What is a healthy attitude towards guilt induced after sense indulgence?

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Transcript

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so sometimes if we indulge in sense pleasure or if we engage in sense pleasure then sometimes if we tell devotees devotees make us feel guilty about it and then we are more conscious of guilt and of the negativity of what we have done and less conscious of Krishna yes actually there is often misdirected focus in bhakti instead of focusing on connecting with Krishna you can focus on disconnecting with this world or disconnecting to worldly pleasures it is Krishna consciousness or bhakti bhakti is not the fruit of renunciation renunciation is the fruit of bhakti when we practice bhakti then renunciation actually comes vasudeva bhagwati bhakti yoga prayogita janayaty asho vairagyam jnanam chaidahaitukam so we need to never become too renunciation centered or detachment centered just focus on Krishna and connecting with Krishna yes it is true that worldly pleasures can disconnect us from Krishna and that’s why we need to resist worldly pleasures but the mind is so deceptive what the mind does is first it makes us do this do this do this enjoy this enjoy this and then after we enjoy then the mind you fool why did you do that you have heard so much when will you learn you are hopeless then what is happening initially when the desire was impelling us we are mind conscious and afterwards when the indulgence is over also again we are conscious of the mind only you fool why did you do that so if we consider our worldly desires if we consider say this is the timeline of our consciousness within that our worldly desires shoot up periodically like electricity there are spikes that come up surges suddenly so like that sometimes our worldly desires shoot up they shoot up for some time and then they come back to normal again they shoot up so now these surges of increased desire when they happen at that time it is very difficult to resist them at that time we may even indulge in something but the important thing is not what we do with those desired surge up the important thing is what we do in between because the desire that surge up that is for such a time if in between those surges of desire we are connecting with Krishna we are absorbing ourselves in Krishna then we are becoming purified and as we become purified in the future when the next surge will come then we will be better equipped to resist it we may not be able to resist next time also but in between when we are connecting with Krishna that is when we are getting purified but unfortunately what happens is that when the surge comes before that mind is beating do this, do this, do this so we are mind conscious and then after the surge we indulge and then after again the mind is beating you fool why did you do that, why did you do that, why did you do that again the mind is beating and by the time the mind is beating stops and the mind changes role come on do it, do it, enjoy so basically throughout it all we are just conscious of the mind and not conscious of Krishna so the mind it plays a dangerous double role first it makes us like somebody you know I don’t want to do something wrong but somebody says come we are going to rob a bank we will get a lot of money and then a person pulls us along takes us to rob a bank and then after they rob the bank that person becomes the judge you fool why did you rob the bank, now you will be punished so first it makes the mind makes us do wrong and then it beats us up for doing wrong now yes if you have done something wrong remorse is important it is it is important to feel remorse when we do wrong but the remorse, the focus of it should be positive should be to connect with Krishna consider it as five fingers the soul is here some wrong doing is here and Krishna is here so our guilt can I have some warm water so our remorse should, our guilt should come between us and the wrong doing but there is guilt and there is pseudo guilt pseudo guilt means it appears like guilt but actually it is the mind beating us up this comes between us and Krishna this pseudo guilt what it does is that it makes us you know you are so fallen you have fallen down so many times you will never rise just stay fallen now so this when that comes in pseudo guilt it actually comes between us and Krishna it prevents us from serving Krishna when we can see based on our conditionings sometimes the desires may come up the conditioning may come up that we will not be able to serve Krishna at that time that kind of times may come at this as per our conditioning but there are times when we can serve Krishna when we can practice bhakti but the mind’s guilt which is actually pseudo guilt pseudo guilt prevents us from practicing bhakti even when we can so in the 11th canto Krishna says in the Uddhava Gita that even if one is not able to control the senses one should not become discouraged one should still keep practicing bhakti as much as one can and gradually one will become purified so we should know that we are meant to be always hopeful devotees of Krishna we shouldn’t become frustrated devotees of renunciation I wanted to renounce and I can’t and I am frustrated because of that we want to be pure we want to be detached but our focus is not detachment our focus is connection with Krishna also we have one more thing we have to understand is that different people may have different capacities for renunciation at one level renunciation is something which is a sign of spiritual advancement somebody has renounced their spiritual advancement but there is only one perspective Krishna has six opulences wealth, fame, beauty, knowledge, strength fame and renunciation so like that now we understand if somebody is very good looking somebody is very wealthy somebody is very strong this is the result of their past good karma so similarly renunciation is also a result of past good karma some people by past good karma may be more renounced than others just as wealth is a facility it’s very useful if I have wealth I can use sir Krishna much better it’s a resource if I have knowledge if I have intelligence I can serve Krishna better similarly, renunciation is also a resource, it’s an opulence if I have renunciation I can serve Krishna better with that renunciation but the presence of renunciation itself in and of itself is not necessarily a sign of just as the presence of wealth or beauty or strength that is not necessarily a sign of bhakti some people may just be naturally renounced one of the greatest paradoxes of say the 20th century was that Hitler was a vegetarian he killed he was responsible for killing 12 million animals but he did not 12 million Jews he killed but you don’t kill an animal to eat so it’s like some people the renunciation that is there some people may have it more, some people may have it less now if somebody else is renounced we should not think, you are not spiritually advanced you got renunciation by your past karma we shouldn’t dismiss other people’s renunciation if somebody is renounced, we respect them for their renunciation but as far as we ourselves are concerned we should simply study and practice bhakti and there is the war for devotion and there is the battle against temptation so now the battle against temptation we want to win it so that we can win the war for devotion but the two are not necessarily the same sometimes we may lose the battle against temptation but that makes us feel more dependent on Krishna Krishna needs you that makes us feel more helpless without Krishna then we are actually going closer to Krishna through that so we can focus primarily on connecting with Krishna and whatever happens is to connect with Krishna, gradual connection with Krishna will purify us and once we are purified then we can steadily practice bhakti we can steadily detach from worldly indulgences so we needn’t make detachment from worldly sensual indulgence as the definer of our bhakti the definer of our bhakti is how much we are doing devotional activities and by doing devotional activities gradually the other things will follow in due course does that answer your question? yes my friend