as far as we are concerned, we do not have to necessarily become discouraged just because desires come.
What is important is, the more reliable sign of spiritual advancement is change of values, not change of desires. Change of values means that, you know, somebody may ask that, you know, after 10 years or so many years of practising, still I get this desire. Is my bhakti working? So now, 10 years before, when a person was a non-devotee, quite often they are eager for this desire.
You know, people actually watch movies and search on the internet to try to increase their desires. So earlier, we were welcoming the same desire. Now we are objecting to the presence of the desire.
So this is a change of value. And change of value is a much more reliable symptom of advancement than change of desires. Desires may come and go, but if my values have changed, that means, what do I value? Earlier, we are valuing the desire itself.
When more desire comes, then I will enjoy more. But now I am valuing purity, I am valuing freedom from desire. So rather than worrying too much about some occasional desires coming into the mind and going off, what we can focus on is on change of values.
And if our values have changed, that itself is an indication that we are advancing spiritually. Does this answer your question? So now, moving on here. That is the part I was talking about here.
Buddhi parevatishta te means the intelligence becomes well situated. So initially, the word buddhi, what all does it mean? You know, buddhi is at one level an object. Object means that mana buddhi ahankar.
So there is a thing within our body, subtle body, which is called as buddhi. So this is the tool for intellectual analysis. Just like in a computer, there might be a memory chip, there might be a processor.
So they are all parts over there. So buddhi is a part of the subtle body. So all of us in that sense of having that part, we all have buddhi.
But what is this buddhi filled with? That buddhi, Prabhupada writes in one lecture that we are meant to use our intelligence to control our desires. No, we are meant to use our intelligence to control the enjoying mentality. But our problem is that we are used to enjoying intelligently.
Enjoying intelligently means use our intelligence to enjoy in such a way that we don’t get caught. So then what happens? This buddhi is impure. If you see in 3.42 or 41, 3.40 actually, Krishna states that lust is situated in three places.
So buddhi is meant to protect us from selfish desires. But buddhi can also be captured by selfish desires. So now if you can compare this 3.40 which says buddhi is also a sitting place of lust.
And right now we are discussing 2.65. Krishna says buddhi parya batishtate. So this means there is buddhi as an object, which is a tool, object means it is a tool. And buddhi can also mean the content of that tool.
Or like I could put it another, make it a little simpler. If I compare say buddhi to the software, every computer has a software. But sometimes that software may be malware.
That malware is also located in the software area itself. But that malware is actually damaging my machine. So within our buddhi, if wrong conceptions are there, then the buddhi itself misleads us.
The buddhi itself misleads us. So there is a lot of misleading by using intelligence that happens in a materialistic society. So that is why what we said is, just because we have the intelligence as our faculty, as one of the tools within us, that does not mean that we are intelligent.
We have to, our buddhi becomes pure by hearing from Guru Sadhu Shastra. So right now we can assume that to the extent we are hearing from Guru Sadhu Shastra, to that extent our buddhi is pure. And without that the buddhi is not really pure.
And we can differentiate between, this is again I said specific terminology, always it may not be used like that. There is intellect and intelligence. Intellect is actually simply information processing ability, whereas intelligence is the discriminating ability.
Discriminating means, this is right, this is wrong. I should do this, I should not do this. This is temporary, this is eternal.
So this intellect, many people may have. In terms of scientists, some of the scientists are brilliant. Say, can you question? Can you repeat that again? Yeah, I will repeat it, yeah.
I am explaining the same thing. See, intellect refers to, I think this has all become very complicated. I should have taken another page.
Let us keep it like this. This is what we are discussing right now. So intellect is the information processing ability.
So now even atheistic people may have intellect. They may have very good memory. They may have very good analytical skills.
They may be brilliant at logic. So there are some scientists who may be atheists and they are brilliant. We cannot deny their brilliance.
They have a lot of information processing ability. But then they may lack discriminating ability. Discriminating ability means that the capacity to know what is right, what is wrong, what is moral, what is immoral, what is short term, what is long term, what is material, what is spiritual.
So now an example of this is Stephen Hawking. Stephen Hawking is a brilliant scientist as far as his scientific skills are concerned. But he married a woman who was a faithful Christian and then afterwards he got this disease, very debilitating disease.
Now his intellect remained very strong throughout and it is phenomenal how he works in spite of his crippling handicap. And throughout it all, quite often if a husband gets something like that, the wife may just leave. I do not want to leave with such a person, taking care of such a person.
But his wife stayed with him faithfully throughout. And then to assist her, he had a nurse. And then he had an affair with that nurse.
And his wife was so hurt by that. And then his own, he had children, grown up children. Why did he do that? And his answer was, I wanted to show that I am a man.
So this is the idea that how do I show that I am a man? By having an affair with some woman. So the moral sense, the discriminability is not there at all, unfortunately. So these two are different.
Now when we say materialistic people are foolish, that does not mean that they do not have information processing ability. Sometimes they may have a phenomenal information processing ability. But they may have information processing ability much better than what we have also.
But they do not have this discriminating ability so much. So this discriminating ability comes by Guru, Sadhu, Shastra. When we hear from Guru, Sadhu, Shastra, when we practise the process of bhakti, we get this buddhi.
So now moving on, what this 2.65 is saying is, purity makes borrowed intelligence our own intelligence. So purity makes borrowed intelligence our own intelligence. Borrowed intelligence means at our sadhaka stage, we have to keep hearing repeatedly, again and again.
And then this is the right thing to do, this is what I should not do, this is what I should do. So we are actually borrowing our intelligence from Guru, Sadhu, Shastra. But if we do not keep hearing repeatedly what happens, our own tendencies come up.
And then we again end up doing wrong things. We start doing something wrong and we hear, hey I should not be doing this. Then we come back again on the right track.
So our buddhi right now is largely borrowed. Borrowed means we have got it from Guru, Sadhu, Shastra. But eventually if we keep practising bhakti, then this buddhi will become internalised.
And then our own conscience becomes activated. And even if we don’t hear, we innately know this is right, this is wrong, this is what I should do, this is what I should not do. So Krishna is saying that once we become prasade sarva dukkhana, when there is purification, then what will happen? Then our intelligence will be fixed.
So right now, our intelligence is there, but the intelligence is not very fixed. That means sometimes I feel intellectually convinced, I should do this. But after some time, you know, intelligence becomes weak.
You know, maybe it’s not so necessary. I don’t have to be so fanatical. I can relax also.
I can practise life, whatever it is. Our intelligence itself is not very strong right now. So this is buddhi pariyava tishtate.
So till we become pure, we absolutely need to keep hearing, so that our intelligence stays sharp. But that does not mean after we become pure, we stop hearing. After we become pure, we hear more and more about Krishna, because we have a taste for hearing about Krishna.
That is talked about in 10.9 when Krishna says, machittamadgata prana bodhayanta parasparam kathayantasya mam nityam tushyanti jara mantyam. Devotees delight in speaking about me because they want to know more and more about me. So at our stage, we need to hear regularly to have our buddhi strong.
Any questions till now? Any comments? Is this all becoming too analytical intellectual? I can try to simplify things a little bit. Okay. So we’ll move ahead.
Now next verse is 2.66. So now Krishna is saying over here, so yukta is actually a variant of the word yoga. So yoga, yogi, yukta. So nasti buddhir ayuktasya.
So Krishna is saying if you are not yukta, if you are not yukta, then you cannot have buddhi. If you are not practising yoga, if you are not connected with Krishna, then there is no buddhi. Nasti buddhir ayuktasya bhavana.
Bhavana refers to emotion. Emotion is the faculty of the mind. And it refers to a steady emotion, steady disposition of the mind.
Nacha bhav yatha shanti. If the mind is not peaceful, then one cannot, sorry, if the mind is not steady, it cannot be peaceful. Ashantasya kutah sukham.
How can one be happy without having a peaceful mind? Ashantasya kutah sukham. This is a very important principle for us to understand. Krishna is saying that happiness, satisfaction depends not on our possessions.
It depends on our disposition. So satisfaction is a function not of our possessions, but it is of our dispositions. You know, a person may have fabulous wealth, or a person may have the most attractive partner.
Others, when they see them, others may be envious, you know, this person is enjoying with such a good partner. But if they are not controlled, if their mind is not steady, then even when they have the most attractive partner, the mind will be looking for someone else. And the mind will not keep them satisfied.
So if the mind is wild, if the mind is restless, no matter how good the sense objects one may have, one will not be satisfied. So Krishna is saying, Ashantasya kutah sukham. If the mind is not peaceful, where is happiness? Now sometimes when there is a feast, we may be enjoying one item.
We may be having one item which is actually rare and which is actually a delicacy. But then we are looking whether the next item is going to come or not. And then although this item is delicious, our eyes are caught.
When is the next item going to come? And if we know that item is a limited quantity, we do not know whether it will be enough by the time when the serving comes to me or not. So I am eating something delicious, but I am not able to taste it because my consciousness is caught in some other object. So like that, Ashantasya kutah sukham.
If internally we do not have peace, no matter how many sense objects we have, we will not be satisfied. So others may think, oh, this person is enjoying so much. But actually, if that person’s mind is uncontrolled, they will not be able to enjoy.
Because that uncontrolled mind will, while having that sense object, will be looking for some other sense object. When will I get that? When will I get that? When will I get that? And that way, one will be perpetually dissatisfied. Ashantasya kutah sukham.
So Krishna says, essentially, we need to be Yukta. Without being Yukta, without being well connected, we can have neither satisfaction, we can have neither intelligence, nor steady mind, nor peace, nor happiness. So there was a survey done.
It was published in Harvard Medical School. And this was a survey about how people who live very sexually promiscuous lives, you know, having a relationship with many people, and living very, very promiscuously, you know, their whole idea was, you know, free sex, free love. That was the idea.
No, you just, no rules, no regulations, just enjoy. But what they found was these people, when they are actually interviewed, most of them felt extremely lonely and guilty. Lonely, because they knew that actually nobody loved them.
You know, they may be physically having contact with many people, but they were lonely. Because then you know, their bodies were coming in contact, but there was no contact to the heart, there was no meaningful relationship. And they would feel guilty, because they knew that just as others were using them for satisfying their desires, they were using others for satisfying their desires.
So actually speaking, although externally, there may seem to be a lot of sensuality and free access to enjoyment, internally, there is very great loneliness, emptiness and guilt. So, अशान्तस्य कुट्टह सुखं, अशान्तस्य. If internally the mind is not peaceful, there cannot be happiness, no matter how much objects one may have for enjoyment.
Any questions? So now, after talking about this, Krishna moves, so here he has talked about stay yukta from 2.64. He said if you stay yukta, you will become purified. If you become purified, you will become happy. If you are not practising the process of yoga, if you are not practising Shastra Vidhi, then you cannot have happiness.
That means the flow of these verses is 64, 65 tells how the practise of yoga, according to Shastra will lead to Sukha. What are the word he uses? साधि सर्व दुखाम् हन्यवस् प्रसन्यचित स्वयाप्य. So one will become prasanna.
And 66 states, if you are a yukta, then कुट्टह सुखं, where is happiness? So in two ways, Krishna is stressing the point that we should practise yoga for the practise of, for becoming happy. And actually Krishna is saying the same point in 5.23 when he says, 5.23 rather सयुक्तह सुखीन रहा. चक्नोति है वजः सोडूं प्राक्षरी विमोक्षनाथ। काम क्रोधोद बमं बेगं सयुक्तह सुखीन रहा.
Person is yukta, person is practising yoga, that person will become happy. Now Krishna takes, after telling that we should stay yukta, we should not become ayukta, now he analyses what are the things that make us ayukta. So let’s go to 67th verse.
इंद्रियानां इच्छरतां यन्मनो अनुविधीयते तदस्यहरती प्रग्यां वायुर्णावं इवां भसी So, इंद्रियानां इच्छरतां The word chara has come earlier in 2.64, raga-dvesha-mukta-istu-vishayan-indriyai-charan, that same word Krishna is bringing over here. So there he says the charan, the eyes are always moving. They are looking here, looking there, the senses are always moving.
They are looking for, looking for some objects, like you have these metal detectors or we put our luggage in security. There are sensors which are looking, maybe some explosive items. So just like there are sensors which look for explosive items, so like that our senses are like sensors.
They are always looking for some objects which give some pleasure. So that search of the senses has to be regulated. If it is not regulated, indriyanami charatam, yan mano anuvidhyate, Krishna is not saying that you can stop the bantering of the senses.
We cannot live with closed eyes. But yan mano anuvidhyate, when the mind focusses on them. When the mind focusses on them, what happens? tad asya harati prajnaam, prajna is intelligence, that steals away the intelligence.
And the example is vayur naavam ivambhasi, just as a boat in a river, in a water body is swept away by the wind. This is a very striking example. Because when a boat is there in a water body, the boat is actually in a very vulnerable situation.
If a wind comes, the boat can’t hold on to anything else, it will just get swept away. So similarly, we get swept away. But the difference is that we can decide whether to expose ourselves to the wind or not.
So let’s analyse what Krishna is saying over here. See here there are senses. I am just using one word to describe all the senses, five senses.
And here out there, there are sense objects. So now the mind is here. So now when all these three come in one line, actually I should have drawn it vertically.
So if you have this, the senses will see the sense objects, we can’t avoid that. But when the mind focusses on them, then what happens? That has been described in 2.62-62, dhyayato vishayan pumsa. When we contemplate, from that desire goes stronger and stronger and stronger.
And then, it’s like, let me draw it like this here. Krishna talks about this in, he talks about this hierarchy in 3.42. There is buddhi, indriyāṇi parāṇyāhur indriyebhya paramanah, manasastu parābuddhe, yo buddhe paratastu sah. Vishaya is the sense objects.
Here there is the ātmā. And above is the paramātmā. Kursi is Krishna.
So this whole unit is the conditioned soul. So now, here what happens? There is this connection. Now when the indriyas, they contemplate on the vishaya, focus on the senses, when the senses are going to perceive the sense objects.
But when the mind dwells on them, then a contact is held between the two. And that creates a force which pulls the person down. So when the mind focusses on the sense objects through the senses.
Senses are going to see the sense objects, but the mind focusses on them, mind dwells on them. Then the gust of lust is triggered in the heart. And then drags us down.
That drags us down. The buddhi is pulled down. When the buddhi is pulled down, the ātmā also gets pulled down.
So later on, in 3.43, Krishna says, how do we stay spiritually situated? See actually, Jiyu Goswami states that for the siddha, it is priti. It is love for Krishna that keeps them on the spiritual platform. For the sādhaka, it is buddhi that keeps them on the spiritual platform.
That means using our buddhi, we connect with Krishna. Now for the siddha, there is priti over here. And here there is buddhi.
This means that when we are pure, when we have developed love for Krishna, our love for Krishna will naturally enable us to stay detached from worldly things. But when we don’t have love for Krishna, at that time, we need to keep our intelligence sharp. With buddhi, keep oneself on the spiritual platform.
In that way, one can avoid falling prey to temptation. Otherwise, if we let this come in contact, all this chain of contact has happened, then the desire gets triggered. When the desire gets triggered, then we get swept away.
So, does anyone remember, in the question and answer today morning, I quoted Prabhupada defining intelligence. What is intelligence? Yeah, to kill. Yeah, to kill the thoughts or desires before they become actions.
That means if my buddhi is strong, when the mana sees the sense of vishaya, I won’t let it grow. But if we let it grow, then it will break us. It will ruin us.
So that’s why buddhi is what will keep us on the spiritual platform. Buddhi is what is connected with Krishna. Intelligence means to kill our desires, kill our thoughts before they grow into desires, intentions and actions.
Let’s move on to the next verse. Yeah, of course, Prabhupada uses the word kill over there. As I explained that the way to remove desire is not by driving them out, but by crowding them out.
That means we have to fill our consciousness with other desires. And when we fill our consciousness with other spiritual desires, higher desires, then those desires will go away. The point of saying kill is that we should not let that desire grow.
That’s all. It’s clear? Yes, please. Could you say something on what the balance is between, like say we are practising mixed bhakti, each bhakti with material desires.
And what, just because obviously on one side we know that the fire of devotional service and the activity with focussing on the gross engagement will, you know, that fire of bhakti will dissolve all the material desires within. And then there’s another aspect of introspection and checking one’s motivation, internally assessing oneself. Can you just say the balance between that? Because there could be a tendency to go from one extreme to the other.
Yeah. So how do we balance between having faith that the process of bhakti itself will purifies our anarthas and also being introspective to analyse and check our motivations and to counter our desires? See, the underlying common thread is the intention to serve. We are meant to serve Krishna and we serve him with whatever resources we have.
So if one resource that we have is introspective ability, then we use that resource in service. If we find that developing our introspective ability helps us in serving Krishna, we develop that ability. But some people may not be that introspective.
Then there is a simple practise of the process of bhakti and it will work and purify them also. So rather than it is said that the shoe that fits one leg bites another. So similarly, when it comes to skills and abilities like these, they can help some people.
They can just become a tool or a drain for some other people. So if we find that the introspective skills help us, then we adopt them. If we find that we don’t feel that they are necessary and we are going around smoothly in our bhakti without them, then there is no need to go out of our way to learn them.
The process of bhakti itself will purify us. But rather than seeing this as a dichotomy that do I practise the process of bhakti or do I learn to develop introspective skills to check my motivations? We can see that learning the introspective skills is also a part of bhakti. Because bhakti has certain limbs like shravanam, kirtanam, smaranam.
But the essence of bhakti is to use in Krishna’s service what Krishna has given us. So if Krishna has given me an introspective nature, I use that introspective nature in service. If Krishna has given me the ability to analyse, to think, to clarify, then I can use that in Krishna’s service.
In fact, I need to use it in Krishna’s service. But if somebody doesn’t have that ability, then they don’t have to go out of the way thinking that oh, I don’t have this ability. Introspection is good for devotees, but it’s not essential.
Somebody who doesn’t have that nature, that’s okay with them. Sometimes everybody becomes more introspective. Sometimes people become less introspective.
But overall, there is a nature of some people to be introspective, some people to be not so introspective. So if introspection, the defining principle here would be anukulyasya sankalpa patikulyasya varjanam. If it is favourable for our growth in bhakti, we use it.
Otherwise, we don’t use it. Like in the war metaphor, I didn’t go so much into that war metaphor till now. In a war, we cannot go and stick to a rigidly defined plan.
Now, if we go into a war and say, I’m going to fight with a sword. But if the enemy is attacking with arrows, we’ll be slaughtered before we use our swords also. Then we may have to take and use bows and arrows, although our plan might have been to fight with swords.
So like that, when a war is going on, we have to find out what works. We can’t rigidly stick only to one weapon. But what if that weapon doesn’t work? When we are trying to absorb, when we are feeling agitated, sometimes we just chant Hare Krishna.
But you know, when you’re chanting, you’re just not connecting with Krishna. Then maybe at that time we hear some kirtan, that might connect with Krishna. Or we recite some verses, that might connect with Krishna.
Or we go to a favourite scriptural section and read that section, that connects us with Krishna. The point is that smartao hetatam vishnu, we have to remember Krishna. So in that war against illusion, how we, which weapon will work in terms of connecting us with Krishna and dissipating the force of the illusion, that can vary according to time, place, circumstance.
So we have to find which weapon works for us and which weapon works for us may also vary at different times. So we know which, we have, just like a warrior, if you see the Mahabharata war, when they are fighting, they try this weapon and they try that weapon. Hey, count on this one also.
Then I try next weapon. I try next weapon. And then they have to find out which weapon works.
So like that, we have different weapons and we have to find out whichever weapon works best for us. And we use that weapon. So introspection is like a weapon.
Even in our own life, there are some times when we feel introspection is good and we use it. Other times, like one way introspection is used is by journaling. So some people may journal regularly and you’ll find it helpful.
Other times, we ask them if, you know, OK, this is taking too much time and we’re not getting much benefit from it. So we drop it. So there is, in general, with respect to these kind of skills or tools, there is no need to make any rigid principle either for ourselves or for everyone.
If it works, if it helps, use it. Is that OK? And when we are using it, we see it not as separate from bhakti, but as part of our bhakti. Krishna has given me this ability to introspect.
Let me use it in essence. There are certain angas of bhakti or elements of devotion we know are not optional because everyone does them. Yeah, correct.
That’s true. So to what extent does having an introspective approach and really looking at your motivations and looking internally, to what extent is that universal to a certain extent for everyone? Is it completely individual? OK. Just as certain limbs of bhakti are universal for everyone, so is being introspective also universal? Well, when I talk about being introspective, I was talking more in terms of acting on that introspection through some specific act, maybe sitting down and contemplating or sitting down and journaling.
That everybody will not be inspired to do. But somehow an introspection in terms of OK, where is this desire coming from? I don’t want this desire. That sort of inner awareness is vital for everyone.
So when a desire pops up within me, I have to recognise that this is not my desire. It’s actually simply the mind prompting me. That is required for everyone as sadhakas.
I say don’t identify with the mind. Identify the mind. That means when the desire comes, don’t think this is my desire.
Hey, this is the mind speaking. Don’t identify with the mind. Identify the mind.
So that is something which all of us have to do. Now, some of us may use this more and more. Some of us may just act on it.
And some of us may just implement the principles of bhakti without really consciously recognising this is what I am doing. So the regarding means as far as understanding our inner desires and choosing which desire to act on and which desire to tolerate or reject, that is something everyone has to do. Any other questions? Yeah.
So I was explaining here. Yeah. How do we differentiate between which desire to choose and which desire to reject? Actually, I give the example in the morning about how if I get a WhatsApp message with a link, you know, I don’t just immediately click the link and read that.
I check who is the centre of this link. Does this person send good links or this person just spams my mail, spams my messages? Based on that we decide whether to look at that message, look at that link or not. So like that, when any desire comes up in our mind, rather than immediately acting on the desire, where is the desire coming from? Or rather, OK, now I am feeling hungry.
But I just took my last meal one hour ago. There is no reason why I should be feeling hungry. I ate enough also.
There is no reason for me to feel hungry right now. So there is hunger and there is pseudo-hunger. No, pseudo-hunger is, so hunger is biological.
Pseudo-hunger is psychological. What happens is the difference between hunger and pseudo-hunger is primarily in terms of two things. It’s untimeliness and specificness.
That means if I have, if we consider food like a fuel for the body, if I fuel my car and with that car, I expect that I should be able to drive for 500 miles. But after 100 miles only, my fuel tank is empty. Then that means something is wrong over here.
You know, the fuel metre is defective. There is fuel in it, but it’s showing defective. So if suddenly after having a proper meal, suddenly untimely we start feeling hunger, it is likely that that is a, that is pseudo-hunger, that is not hunger.
And second is specificness. Specificness means, I say I am hungry for gulab jamun. Well, hunger is simply for food.
If it’s specific, it’s not exactly hunger. There is nothing wrong in eating gulab jamuns. I am not against that.
I am simply making the point that there is a biological need of the body and a psychological need of the mind. I do differentiate between the two. It’s not that every single desire of the mind has to be rejected.
You know, if I feel like eating a particular item, we can eat it. It’s not that we all have our preferences. But there has to be a, there has to be a discerning based on dharma.
So whenever a desire pops up in the mind, you have to say, OK, where is desire coming from? Is this a reasonable desire? Is this something which can be satisfied, needs to be satisfied? Or is this arbitrary stray desire which I don’t need to satisfy? So that we have to evaluate using our intelligence. Just because a desire has popped inside my mind, my mind doesn’t mean I have to act on it. I have to discern.
Does this answer your question? So let’s move on to, I’ll try to complete this section. Next verse is 68. So Krishna says that, here he has said that the senses, when they contemplate on the sense objects and the mind dwells on it, then it will drag you away.
Therefore, what should you do? Therefore, you are very powerful, you are a warrior. So use your warrior skills to fight against the senses also. Control all the senses.
Indriyan indriyarthe bhyas. From the co-senses coming in contact with sense objects in an unrestricted way. Don’t allow that.
Such a person will be well situated. And the stress of this verse is, the previous verse in this verse, the stress is that even one sense can carry you. Therefore, be vigilant about all the senses.
Sarva-tasmādi-mahābhava-vibhūtāni sarvaśaḥ. All the senses try to control them. Now somebody may question, how is it possible? How can, you know, there are so many people who are indulging in their sense gratification.
What is the meaning of controlling the senses? There are people who just live exactly opposite lives. So Krishna says, there are two different worldviews. yāniśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ tasyāṁ jāgrati saṅyamī yasyāṁ jāgrati bhūtāni sāniśā paśyato muneḥ So he says that, what is night for all living beings is day for the self-realised.
And what is day for all living beings is night for the self-realised. So now, this is again, Krishna uses non-literal language over here. So day and night, now Krishna, what is he talking about? Day and night are same for everyone, isn’t it? No, if you consider day as the time when sun rises, night as the time when sun sets, then it’s same for everyone.
One explanation for this verse could be that, say, is Australia 12 hours away, time zone difference from UK? 11 hours, almost 12 hours you could say. So you can say that all self-controlled people live in Britain. All sense gratifiers live in Australia.
So, you know, what is night for Australians is day for Britishers, for the British. And what is day for British is, what is day for Australians is night for Britishers, like that. But Krishna is not talking about geographical zones over here, time zones.
Krishna is talking about, he’s using the word day and night to refer to sphere of light and activity. And night to refer to sphere of darkness and inactivity. That means he’s saying that for devotees, for spiritually minded people, so materialists and spiritualists.
So day, sense gratification and spiritual growth. Draw a table like this. What I have here is that, sorry.
So for materialistic people, sense gratification is day. Because this is the way they are interested in. This is what they want to do.
They look forward to it. And for them, spiritual growth is like night. Now what is it? You know, people spend so much time chanting Hare Krishna.
People spend so much time, you know, just looking at us, chanting, uttering the same sound, hearing the same stories again and again. What is all this? This doesn’t make any sense to them. So for them, it just seems like night.
No comprehension. No sense only it makes. Now, for spiritualists, sense gratification is like night.
That means, you know, sometimes we may see this. There is personality cults that are built around some movie stars or some sports stars. Some sports star comes and millions of people go there just to have darshan of that sports star.
What is there? Just an ordinary human being. Maybe some skills are there. But why build such a personality cult around that person? Why have this craze? So that which is like a complete passion for materialistic people.
When there is a cricket world cup or something like that, there is so much mania that comes up. Spiritualists will think, okay, it’s a sports, why blow it up so much? So that which is a day for materialists is like night for the spiritualists. And for devotees, they are so eager to understand Krishna katha, relish more and more mellows and grow in their spiritual life.
So that is day for the spiritualists. This is what Krishna says, the two different perspectives. And know that you are walking on a different path.
That we are walking on a different path. And when we are walking on a different path, we have to focus on the values of our path. If I try to evaluate our path from somebody else’s evaluation, it will make no sense.
So know that in the Bible also it is said that the path to God is narrow. So like that we are walking on a different path. And the world will chase its gratification, but we pursue Krishna bhakti.
That is 69th verse. Any questions about this? So let’s go to the 70th verse now. apūryamāna-macala-pratiṣṭhaṁ samudra-māpaha-praviśanti-yad-vād tad-vat-kāmāyaṁ praviśanti-sarve sa-śānti-māpnohati-nakāma-kāmi sa-śānti-māpnohati-nakāma-kāmi So Krishna says just as rivers flow into an ocean, like that desires may flow into a self-realised person also or a spiritualist.
But they don’t get disturbed by those desires. That means, okay, we see something, some desire comes in. But then I know this desire is just, it’s come, it will go.
It’s like, maybe in the past, you know, we were always very eager to buy a new dress. Latest jeans which are coming, I want to buy that. And there might be advertisements, buy this jeans, buy this jeans, buy this jeans.
Now we may decide, no, I’m not interested in these clothes. We become serious devotees, I’m not interested in buying those clothes. So now just because we stop purchasing doesn’t mean that the world is going to stop advertising.
The world is going to advertise, but we don’t pay attention to the advertisements. So same way, the desire, just because we have decided not to indulge in the desire doesn’t mean that the desires will stop coming. The desires will keep coming.
But then what do we do? We don’t engage with the desires. We may see an advertisement, but we don’t pay attention to the advertisement. In the past, we have purchased some product and the marketing company may still have our phone number.
They may still call us, you know, we have got this new product. Would you like to purchase it? No, I’m not interested. And we put down the phone.
So actually, if we try to, if some advertiser comes to us and tells us, purchase this. If we try to reason with the advertiser and tell that advertiser why I don’t want it. Now these advertisers or the salespeople, they are very expert.
We try to tell them why I don’t need it and they will convince us why we need it. So like that, when desires come, if you have decided that I’m not going to indulge in the desire, the best time to win the battle against temptation is before it begins. Before it begins means just start doing it.
Because they start thinking, maybe I can indulge. Maybe a little, I know. Maybe a little, no.
Maybe a little, no. Yes, you know, little is no problem. And we will get convinced by that.
Because these marketing agents, they are expert in convincing people. So what we need to do is just don’t get involved. Krishna says, the desire will come, but know that you have decided not to indulge in this and don’t be disturbed by it.
Do not be a desirer of desire. Desire comes and don’t accept the desire. Just as advertising agents may come externally, so the mind is Maya’s advertising agent internally.
The mind will still probably keep on, come on, do this, eat this, enjoy this, watch this. But no, we don’t, even the desire comes, we don’t indulge in it. Then let’s go to the next verse now.
nirbhamo nirahankarah sa shantim adhigacchati So Krishna has used the word shanti in the previous verse also. Now he is using shanti again. So Arjuna, you are looking for peace.
Don’t think that peace will come simply by avoiding war. With avoiding war with the external enemies. So peace is not a result of avoiding war with external enemies.
Peace is a result of winning the war against the internal enemies. And in this way he says, vihaya kamaan, when you become free from your desires, jah sarvaan puman sharati nispruha, the person walks in this world nispruha, free from selfish desires. Then nirbhamo nirahankarah, without selfishness, without ego, sa shantim adhigacchati, that person will attain peace.
So Krishna’s subtext over here is that Arjuna, that you will attain peace not simply by avoiding war, but by conquering over desires. And the way to conquer over desires is by doing your dharma. Your dharma is to fight the war.
If you fight the war, not just to defeat these enemies, fight the war to do your dharma. And by that you will become purified, by that you will attain shanti. And then the last verse is, Esa brahmistati partha, nainam prapya vimuhiyati, sthitvasyamantakalepi, brahma nirvana mrikshati.
So, if Arjuna can live like this, nirbhamo nirahankarah, can live, esa brahmistati partha, this is the situation of spiritual realisation, this is actually spiritual situation, brahmistati, you are actually situated at the spiritual level. nainam prapya vimuhiyati, if you come to this level, again you will not fall in illusion. sthitvasyam, if you are situated like this, antakalepi, at the moment of death.
Then, brahma nirvana mrikshati, you will attain liberation, you will attain spiritual destination. And this here, this is the first reference in the Bhagavad Gita of antakal. And Krishna will address this theme much more in the 8th chapter, when how to remember him at the antakal, that will be a discussion.
But here Krishna is pointing towards that and he is telling that, Arjuna, if you live like this, in spiritual consciousness, even if you die, whether it is in this war or later, you will not be illusioned. So right now you are in illusion, but you will not stay in illusion like this. Prabhupada writes in the Purport that, Prabhupada writes in the Purport that actually, the spiritual growth, that you know, spiritual realisation, perfection can come in there in one moment or it may not come after millions of lifetimes.
It is simply a matter of understanding and accepting the facts. That I am a soul, I am a servant of Krishna. It is in loving and serving Krishna that I will get happiness.
So the extent we accept it, then this is Brahma nirvana mrikshati. And we can attain this by the gradual practise of bhakti. Just a quick question on that.
It’s a bit out of the way, out of context. Do we have time? It’s one o’clock. OK.
One last question. You know like obviously we have Arjuna, because he was under Krishna’s direction, so he was duty and his fight. But you know like in the modern society, you say you have like jihadists or crusaders or whatever.
They use the same reasoning for doing the war mongering, etc. OK. So what is the difference between Krishna telling Arjuna to fight under divine guidance and the jihadists claiming that we are fighting under Allah’s guidance? Firstly, even when one is fighting under God’s guidance, there are certain dharmic principles to be followed.
There are some war codes. The war code generally is you fight against an equal warrior who is equipped and who is alert. Three things.
One who is equal, an elephant warrior will fight with an elephant warrior. A chariot warrior will fight with a chariot warrior. Somebody is equal.
Person has to be equipped and that person also has to be bow and arrow and is alert. It’s not that person is looking somewhere else and you shoot at that. Now when jihadis, they launch terrorist attacks, it’s completely opposite.
They are not equal. They are trained soldiers who are attacking civilians. Their victims are not equal.
They are not equipped. Civilians are without any weapons and they are not alert. So they are attacking civilians in their normal places.
It’s not a situation of war at all. So it’s against war codes. So the Kshatriyas when they fought, they would always fight with war codes.
There is no example in the Mahabharata or the Ramayana of Kshatriyas killing civilians. All the wars were fought in designated areas and although the Pandavas and Kauravas were antagonistic, they designated the Kushtra area as the area for war and that’s where they fought. The civilians were never injured at that time.
Even before that also whenever a war would take place, say for example in the Mahabharata it is described that the Kauravas suspected that the Pandavas are staying in the kingdom of Virat. So then when they attacked, what did they do? They did not go and disrupt the cities or the towns. They actually went and caught the cows and they took possession of the cows over there.
Cows were grazing and that possessing the cows, not wounding the cows, simply possessing the cows. And that is an indication that we have come to fight. And then when Virat got the news, Virat sent his soldiers out.
He himself came out to fight and the fight took place. So the fight was never, in Vedic warfare civilians were never targeted. And war was never fought on civilian territory.
It was fought in territory designated for war specifically. So that’s a major difference between who is targeted, civilians or other warriors. And whether the other warriors are equipped and whether they are equally.
Apart from that another major difference is from the Islamic perspective itself. So this is from the Vedic perspective you can say why that is very different. From the Islamic perspective itself what the terrorists are doing.
In Islam there is war which is holy war. The holy war is primarily fought for protecting oneself. The war that is fought for attacking others, that is not considered a holy war.
There is a difference between war that is sacred and war that is not sacred for them. So when they are attacking civilians, they are not really following Islamic code of warfare also. And apart from that, you can see that the jihadis when they are fighting, they are having no inclusive philosophical understanding.
Their idea is that we are right because we are devoted to Allah and everyone else is a kafir, infidel. And they deserve to be killed. So their conception of religion is very sectarian.
Krishna, he is in a warfare, he is in a war field and still he is saying, I am the well-wisher of all living beings. That means I am the well-wisher of the Kauravas also. And Krishna has walked his talk.
Krishna has demonstrated how he is the well-wisher of the Kauravas by going as a peace messenger personally. Now for Krishna to go as a peace messenger, he is the greatest warrior of his times. It’s an extraordinary act.
It’s like say Pakistan is attacking India and the Indian Prime Minister himself goes as a peace messenger. So it’s an extraordinary act what Krishna did. Krishna showed every single indication of how he was, he tried everything for a peaceful resolution.
So there is an inclusive understanding of spirituality where Krishna says that I am the well-wisher of even these people who we are fighting against. Their idea is that Krishna doesn’t differentiate. These are people who are hell bound and we have to send them to hell.
Krishna doesn’t talk about it like that. They are all souls. Krishna says, नत्वेवाहं जातु नासान चाहिए जनादिपा.
जनादिपा. All these kings, they are all souls. There is an inclusive philosophical understanding.
It’s not this sectarian conception where I and my followers are saved and everyone else is condemned to hell. Not only are they condemned to hell, they are going to go to hell and I will help them get there faster. That is the ideology of the terrorists.
So it’s completely different. So there is the God of the transcendentalist that is revealed in the Bhagavad Gita. That is a God who loves everyone.
And in an extreme case, when some people are so corrupted by selfishness, so corrupted by ego, so corrupted by greed that they are incorrigible. At that time, the last course, war is declared. But for many of these terrorists, their God is not even the God who is described in the Quran.
They have taken some verses from the Quran. Their God is simply a projection of their ego. Their God is a God who hates whom they hate.
So it’s just a projection. That God is the God of the terrorists and the God of the transcendentalists. Both may use the word God, but it’s different in conception.
I’m not saying Allah and Krishna are different. I’m saying that Allah is conceived by the terrorists in a particular way and they are not actually worshipping God by that. Because they have simply created a conception of a God who licences what they want to do.
They means, I’m not saying all terrorists are like that. There are leaders of the terrorists and other terrorists become brainwashed by them. So overall, in terms of the way the war is conducted, in terms of the conception of God based on which they are fighting and in terms of the inclusiveness of their philosophical understanding or exclusiveness, there is a complete difference between the Kshatriya concept of a holy war and Jihadi’s conception of fighting and killing.
Do we have time? Okay, last question. Okay. Can you explain that? So the Jihad of the heart and soul, the first one, is concerned with combating the evil within it.
The internal battle. So that’s the first Jihad. The battle wasn’t there.
So we have that similarity. Yes. Okay.
Okay. Yes. Yes.
Yes. Yes. Yes, actually, yes.
Sorry, just a comment. When there are different levels of Jihad, like there is inner Jihad, there is verbal Jihad, there is social activism as Jihad and there is fighting as Jihad, why is it that this last version of Jihad is what is most commonly talked about or propagated? See, there is, at the heart of Islam, a tension which is not there in other religions. That is, if we see, in the Vedic culture there are two centres of power.
There are Brahmanas and Kshatriyas and they were separated. The Brahmanas had intellectual and spiritual power. The Kshatriyas had political and martial power.
And there was separation between the two. Actually, there has to be a combination of both for social transformation. The Brahmanas give the vision, the Kshatriyas do the implementation.
And whichever religion is spread, it is spread by the combination of these two. So, for example, Buddhism was like an unknown religion. Even by the time Buddha passed, he had some followers.
But it was only when Ashoka adopted Buddhism, being inspired by one of the followers of Buddha, that he used the state resources for spreading Buddhism far and wide. Christianity was a persecuted religion till Constantine adopted it. So, there has to be a combination of Brahmanas and Kshatriyas.
Or even if we are going to say in Christianity, there was Paul. Paul was also considered Apostle, but Paul was more like an activist. Jesus was more like a teacher.
So, now, in Islam, fortunately or unfortunately, Muhammad combines both. Muhammad is their intellectual and spiritual leader. And Muhammad is also their martial and political leader.
So, among subsequent generations of Muslims, most Muslims, especially most Muslim leaders, they are the most influential, Muslim leaders who have been influential, they have focused on following Muhammad’s political and martial example much more than his intellectual and spiritual example. Now, there are many pious Muslims who follow Muhammad’s teachings and they raise their consciousness by practising that at an individual level. At a social level also, there are leaders who stress Muhammad’s example of intellectual and Muhammad’s intellectual and spiritual example.
But they are often sidelined. They are not the prominent leaders. They may be prominent when it comes to Islamic apologetics.
Apologetics means when they are trying to explain Islam is itself not bad. That is good, but you know, as far as having mass influence, they don’t have that much mass influence. So, the leaders who have mass influence are the leaders who quote most often Muhammad’s political and martial example.
And because of this, although individually, religion, every religion can be a search for God, search for the truth. And Islam also at the individual level is a search for the truth. But collectively, Islam is more often than not, it is more a political search for power than a personal search for truth or personal search for God.
And when you get into the realm of politics too much, then all morality gets lost. So, it is because the spiritual or their conception of spiritual and the political are so intricately woven together for them that they often just come down to quoting Muhammad’s example of how he sometimes used questionable techniques of war. And they use that to justify widespread use of questionable techniques.
So, as of now, the way Islam is, there are many Muslims who are peaceful, peace loving, but there are many Muslims who are also misled by these, by this such examples of Muhammad and the leaders who stress these examples of Muhammad. And that’s why Islam often gets a bad name overall. Not just gets a bad name in the public eye, but even among Muslims, there are a lot of Muslims who are vulnerable to radicalisation.
Because the leaders are, the influential leaders among them are not those who are focussing on a spiritual example. The influential leaders among them are quite often those who focus on a martial example. And that’s why in principle we understand that no religion is bad.
Islam is also a way to elevate people towards God. At the same time, at a practical level, we have to recognise that there is danger. And we have to take whatever is required for protection.
So, thank you very much.