What is wrong with sense gratification?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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Puran teaches about Jihad so we all have senses and they are attracted to sense objects so why is sense gratification considered bad, how does it bind us it’s more than thinking in terms of good or bad we can focus on that which helps us grow and that which constricts our growth we as spiritual beings are meant for lasting happiness and if our consciousness is directed towards the eternal we can get lasting happiness because that is eternal because Krishna is eternal, we as souls are eternal, we can have an eternal connection with him and that will give us lasting happiness now during the journey of our life in this world we will inevitably encounter various material objects and we have to interact with them, whether they be physical objects they be people, we interact with them we form relationships with them that is functionally required now there are certain certain objects certain things in this world they emotionally consume us so sports is not bad sports is just a part of life it has been a part of recreation part of exercise even for millennia it has been there but say today sports is made into a mania because it’s big money involved over there so all the big money is minted when people are manic about sports and then a whole propaganda machinery is there to induce mania among people and then people just lose a sense of perspective so when they lose a sense of perspective they get emotionally consumed by it similarly with respect to sense gratification there is the possibility of getting emotionally consumed by by the dreams and schemes of the mind for getting sensual pleasures so I often use the acronym T.I.M.E Temporary Illusory Miserable Enjoyment T.I.M.E, what that means is that often we think that the pleasure basically say suppose you go for a program where there is a feast and then there is a rumor that there is going to be gulab jamuns over there and then we go with the anticipation, oh I want gulab jamun I want gulab jamun now there are three possibilities first is the rumor is not true, so we go there to get a particular object but it’s not there only so then we are disappointed second possibility is that we go there we get that object but it’s not cooked well the sugar is not enough the texture is not good and it’s a disappointment so we get it but it doesn’t turn out to be good enough third is that we get it and it’s great but we take one, we take two, we take three we take five, we take ten after that when somebody says you also take some our capacity is limited at that time when we say you also take some, when we enjoy the senses, we stop not because we are satisfied we stop because the senses capacity to enjoy is exhausted when people enjoy sensual pleasures sex is the most glamorized of all sensual pleasures when people engage in sex, they stop not because they are satisfied they stop simply because the body’s capacity is exhausted the great propaganda in the world today is that if you just get a good enough sense object, then you can enjoy so much the movies and other such media, they often talk about almost like endless erotic enjoyment but the reality is no matter how great the object may be, the body’s capacity to enjoy itself is limited and nothing can extend that capacity so basically with respect to sense gratification we may crave for something we don’t get it, that causes frustration we crave for it, we get it but it doesn’t turn out to be all that great it turns out to be an anticlimax then again we are dissatisfied, we crave it we get it, we enjoy it but afterwards we find it’s limited our body’s capacity to enjoy is limited these are the only three possibilities that are there in sense gratification and none of these lead to lasting satisfaction so at best it is temporary that’s the third possibility, I get it but it’s temporary the second is I get it, it is it is not what it was made out to be so it’s illusory, illusory doesn’t mean it’s illusion, the pleasure is there but it’s illusory in the sense that the magnitude is far less than what I had imagined I’m madly thirsty for water I’m dying for water and then I’m in a desert, I’m desperately thirsty for water and I see a helicopter on top and it is W-A-T-E-R I’m so desperate now, what is going to come out and then the airport interclub lands it lands and then a person comes out in uniform a big can W-A-T-E-R I move forward, come my hands person tilts the whole bottle and one drop comes out that person goes back lands and the helicopter flies one drop, you know all that big show, helicopter landing for one drop, what is this so quite often sense pleasure turns out to be like that the mind builds up fantasies for hours and years and the actual pleasure ends in moments laughs laughs so unfortunately in today’s world when there is stabler relationships, stabler marriages were there so what would happen is people, ok, you do it and then you understand, it’s not all that great and move on to something more in life but today with so much propaganda of sensuality, people think that if I’m getting only one drop there must be something wrong in the way I’m doing it so then we try a different relationship, like people change houses, people change spouses now laughs so we will just try some other relationship try something else, you know among psychologists, among the highest paid psychologists are sexologists I’m doing something wrong, you know, everybody is saying sex pleasure is so much, but I’m not getting it, what is wrong so, now the matter actually even the sexologists are sexually frustrated because nobody can be, the mind’s imagination for sex pleasure is so great and the actual reality is not much so at best it is temporary, it is illusory because it never lasts for long at least it is not of the magnitude that it is made out to be and then it’s miserable, miserable because sometimes you crave so much and it just doesn’t work out or even if a relationship works out, then eventually it’s going to end and then there is again agony, so the point is not that sense gratification is bad, now sense gratification we eat food, if we enjoy food that’s fine it’s not that we are deliberately meant to eat foul tasting food it’s not like that the point is, even sense gratification becomes the driving purpose of life it’s just one part of life the senses will interact with the sense objects and there will be some pleasure over there but when that becomes the driving purpose of life that’s when it distracts us and because the mind when it gets attached to it thinks okay, I didn’t get it this time I’ll get it next time, I’ll get it next time I’ll get it next time, and in this way we just don’t go from one day to another day from one object to another object we also go from one lifetime to another lifetime hoping that in the next life I’ll get pleasure and that’s how the infatuation and sense gratification binds us so from the perspective of spiritual growth if we recognize that we will get lasting satisfaction by our connection with Krishna and by living in this world we have relationships, we have gratification, it’s not that it’s to be completely rejected, but the point is we shouldn’t become so emotionally consumed by it that we let it distract us from our life’s primary purpose does that answer your question? yeah, there is, as I said in the Vedic culture, there is where most people always be married and yes, the important thing is that, again there is no need to, the mind infatuates it too much see, it’s a bodily function it’s like eating is a bodily function now if a person is 24 hours thinking about when am I going to eat food next time well, then they are underutilizing their life so we don’t have to make a big what is a biological function when that becomes a psychological obsession then it becomes a spiritual distraction, it can even lead to a spiritual destruction so it’s a biological function at that level, we do it at that level, we just don’t get infatuated don’t become emotionally consumed by it does that answer your question? thank you very much