Pleasure is a smooth-talking lawyer – Wisdom on Wisdom 4

Transcript

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Thank you. When pleasure is at the bar, the jury is not impartial. Aristotle.
Whenever any case is to be judged, at that time, the jury needs to be neutral, needs to be impartial. If they favor a particular lawyer, then they will hear the arguments of that lawyer with more openness. They will give more credibility to that lawyer’s arguments.
And because of their partiality, the opposing party will not be able to win the case, even when they have a good case, even if they are right and this lawyer is wrong, still this lawyer will win the case. Why? Because of the jury being impartial, not impartial. Now, sometimes some lawyers have such a personality, such charisma, such speaking prowess that they can just influence people.
They can just win over people. They may speak utter lies, but they can speak utter lies with such panache with such flair, with such conviction that they can come off as the most truthful people and they can win over the audience. Such people, such lawyers, lawyers who are expert liars are extremely dangerous.
And many of the world’s pleasures are such lying lawyers. So, in our heart, there is a constant case that is going on. Now, we are the judge, we are the jury and we have to decide who is offering us real pleasure.
In this world, there are many sensual things that promises pleasure. There are many worldly things that promises pleasure. And then there are the saints, there are the sages who tell us that real pleasure is to be found in the spirit.
It is to be found in the reciprocation of love with the supreme reality, God, Krishna. And this case, primarily between choosing worldly pleasures and choosing spiritual joys, that is being constantly argued in our heart. And every moment we are choosing this way or that way.
And sometimes when we choose one thing, we get so persuaded that we don’t give the other party a chance to hear also for a long, long time. So, if we are not impartial, then just as a impartial jury can arrive at a wrong decision, so too can we arrive at a wrong decision. And to avoid arriving at a wrong decision, what can we do? The pleasures of this world are extremely alluring.
They are seductive. We can’t do away with the seduction. Just as a judge or a jury can’t say that just because there is a charismatic lawyer who speaks very forcefully, speaks very persuasively, that because that lawyer is so skilled, so that we will not allow this lawyer to speak.
No, that lawyer is going to be in the court and that lawyer is going to speak. But then the jury has to be extra cautious. If a lawyer is known to be a smooth talker, smooth talker means a person who speaks very attractively but not very truthfully.
If they know that this lawyer is a smooth talker, then whenever the lawyer speaks, they will take the lawyer’s word with a pinch of salt. They will not give undue credibility to that lawyer. And they will hear the other party’s case also objectively, open-mindedly.
So similarly, when we are in this world, the world is going to make its case for worldly pleasure in an extremely persuasive, forceful, almost irresistible way. In fact, the best of the technology is sometimes used to allure us towards worldly pleasures. The advertising industry, for example, uses the best technology, the best models, the most good-looking models, the best knowledge of human psychology, all of it to come together to try to allure us, to try to win their case.
In contrast, when we often hear spiritual wisdom, the sages, the saints, the saintly teachers, the spiritual mentors who make the case for spiritual happiness, they may seem to be very unsophisticated. They may just be speaking some plain words of wisdom. And we may not find that very attractive or impressive.
But rather than looking at the delivery and getting carried away by the delivery, we need to look at the content. We need to go beyond appearance to the substance. And that’s why association of spiritually minded people, giving them a fair hearing, a due hearing, is important.
In today’s culture, those who advocate the regulation of sensual pleasure are often dismissed away as killjoys, as moral police, as spoilsports. But we need to put aside the filter caused by such pejorative labels and hear the case objectively. Actually, no matter how much the glamorization, the pleasures of the world are short-lived.
They are temporary. How long are they going to last? The body’s capacity to enjoy is limited. The senses’ capacity to enjoy is limited.
Even the most attractive sense objects, the pleasure that they can give is limited. By recognizing this, by acknowledging this, we can avoid getting allured by them. We can avoid getting misled by them.
And we can march on the world steadily towards making wise choices. Spiritual wisdom texts like the Bhagavad Gita, they give us in a very persuasive way the case for life’s spiritual side. And if we give it a fair hearing without getting caught by externals, then we will find that there is a whole ocean of wisdom and an ocean of joy that awaits us.
When we let in our heart the jury become impartial, that means we don’t let our own conceptions of things unduly bias us. We stay open-minded in here. We will not only understand, but we will also relish life’s spiritual side.
And thus, in our heart, this case which is going on, actually, if materialism wins the case, then we lose. Because we chase something which gives a little pleasure and is followed by a long tail of misery. We lose out on the opportunity for higher happiness that is available for us.
But if we hear the case objectively, understand its merits and demerits, then we will pursue spiritual happiness in an intelligent and balanced way by which we can relish the lasting fulfillment that we have always been searching for. Thank you. Great.