The Eternal Enemy In The Form Of Lust Gita 3.39

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Chanting so this text 339 it’s giving some further sobering description of what happens so it’s saying the soul is wise it has knowledge however that knowledge is covered it’s covered and when it’s covered Krishna uses several words over here one of the words he says is the three characteristics of this covering we can say of lust it is an eternal enemy the scary term I explain what then it is like a fire it burns like fire but it is insatiable so let’s look at each of these so when there is a covering as I said in the previous one there is lack of self, lack of awareness awareness of ourselves, awareness of our actions and their consequences so when this is there within us actually this is a constant threat so that’s an eternal enemy means that we are always vulnerable we are always under attack and this goes on lifetime after lifetime let’s talk about a species some people will say okay when I’m young the desires are more as I grow older the desires will grow weaker well not necessarily what happens with age is as age increases the capacity to enjoy decreases because the body loses capacity but the desire to enjoy does it really decrease that’s open to question that requires some conscious effort a conscious redirection an intentionally driven renunciation only then that will happen and if one has not tried to regulate those desires then even if in old age a person is not indulging that person will be born in next life and yes maybe those desires don’t manifest in the childhood but as puberty hits then those desires start manifesting so here we are specifically talking about sexual desire but the point is that we are all vulnerable to self destructive desires some people may not have two strong sexual desires but they may have other desires somebody may have a very strong greed for power somebody may have some other very strong craving so this is a very sobering description that it’s an eternal enemy that means lifetime after lifetime it is there and nobody if a person thinks that now I have I have won this war that itself is an indication that they are about to get a real big battering the enemy sometimes the enemy may be down but that does not mean it’s out that means that the enemy may be inactive but when it’s inactive that doesn’t mean it’s dead it may just be regrouping for a bigger war in future bigger attack in the future now it’s like a fire this interesting metaphor of fire is there normally what happens is when we feel the heat of fire we move away from it if say we are close to a fire it’s too hot we feel the heat we move away from it but the fire of desire when that comes we move closer the very object that is creating that fire of desire we move closer to it and we think that oh by enjoying this fire will be pacified but what happens is it’s insatiable the the very indulgence is the fuel for the fire so although indulgence at one level at one level gives relief an alcoholic has a craving to drink say and then they drink they feel some relief but that relief is only temporary what that indulgence also does is that it fuels and fans the craving the fire of desire so that it becomes bigger and it returns bigger and the next time the craving will be felt even more so in that sense this is not especially the desire has gone beyond boundaries it’s not that it can be satisfied by indulgence indulgence will only make it worse and worse and worse so the now what is the way to deal with it Krishna will start talking about that from the next verse but the first principle which Krishna is emphasizing here is to we can never win a war if we are not even aware that we are in a war and not just in a war but in a deadly war if we are unaware that we are in a war so Krishna is drawing out that we are in a war so how to win before that it’s a serious war and be aware that we are in the war that’s the focus of this section is healing which happens through this is the process of purification that is what uncovers the soul so and then that’s the stage the purified soul or pure soul is there so I’ll summarize we discussed two verses today the 38th verse was describing the degrees of covering the three metaphors to indicate three species that are covered and the idea was that this is an enemy of the world means every single species everybody is covered there are three species humans, animals and birds and trees and what is the craving also leads to covering of our self-awareness covering of our awareness basically then the 39th verse it covers our knowledge that inner enemy itself its characteristics are described that it is eternal that means it’s not going to simply let us go with age will not lead to us change of body will not lead to the solution change of time alone will not lead to the solution it’s constantly going to be there so it’s a grim war that we are a part of then it’s like a fire but it’s a counterintuitive fire where we move closer to the source of the fire rather than away from it and then it is insatiable so indulgence it makes things it makes may feel better in the short run but it makes things worse in the long run it’s a very activity of indulging it becomes a fuel which leads to the craving being much more in the future thank you very much Hare Krishna