Yayati pastime analysis – From indulgence to transcendence

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
I was planning to speak on the Ayati pastime, take some of the verses and discuss some points. The topic I had in mind was the path to transcendence, indulgence or abstinence. We want to all transcend the worldly desires and temptations that we have.
So, one path towards transcendence is through indulgence and Ayati demonstrates that. So most of you probably know briefly the story of Ayati. Ayati was a king.
He indulged a lot in sensual pleasure with his queen and he had another queen and then he indulged for 100 years. But eventually, I won’t go into the details and focus on the principle. The point was that he was cursed because he engaged with the maid servant of his queen and he was cursed, he lost his youth and he begged and he got back the youth, exchanged it from his children, from his son basically.
The whole story sets the background very dramatically. Normally, in this world, the world allures us with promises of sense gratification. But Ayati, we have people sometimes when they grow old, they try to take some pills or some medicines to try to regain their sexual potency so that they can keep enjoying.
Prabhupada says in a lecture that people get glands from monkeys. So, one monkey has to lose his sexuality so that another monkey can irrigate it again. So, he went to the extreme.
This is bad. I mean, as you talked about violence against animals, it’s bad. But where does one person go? A father asked his son to give his youth.
The Bhagavatam doesn’t go into details exactly what was done, was it without surgery physically. But they had mystic powers at those times. But the point is, he went to that extent and then he got the potency to enjoy and he enjoyed.
He enjoyed, enjoyed and afterwards, he realized, I am not happy. And then at one moment, it is described, suddenly he got that realization. And just as a bird, once the example is beautifully given in the Bhagavatam that when a bird is in a nest, bird is a small birdlet, baby bird.
It is growing, growing, growing. When it is a baby bird, it is always in the nest. But when its wings grow, and not only the wings grow, when it realizes that its wings are grown, then it just flaps its wings, rises and flies out of the nest.
So, like that, he gave up his material bondage and he progressed towards renunciation and liberation. So, now, in his case, it seems that he went through indulgence and from indulgence, a lot of indulgence, frustration came and from that renunciation came. And he eventually attained transcendence.
So, the path of transcendence in his case was from indulgence, frustration and then transcendence. In contrast, when we as brahmacharis are practicing, we are using the other extreme, that is not indulgence, but abstinence. And from abstinence, we are trying to go towards transcendence.
So, what is it that actually leads, brings within the soul or keeps within the soul, the conviction that I need to transcend, that I want something higher than what this world is offering me. Some people argue that, actually, unless you experience material life, how will you be, how will you realize this futility? You have to experience material life, you have to renounce it, then your renunciation will be genuine. So, actually speaking, it is not, it is neither indulgence nor abstinence that leads to transcendence.
It is not that by enjoying unlimitedly, we will transcend material desires, nor is it, of course, we can’t enjoy unlimitedly, we are always limited in our enjoyment, but whatever, I could say unrestrictedly in terms of, say, not following any rules, is violating everything and doing whatever one wants. It is not that by indulgence, one will attain transcendence. When one indulges a lot, what happens is that one’s capacity is exhausted, but one’s desire is not exhausted.
It’s like if we eat a lot, stomach is full now, but I still have the desire to eat. Something is delicious, I want to eat it, but because my body is no longer having this capacity, I don’t eat it. Similarly, when people engage in sense gratification, when people have sex, they don’t stop because they are satisfied.
They stop because the body’s capacity is exhausted. So, repeated indulgence, it may lead to frustration, but that frustration is not frustration with the desire, it is frustration with the capacity. There is a difference between the two.
Frustration with the capacity, I can’t enjoy more. It’s not that I don’t want to enjoy more. Although sometimes for temporarily, like we eat a lot of gulab jamuns, we feel enough.
Now, we say enough not because we have lost the desire for gulab jamun. At that time, you know, if I eat too much, my stomach will be upset, we may feel like vomiting. But that is actually all a frustration with our capacity.
The desire itself doesn’t go away. For the desire to go away, or more importantly, for us to turn away from the desire, something higher is required. So, Yayati, even when he renounced, it was not that just that indulgence led to the renunciation.
Now, he was a Arya king. He had heard spiritual wisdom before. But in the passion of youth, when surrounded with facilities for enjoyment, all that knowledge that he had was pushed into the background.
And he got fully into enjoyment. He says, for 100 years I have been enjoying. Continuously I have been enjoying.
Still, there is no pacification. The craving is increasing more and more. And then, of course, he gives the standard example in our scripture that when you put fuel in fire, the fire doesn’t get extinguished, the fire blows up further.
Or similarly, by indulgence, the desire doesn’t go away. It actually blazes forward. Now, there is a so-called spiritual teacher who talked about sambhok to samadhi.
And his idea is that actually enjoy. And when you enjoy, you get frustrated. And then you will rise to something higher.
So, now, this is something which Narada Muni also talks about. But Narada Muni himself does not follow it. In the seventh canto, he is talking about this is also one way, he says.
Now, if you put, if there is fire and you put a huge amount of fuel in it, then it might just become, the fuel, before the fuel can catch fire, the fuel will extinguish the fire. This is hypothetically possible. But practically, how can we know how much fuel is enough? If the fuel turns out to be a little less, and the fire will blaze that much more.
So, in some people, extreme situations, just excessive enjoyment can lead to frustration. But that frustration, there are two different things. It is frustration and there is renunciation.
The two are not the same. Frustration means I cannot get it. Renunciation means I do not want it.
So, frustration comes to everyone in material existence. But the journey from I cannot get it to I do not want it. That is what defines whether one is actually becoming transformed or it is just a temporary down.
So, now, I do not want it. I want something more in life. That understanding will come when we have heard something before.
We have at least some conception that there must be something higher in life. And when we perceive that, there must be something higher. And if we are fortunate enough to connect with the process, which enables us to do something higher.
Now, in the Bhagavatams culture, we see that the kings, in general, they are respectful to the Brahminical culture, they respect the sages. And they understand that the sages are situated at a higher level than what we are. So, they may feel that I cannot practice this right now.
I respect the sages, but I cannot be renounced like this. But at least that knowledge is there. There is a higher part.
And so, it was not his indulgence that led to his transcendence. It was the indulgence and the frustration that came from that. That time, the past knowledge that he had heard, being in the culture, that awakened within him.
And that awakening was what led to his renunciation and eventually his perfection. That is why the path of indulgence is not that it is not recommended. The path of unrestricted indulgence is definitely not recommended because it can cause tremendous entanglement.
The Grahasthashram is not exactly a path of indulgence, although certain indulgence is allowed, is there within it. Even in the Grahasthashram, it is not the indulgence that leads to realization of the emptiness of the pleasure. Yes, you know, all that happens is, if we experience sense gratification, and then the mind builds a whole huge amount of imagination.
The key thing in resisting temptation is resisting imagination. If we do not imagine about things, then we will find ourselves much, much safer and calmer in our life. I mean, in this world, especially in Australia, from what I have seen, India also is becoming like that more and more.
We cannot avoid perception. We cannot, when Krishna says dhyayato vishayan pumsaha in 2.62, the Gita, he is not saying dhrushyato vishayan pumsaha. He is not talking about seeing sense objects.
We cannot avoid seeing sense objects. Because sense objects are there in this world. And interestingly, in the third chapter, when Krishna talks about the lust, Arjuna asks, what makes me do sinful activities? And Krishna says it is lust.
There, in 3.39, 40, 41, Krishna talks about the location of lust. And in 3.40, he says, lust is situated in? Does anyone know where? Yeah. Yes.
He is not saying it is situated in sense object. So, if we see a attractive sense object, that sense object is the trigger of lust. It is not the cause of lust.
What is the difference between a trigger and a cause? When I press a trigger, only if I put the bullet inside, will it shoot? Even if I press a trigger, there is no bullet inside, there will be no attack happening. Nothing will be shot out of the gun. So, the trigger is in that sense different from the cause.
The cause of the wound is not the pulling of the trigger. The cause of the wound is the bullet that goes out of it. So, the sense objects, our perception of the sense objects, that is the trigger, that is not the cause.
The cause is the lust present in our own senses, mind and intelligence. Now, sometimes you may see that, say, some young women, they are mothers, but still they try to retain, although they have, see women have the maternal side and the sexual side. And the normal evolution of nature is that the sexual side of women is meant so that they can attract a partner.
And then as they get a partner, it is a natural need, human beings are social animals and women especially are more social. So, nature has given them a sexual appeal by which they can attract a partner. And in the course of nature, at least in spiritual cultures, once a woman has got a partner, then her focus should shift from sexual to the maternal.
Then the woman, she becomes a mother. But in today’s over-sexualized culture, women want to have sexual appeal all the time. So, say, there is a young mother, she has a baby in her arms, there is a small child in her arms, she still, she wears a kind of dress or has a kind of manners, there is sexual appeal.
You will see that the baby is touching her body, touching her private parts, but the baby does not feel agitated. We might see and we may feel agitated. So, what does it mean? It is not that in that body lust is present.
In that baby, there is no lust present in the senses, the mind or intelligence. And that is why even though there is physical contact, there is no sexual agitation. But when the lust is present, even without physical contact, there is agitation.
So, this understanding that the sense objects are not the source of lust, that is very important for two things. One is to avoid blaming others. And second is to know what we can do in our present circumstances.
It is best if we had a safe culture, where we are not exposed to agitating sense objects. But most of the time, we do not have that kind of culture. So, now, we cannot avoid perception.
But what we can avoid is when Krishna says contemplation. Contemplation involves what Ramamacharya says our inner life has thinking, feeling and willing. So, when we see something, there will be some thought about it.
But after that thought, it grows into feeling. And feeling essentially involves imagination. So, when there is imagination, then the trouble becomes.
The thought comes, okay, thought will be there. But once you start imagining, then basically, I write this Gita Delhi articles, you mentioned that, who mentioned that? In one sentence, I tried to summarize things. So, I wrote one article title was something like, yeah, sexual pleasure is not imaginary, but it is a product of imagination.
What it means is, yes, there is when the senses come in contact with sense objects, there is some pleasure. But the magnitude of the pleasure that we imagine, that we think that is so much pleasure, that is a product of imagination. There is a little pleasure over there, but the culture externally and the mind internally, they trigger our imagination.
And so, our conception of that pleasure, oh, there is so much pleasure there. So much pleasure that I can give up anything for it. How can I live without that pleasure? That is what people think.
So, now, if we can avoid the imagination, then we can avoid much agitation and eventually we can avoid fall or all the problems we can avoid if we can avoid imagination. So, if we talk about, say, we are talking about the path of indulgence here. So, when a man gets married, and the man and the woman unite, then after some time, when the imagination confronts with the reality, at that time they realize, oh, I imagine so much, the pleasure is over just in a few minutes.
No matter what we do, the body’s capacity is limited. So, then there is frustration. But there is no renunciation.
Why? Because the mind starts imagining that with someone else the pleasure will be better. So, when there is a dharmic society, say, if a man and woman understand that marriage is for life, then okay, I had my quota of enjoyment. And now I understood that there is not much enjoyment here.
So, now, let me focus on something higher. But when there is no emphasis on the righteousness, on the sanctity of marriage, and when extra-marital, pre-marital things are a common place, so at that time, our imagination never gets any rest. So, okay, if I did not enjoy with this person, maybe with this person I will enjoy, maybe with this person I will enjoy, maybe this way I will enjoy, maybe that way I will enjoy.
And in this way, when our imagination keeps firing more and more, then the temptation just goes on and on and on. So, we cannot avoid perception, but we can avoid imagination. Now, how to avoid, I will come to a little later, but one more point to explain this in another way.
Most of us know the chariot body example. So, in that, the horses are like other senses. Now, when a horse is supposed to go on this road, and it just starts seeing some fruit or vegetable off the road, and it starts going in that direction.
So, if the chariot here is alert, it immediately pulls it back and holds it. The horse will come back on track and stay on track. But once the horse starts running in that direction, and the horse gains momentum, then the chariot will require much more work to control the horse.
So, that horse gaining momentum is like our imagination taking off. The more our imagination takes off, and the more effort is required to control it. So, if we can avoid the imagination, then that means, before the horse is getting momentum, that time only we pull the horse back.
So, if we see, in the first case, what is required is the charioteer s alertness. The charioteer is just alert, as soon as the horse starts going off track, bring it back. In the second case, the charioteer requires a lot of strength.
So, actually, similarly, to some extent, brahmacharya life requires a lot of willpower, a lot of inner strength, but that willpower is required more when we let the inner agitation take hold. If we are alert, then the inner battle itself becomes much lesser. If we are alert to not let the senses go off, then we do not have so much trouble.
So, it is like being alert is difficult, we have to be vigilant, where are my thoughts going, what am I, what am I desiring, what am I imagining, that alertness is difficult. But if we can do that, it is difficult, but Jaya Devdutt Maharaj says that you have to choose between an easy difficulty and a difficult difficulty. So, there is nothing there.
It is difficult all the time. But being alert and trying to not let the imagination take off, that is an easy difficulty. Once the imagination takes off, after that to stop, that is a difficult difficulty.
Even that can be done. Actually, even if the chariot goes off the road and the chariot overturns, even after that also the person can get off the chariot, pick up the chariot and bring it back on track. But the amount of effort, amount of trouble, amount of time, it is all huge.
So, like that, we can, no matter how far the imagination goes and even if the imagination leads to indulgence, you know, just come back on the path to Krishna. But the amount of time, trouble and effort, that becomes much, much more. Now, that means even in the case of, even in a person who is indulging, so, at one point, one gets the conviction, Yaya Devdutt Maharaj got the conviction that there is no happiness here.
Now, when he got that conviction, that does not mean that the mind will stop imagining. It is that we stop entertaining the mind. There are two different things here.
This is actually, there is this change of desires and there is change of values. So, if we start thinking of our purity in terms of change of desires, we all live in a contaminated world, we have contaminated minds. So, undesirable desires are inevitably going to come.
Even if you consider the famous words of Yamunacharya, where he says, when sex desire comes in my mind, I spit at the thought. So, now, there also it is significant. He is a great saint.
He is saying that sex desire comes in my mind. So, now, that means even for a saint, a desire can come. But for most people, when the desire comes, their mouth starts watering.
In this case, what is happening? His lips are curling in distaste. So, there is change of desires and there is change of values. So, change of desires is very difficult in the sense that if we expect that to be a pure brahmachari means I should never have any wrong desires.
That will never happen, practically never happen. But what we should see is, have my values changed? That means, when the desire comes, what is my response? If earlier I may welcome the desire, yes, this is the way I can enjoy. But now I understand this is the way I will get entangled, this is the way I will become miserable.
So, let me stay away from this. So, the change of value if we focus on, that is something which is achievable. In our spiritual life, if we think of purity or perfection in utopian terms, utopian means unrealistic, idealistic terms, then we will always be discouraged.
I am so fallen, I am so impure, I am so sinful. At one level, it is good to feel fallen. But our focus should not be I am so fallen, our focus should be on Krishna can lift me up.
Self-pity is not humility, as they say. That means, if I am very self-centered, oh, I am like this, I am like that, that is not humility. The whole essence of humility is that our focus is not on ourselves, it is on Krishna.
So, yes, we are fallen, but we do not have to dwell too much on that, whether I am fallen or not fallen. Important thing is I have to serve Krishna. And if we can avoid imagination, we will be able to stay onwards very steadily.
And that means, the avoidance of imagination will happen when our values have changed. So, the trigger for imagination will keep coming. From externally, we may see some things or internally also some memories may arise from the past.
But if we do not, if we, this is not something which I want to do. If we, if the values have changed, so that means, earlier, if temptation had come, we would give a red carpet welcome. Now, when temptation comes, show a red flag.
A red flag now. Oh, I do not want this here. So, danger here.
So, if our values have changed, then that itself will protect us. We do not have to expect that the desire should never come. That will not happen.
And for our values to change, in one sense that all of us have become brahmacharis, the values have changed. But the mind is very fickle. We need repeated reminders so that our values, if you see in that sequence, Krishna says, buddhi nashat pranashyati.
When the intelligence falls, we fall. So, as long as our intelligence is strong, that means we understand this is not desirable. And therefore, I should not do this.
But when the intelligence falls and that means our values themselves have changed, or at least we have ended our values and we fall away. So, how do we avoid imagining? There are several things there. But I will talk about two main things.
I talk about triggers. Triggers means external stimuli that provoke us. So, we all need to be aware of what our triggers are.
So, yes, in general, certain images, certain sites may agitate us. But within that also, all of us will have our own individual weaknesses. And all of us will have our individual immunities.
No one is completely immune from maya. But some things may not affect us. Say, for example, somebody has never eaten meat.
And seeing meat is never going to agitate that person. Somebody has never drunk, there is no attraction to alcohol. So, if we know that certain things are triggers for us, if I go in this situation, or if I do like this, if I go like this, that is a trigger for me, then it is not necessary that we can or we should entirely avoid the trigger.
That may not always be practical. But at least that awareness, this is a situation of danger for me. It is not just a blanket statement.
Yes, we could say association of opposite sex is always dangerous. But within that, in certain specific circumstances, what is a trigger for me? If we are aware of that, so if you see there is, you could call it, I analyze this 2.6263 in three levels, there is a safe zone, there is a danger zone, and there is a fall zone. So, most of the time, we should be living in the safe zone.
Safe zone is not just a physical zone, it is a zone of consciousness. That means, that where overall, we are not agitated, there is always some background agitation, but it is nothing in the foreground. Overall, we are focused, we are purposeful.
And many of the times, we may be happy also. So, quite often, our consciousness should be in the safe zone. And usually a brahmacharya ashram also protects us from temptation, so that we will be in safe zone.
But the zone is, there is a physical aspect to it also. So, we come back to the temple, this is a safe place. But the physical is not alone, it is a matter of consciousness.
Now, then there is a temptation zone, or we could call it agitation zone, where we feel, now the mind is getting agitated. And then whenever the mind gets agitated, yes, we chant Krishna’s name, we pray to Krishna, we read scripture. So, I will come to that part later.
But we can observe for ourselves, what are the things that take us from the safe zone to the temptation zone. That is what I mean by trigger. What are our triggers means, what takes our consciousness from the safe zone to the temptation zone.
And if we are not guarded, when we enter the temptation zone, then those things, they cause, they trigger our imagination, as the imagination triggers, from the temptation zone, we go to the fall zone. So, now triggers means the things that take our consciousness from the safe zone through the temptation zone to the fall zone. So, by knowing our triggers, we can at least be on guard.
Earlier I said about how if you are alert, then we do not need so much strength, we can get the horse back quickly. So, going back to the chariot metaphor once again, if we have to go from here to here, and we know along the way, there is a fruit garden and the horse always gets attracted over there. So, then the chariot here, from before only when the horse is going in that direction, just pull the chariot, pull the reins tightly, so that do not let the horse see only in that direction.
So, like that alertness, that alertness can be more when we know this is a danger zone. So, triggers, if we are aware, then we can avoid getting triggered. And the other thing is what is called a stopper.
A stopper means that something, when a trigger pulls us, something that stops us from getting pulled. The whole trick of Maya is that Maya attacks and it pulls us down even before we understand what is happening. There are two ways in which we may fall.
One is where our intelligence itself is conquered, and then we plan, I will go here, I will do this and I will enjoy, whatever it is. The second is just the spur of the moment comes and pulls us down. Either way, a stopper means that between us and a sense object, we create certain obstacles.
So, by this, I will give an example from de-addiction to illustrate this, that most alcoholics are told that if they want to give up alcohol, the first thing that they have to do is avoid triggers. That means, avoid associating with alcoholics. That is the usual trigger for alcohol.
Avoid associating with alcoholics. If they are friends, you can meet them, but do not meet them and they are taking alcohol. You can meet them in your office, you can meet them at other places.
So, they avoid the triggers. But the other thing is a stopper. Stopper means that do not keep alcohol in ready access.
So, if the alcohol is ready there in the house, then it is impossible to resist it. So, stopper could mean something as simple as not keeping things easily available. Or nowadays, a big problem is with internet available everywhere and people, everybody has smartphones.
So, porn is a big problem for everyone. So, a stopper could be restricting access to the net, having some web filter, which allows access only to certain site or does not allow access to certain sites. And that itself, it is not a sure shot solution, but it is a protection.
Because once the desire comes and we start going towards the desire, we start indulging in the desire, if just sufficient time passes, our intelligence awakens. Hey, I should not be doing this. But if the object is immediately available for us for indulging, then even before the intelligence awakens, we are already indulging it.
So, the stopper is something, that is why Nyshamapuram told me, when you go for distribution, you always go in pair of two. That is very good. So, the second partner acts like a stopper.
Before we can go in some wrong direction, we are there to protect each other. The stopper is good. And we all can find our own triggers and create our own stoppers.
There is the whole Brahmachari culture, which itself provides stoppers for us in a significant way. But still within our own life, if you observe, what are my triggers? And how can I put a stopper for that? That will help us a lot. And we can find out how we can spiritualize our imagination.
That means, Prabhupada writes in a parpot, not in a parpot, in a lecture he says, he gives the example of how the Vaishnavas meditate. You can imagine, Prabhupada says that there is a throne in my heart and Radha Krishna are sitting on that throne. And then Prabhupada says this is not imagination.
This is reality. This is reality. Now, what does it mean? Actually, we do not want imagination in a sahajiyaic sense.
Sahajiyaic sense means it is premature and inappropriate imitation of advanced emotions. So, once one woman came to Prabhupada when he was in Jagannath Puri and says, Swamiji, I went to the Jagannath temple. And as I was entering the Jagannath temple, my saree started flying away.
So, Jagannath was pulling away my saree. Prabhupada, this is nonsense. People have crazy ideas.
So, the point is that we do not want sahajiyaic imagination, but imagining about our service to Krishna. That is actually use of our imagination in devotional service. Prabhupada said, you know, I can see there are temples, there are devotees, only time is separating us.
What is this? Prabhupada is using his imagination in devotional service. The more appropriate word here is not imagination, it is vision. That is, Prabhupada had a vision that this is what I am going to do.
For Prabhupada, it was not so much of what I am going to do. He felt it is already done by Krishna’s will. I just have to be an instrument and it will manifest.
So, it may not be the same in our case, but we can also have a vision in whatever we are doing. So, for example, say if you are reading Bhagavatam, in small, small things, if we have that vision, say for example, if all of you read one hour every day and you find in one hour you can read 20 pages or 15 pages say, then say you are reading a particular canto of Bhagavatam and it has 300 pages. Then you just set a plan.
If I read 15 pages every day, that means in 20 days, I will complete this full canto. Just set a goal. And then you just make a small calendar or paper and I will read 15 pages a day, 28 pages a day, 33, 43 pages a day.
Then you know, that itself will give us a sense of direct sense of excitement and a sense of achievement. Because we often do it in many things. If you have book description target, we have met this target, we have met this target.
But this is something which is set officially for all of us. Individually also we can set targets. So, if we can spiritualize our imagination in the sense that the imagination cannot be permanently suppressed.
But if you can spiritualize the imagination, then there is that redirection of the imagination. And to a large extent, I will conclude with this point, that absorption, we all need to, if we can be absorbed in Krishna, then we will be safe. So, Krishna talks about, in the qualities of a Brahmana, he talks about shama dama.
So, when he talks about shama, shama actually means peacefulness, peace of mind or mind control. And dama is sense control. So, the relationship between shama and dama is quite revealing.
Suppose, you know, we have a precious jewel in this room. And we know outside this room, there is a thief. The best thing to do is lock the door, bolt the door and never open the door.
Then the jewel will stay protected with us. But if somehow we leave the door open and push the thief barges in, then what do we do? You know, he says, oh, come and take the thief, take the jewel now. We fight back, we try to push the thief out, we close the door, we try to bolt it.
So, keeping the door bolted is like shama. It is mind control. We keep the mind controlled.
Therefore, the thief of temptation does not get scope to enter into our consciousness only. But when it does enter, then dama, dama means sense control. That means the mind is agitated, but I would not indulge physically.
So, now, sometimes we have to do dama. But if we could do shama, that is the best. That is the same point now going back.
If you avoid imagination. So, thief coming in is like our imagination getting triggered. If you can avoid imagination, that is the best.
So, now, keeping the door locked does not just mean saying no, no, no, no to maya. It means more saying yes, yes, yes, yes to Krishna. If we can be absorbed in Krishna, then automatically the door is locked.
So, absorption is basically a matter of connection. Absorption is essentially a matter of connection. So, when we are absorbed in the class, what does that mean? It is like we are hearing a point and then immediately this point is connected to this point like this, this point is connected to this point like this.
And sometimes when we are reading books, we are in class in a field, I have heard all this so many times. It is all the same things being repeated. Now, when that happens, this is a typical, this reaction is the prelude for distraction.
I have heard this so many times. As soon as I start thinking like this is the same old thing, then we know, we can know that now I am going from absorption to a distraction. So, what to do is, now, it is always possible the speaker will be speaking the same points again and again.
What we could do at that time is turn the question around. See, I have heard it many times. When was the last time that I heard it? And what was the context at that time? This example at that time was given in that context.
Now, the example is given in this context. It is like different emphasis here, different emphasis here. So, what we could do is, if we can, whatever we are doing, if we can establish connections, if we can establish connections with Krishna, with our spiritual master, with the things that we love, with the devotees whom we admire, then we will become naturally absorbed.
If I have to do some service and many devotees they want to chant, at that time sometimes they keep a picture of their initiation in front of them by chanting. So, the idea is that chanting can become mechanical, but I connect this. Yes, I respect my spiritual master and I have taken a vow to serve my spiritual master and right now what I am doing is my service to the spiritual master.
So, that connection if we establish. So, what I am doing right now, if I connect that with what inspires me, if I connect that with what is important for me, then the more we can bring about connection, the more there will be absorption. And as we advance, this capacity for bringing about connections becomes more and more.
We see Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, he sees just a small forest somewhere in Bengal and he thinks of Vrindavan. So, what is happening? Connection, immediate connection. So, the more we can connect with Krishna, whatever we are doing, the more we will be absorbed in, then we will stay safe.
Not just safe, we will be joyful actually. So, I will summarize. I spoke about the Yayati pastime, how he went from indulgence to transcendence and we have chosen the opposite path of abstinence to transcendence.
But what is critical in going towards transcendence is neither indulgence nor abstinence. It is the realization. It is that illumination that happens within, that conviction that there is something more, that is what I want in my life.
That is what takes a person away. Then we discussed about the path of indulgence. By indulgence, what happens is our capacity gets exhausted and so we get frustrated.
But our desire does not get exhausted. The desire remains and that is why that desire will express itself in some other way. And the whole process of sense gratification, sense pleasure is not imaginary, but it is a product of imagination.
So, when we start imagining, then we get entangled. And we discussed about how sense objects, they are not the cause of our problems. They are not the cause of lust.
They are the trigger for lust. The cause is what is present in our own consciousness, in our mind, intelligence and ego. And if we can avoid imagination, then we can save a lot of trouble.
Just like if a charioteer can avoid the horse for accelerating in the wrong direction, the chariot can move on smoothly and straight ahead. And we discussed about the analysis, there is a safe zone, there is a temptation zone and there is a fall zone. The triggers are the things which take us from the safe zone to the temptation and fall zone.
So, we have to find out what are our triggers and prepare stoppers to prevent us from getting troubled by those triggers. That is stopper is simply something which comes between us and a sense object, some obstacle, which in the process of removing that, during that time, hopefully, we will get our intelligence back and we will give up the desire or control the desire. And for checking the imagination or for controlling the imagination, we talked about how we can redirect the imagination towards spiritually.
So, we can envision doing services for Krishna. If I do this, this, this and this, so much wonderful things can happen in the future. And so, Yayati, he got renunciation, not just because of the indulgence, he got that renunciation, because of what he had heard in the past, that became evident to him at a particular time.
So, it is the hearing that is primarily important. It is having the knowledge in the background that there is something higher. And then we explain this is lower, let me give it up.
Sometime we get that conviction. So, that knowledge, hearing is important. And in hearing, if there is absorption, absorption is like keeping the door clocked so that the thief can’t come in.
The key to absorption is connection. The more we connect what we are doing with that which is inspiring or important for us, the more we can get absorbed in it. And while for exalted devotee like Shatrani Mahaprabhu, the absorption in Krishna is spontaneous.
For us, it may require, it may have to be conscientious, we strive to get ourselves absorbed in Krishna. And by that absorption, we can be protected. Any questions or comments? So, if we spiritualize our imagination, then whatever we aspire to do for Krishna, will that become true? Yeah.
For us, as sadhakas, we can see this, if you see prayer as it is thought of in ordinary life. Prayer is something which I can’t do on my own. I go to God and ask him for it.
So, like I saw an advertisement, if you don’t have insurance, if you don’t have an insurance from us, it is time to say your prayers. So, their idea is, prayer is basically a tool to get God to do what you can’t do. But in the Bhagavatam when Prahlad Maharaj defines prayer, it is a limb of devotional service.
And just as hearing does not have any direct objective in terms of getting God to do something, chanting does not have any direct objective to get God to do something. If you see Kunti Maharani, her prayers are there in the first canto, 8th chapter. The prayers end with, she doesn’t ask anything.
She simply asks, let my consciousness flow towards you. In fact, initially, her prayers start with the intention that she doesn’t want Krishna to go. She says, Krishna, we have so many enemies still there.
But then she starts thinking of the Yadus and how they are deprived of Krishna’s association. And then she feels, no, how can I continue to deprive them? And she therefore says, Krishna, wherever you go, let my consciousness go with you. So, essentially, many times in the prayers, there is no request at the end.
In Brahma Samhita, it says, Govindam Adi Purusham Tamaham Bajami. There is no request. So, similarly, when we talk about spiritualizing our imagination, we can see that itself as a way of absorbing ourselves in Krishna.
Whether it is fulfilled or not, that doesn’t matter. There are many factors that are involved. You can say, Prabhupada, it is not that all his desires are fulfilled.
Prabhupada could not complete the Bhagavatam. Prabhupada was not there when the new temple was inaugurated. It was his fond desire.
But that doesn’t matter. So, what we focus on is, we want to offer our external activities to Krishna and we want to offer our inner life also to Krishna. So, it is true as a psychological principle that if our internal and our external is synchronized, then the probability of success is more.
Psychologists say that, that if a person, say, what happens is many times, there are two players playing tennis and one player is a big champion, world number one or another is just a new rookie. Many times, the new player is so overpowered by having to play such a big player that the player cannot play up to one’s potential also. So, if we are internally defeated, then we will automatically be externally defeated.
If we are internally determined to fight, then there is a chance that we will win. So, the point here is that Krishna talks about the five factors of action. So, he says, one of the factors over there is cheshta.
Cheshta means endeavor. So, our endeavor, when we, for an action to produce its result, one of the things is endeavor. Endeavor also includes our inner commitment to that thing, inner determination to achieve it.
That is not the only factor. So, it is not that just by imagining something will happen, that will automatically happen. But our imagination can contribute to it happening.
Our imagination can accelerate that happening. Our imagination may not alone make that happen. But basically for us, we can see that not so much thinking about Krishna or imagining about doing things for Krishna, envisioning, the word imagination has a really negative connotation in bhakti usually.
So, we could use envisioning. So, envisioning doing things for Krishna, we can see it more as a way of offering our mind and intelligence to Krishna, rather than thinking in terms of whether I will be able to do this or not. Sometimes they may work out, sometimes they may not work out.
You know, it is said that plans may not work, but planning works. That is, plans means if I say, I’ll do this in the morning, I’ll do this in the afternoon, I’ll do this in the evening. You know, life is so unpredictable, everything we cannot make like that.
But if at least we have done some planning, you know, if some emergency comes up, then we know, okay, I have to do this, but then I have to come back and do it. If there is no planning at all, then one thing goes wrong, then after that we get so discouraged that we let a dozen more things go wrong also. So, we do not have to go between the extremes of, see, to make plans work means everything has to work the way I want.
And to not plan at all means to think that nothing is ever going to work the way I want. Real life is somewhere in between. So, if we are done planning overall, then I know, even if this doesn’t work, okay, I can do this, I can do this, I can do this.
So, that way, planning is also in one sense, it’s an act of imagining. It’s more of an intellectual imagining, okay, after I complete, this will take me about three days, this will take me about two hours, this will take me about one month. There is some amount of imagination involved, but it’s a regulated, directed, well thought out imagination.
So, Prabhupada did say that for sharing Krishna consciousness, what is important is organization and intelligence. So, organization, we need to organize, not just in terms of organizational structure, but even in our own lives. The more organized we are, the more effective we will be.
Does that address your question? Thank you. Yes. I have a few questions.
In the context of self-questioning, it’s not imagining but the products of our imagination. I lost the context in which you mentioned that. So, I am not able to understand this statement.
Okay. Yeah. So, what do we mean by when we say that sense pleasure is not imaginary, but it is a product of imagination? What I meant is that there is real pleasure in sense gratification.
Kalabnath also says that, it’s the same verse, he uses two things. kutra shishya shuddha sukham vrga trishni rupa, kvedam kalevaram asesha rujam viroha, nirvidhyate nathu jano yada peethi vidvan, kamaanilam madhulavai shamayan durapai. So, first he says, vrga trishni rupa, it is like a mirage.
But then after that, he also says that it is madhulavai. It is like a drop of honey. So, in a mirage, there is no water.
A drop of honey means there is some drop. Now, if we consider from another perspective, that there is a, in Bhakti Samudra Sindhu as well as in the Kaushitaki Upanishad, there is a hierarchy of pleasures given. In today’s Bhagavatam Parpada also it is quoted.
That the happiness of bhakti is so millions of times more than Brahman. That hierarchy actually goes down further. The happiness of swarga is thousands of times more than of earth.
The happiness of Brahma Loka is more than that of swarga, like that. So, now, if we have this hierarchy, where the higher happiness is thousand times more or million times more, what that means is, at the bottom also you cannot have zero. If you have zero, then everything becomes zero.
Thousand times or million times or zero will remain zero. There is some pleasure here. But as compared to that, this is very small.
So, in sense gratification, there is pleasure. So, in that sense, it is not imaginary. But what it means is, the product of imagination is, the quantity of pleasure, we think it will be so huge, it will be so wonderful, how can I live without it? So, that is the product of imagination.
So, what we can do is, we can avoid that kind of imagination. If we think, okay, there is a little pleasure over there, it will not be, you know, all the things that people do to get sense gratification, they would not be impelled to do that if they thought that there is just a little pleasure over there. But by the imagination, they start thinking that there is so much pleasure over there.
So, it is like, there is a drop over there, but by imagination, we think it is an ocean over there. So, that is what we need to avoid. Any other questions? Yeah, Bahubhushan.
So, like you often told that it should be focusing on the present, be focusing on what is this and being able to focus on the present and everyone should know that it is just a matter of practice. Okay. Yeah.
So, how can we focus on the moment to moment striving to serve Krishna? It is not that Krishna consciousness is about being present in the present, or it is about being absent in the present. We have both examples. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was sometimes so lost in a trance, that people around him would feel as if he is not there only.
Prabhupada also sometimes would go in an ecstatic trance. So, even being lost, I mean, being absent in the present can also be Krishna consciousness. And of course, if we are directly perceiving Krishna, if we are doing darshan, at that time being present in the present is also Krishna consciousness.
Now, for us, you know, when Krishna is present, we are absent. And when Krishna is absent, we are present. That means, when we are in the temple, our mind is going elsewhere.
And then, when we are other places, that means, if I have time to study, I feel, oh, hey, when I was doing distributing books, I could have spoken like that to this person, you know, maybe I could have done this, maybe I could have said that. And when distributing books, I do not get any time to study, when will I study? So, that is how the mind goes here and there. So, usually, the mind requires some discipline by the intelligence.
And that is why periodically reminding ourselves of the importance of what we are doing, that is important. And in a general sense, we get that reminder by hearing regularly or by studying regularly. But sometimes when we are hearing classes, or we are reading books, there are so many subjects that come up over there.
So, that is why it is good for us to create customized reminders. That means, actually, there is, I have not read this letter, but I have heard it from several devotees. In principle, I find it perfectly reasonable that whatever service we are doing, we can select some time from our reading to read about that service.
So, for example, if I am doing writing, then I can read something, what should Prabhupada said about writing regularly, if you are doing book distribution, now there are so many courses about book distribution. So, take not a major time, but small time at least. So, that we can have quotes from Prabhupada, we can have quotes from, we can have some points we have heard from classes, we can, some inspiring realizations we have got.
So, if we create such customized reminders of the importance of what we are doing, it gives us the intellectual impetus to control the mind. The mind is going to go here and there. Krishna says in 6.26 that wherever and whenever the mind wanders, bring it back under control.
What this means is that Krishna is not telling us that the mind will stop wandering. He is saying bring it back under control. And when will we have the impetus to bring it under control? When we have this intelligence alert.
It is going, I have to bring it back. So, for that, where it is right now, its importance has to be reminded for us. And if we do that, prepare customized reminders.
So, for example, if you are doing japa, the mind is wandering too much. If we have some small diary where we have some quotes written about how important chanting is, take half a minute, 30 seconds, just read one quote and then again close the eyes and chant. That gives some strength for us to resist the mind.
So, like that, we can create reminders for ourselves. Does that address your question? Thank you. I was briefly just looking through your Atimar’s pastimes.
This is something I had when I first read about Kardama Muni and his devotees as well. That such exalted devotees, they are actually devotees of Lord Krishna and they have that past, at least for the Atimar’s case, but even for Kardama Muni, he actually saw Krishna so much so that Krishna said that one drop of jaya that they can bring to each other. How is it that these devotees, in part of what it mentions, they enjoy material opulence and enjoyment, but at the same time they are able to worship Hari without any motivation? Because there is a particular section where it says he enjoyed all material facilities and he also worshipped Hari without any motivation.
How is it possible? So, how do great sages like Kardama Muni say that they enjoy material opulence and still they are serving the Lord without motivation? Hmm. Sometimes we have an oversimplified conception of the separation between the material and the spiritual. We think everything material is bad and everything spiritual is good.
But things are not so simple. If you see, Krishna tells Arjuna in 2.13, you are not the body or the soul. And yet right in the next verse, 2.14, twice he refers to Arjuna using his bodily connections.
So, just now Krishna has told you are not the body and why is he referring to bodily connections? So, the bodily connections, we can’t deny them. Now, we may say philosophically I am not the body, but practically we cannot just wish away our body. We have to take care of our body and we have to recognize that, okay, my body is a particular way.
I have to mold myself in that way and accordingly I can serve Krishna. So, the material is not just to be rejected or denigrated. Within the material also there is, we could put it as pro-spiritual, non-spiritual, anti-spiritual.
Roughly it can correlate with sattva-guna, rajo-guna, tamoguna. And within the material, that which is pro-spiritual can and should be used in Krishna’s service. So, for example, Prabhupada explains in the 2.14 purport that these two designations remind Arjuna that he belongs to a great dynasty.
And belonging to a great dynasty brings great responsibility with it. And therefore, he should act in a dharmic way. That means he should act in the knowledge of atma.
So, now dharma, artha, kama, moksha. These four are Vedic purusharthas. And they are in no way sinful.
It is a pious and virtuous way of life. From the perspective of prema, they are very small. But sometimes, if we jump to the too exalted perspective too prematurely, then we may misunderstand things.
So, for example, the Bhagavatam says how a husband who is attached to his wife and who is busy earning a living and taking care of children, is a person, is a condemned person. Not condemned, but Bhagavatam approaches as a person, as an attached householder. And Bhagavatam says, become renounced.
Now, in today’s culture, a big problem in society is that people are so irresponsible that they don’t even take up family responsibility. And for people who are irresponsible, they use spirituality to rationalize their irresponsibility. So, there are children who are not carers and the children are maya.
Children are not maya. So, the thing is that when we talk about rejecting the material for the spiritual, it assumes there that one has already an understanding that the material is also important and one is making the material over important and giving up the spiritual. But in the course of living in this world, you cannot just simply reject the material.
So, for somebody who is a grahastha, at that time artha and kama are parts of one’s life. And there are different devotees who can function in bhakti with different definitions of success. So, for example, if once somebody, once a grahastha devotee asked me that in the morning, how important is it for grahasthas to come for a morning program? So, I give elaborate answer.
Yes, it is nice if you can come. But if the grahastha says that if I come for the morning program, then I cannot do any other service. Because that’s all I can do.
Another grahastha is having a preaching program at home. And grahastha is doing wonderful preaching over there. He says, I will close down the preaching program.
I will come every day for morning program. Is that desirable? Well, I won’t say yes or no directly. Again, we have to see if that grahastha is himself feeling weak and feels inspired by morning program, fine.
But we shouldn’t think that for a grahastha, coming to the temple morning program is the only definition of success. So, there are many devotees who are fabulously wealthy and they went to their spiritual master and said, we are ready to give, you know, we would like to give all this wealth to Krishna. Spiritual master told them, keep the wealth.
Because with the wealth, you have a position in society. And that position will attract people to you. And when people see that somebody with this much, this kind of affluence is still devoted to Krishna and is so devoted to Krishna, in fact, that can also attract a lot of people.
If you see in the Bhagavatam and in the Mahabharata, actually even in the Bhagavatam, whenever kings are described, a huge amount of opulence is described with them. We would wonder, if they are devotees, why do they need such opulence? But the thing is that a king, certain standard is expected of a king. And when people won’t take the king seriously, the king doesn’t have that standard.
And when the king has that standard, and then people see, oh, this is really the king and he is so devoted to God, then people take that seriously. So, sometimes the Bhagavatam does demonstrate a principle that a person who becomes devoted to Krishna is not deprived of Artha and Kama also. So, for that purpose, a devotee may also be blessed with Artha and Kama.
And a devotee’s test is not necessarily the renunciation of Artha and Kama. It is the connectedness with Krishna. See, what happens for us, we can think that Artha is something which can be used in Krishna’s service.
But Kama, we think it is very bad. But within Kama also, there is various things. Krishna himself generally uses the word Kama for lust.
But Kama, when it is talked about as Purushartha, it is not just lust. It is the whole family life where one fulfills one’s desires in a dharmic way, because dharma has come right in the beginning over here. Dharma Artha Kama.
That is proper over there. In fact, we see another place where Krishna uses the word Kama is there is one supreme being who is fulfilling the desires of all other beings. So, if Krishna himself is fulfilling those desires, that does not necessarily mean it is bad.
So, a devotee can enjoy material opulences in various with various consciousness. One is that the devotee is demonstrating how Krishna is getting the devotee to demonstrate how devotees are not deprived of material opulences. Either this devotee is using the position from that in Krishna’s service.
Another could be that right now the devotee may still be attached. But despite the attachment, the devotee is still serving Krishna. And by that, gradually the attachment will develop.
So, it is important for us that we not judge great devotees simply in terms of their capacity or their capacity to reject material things or in their visible rejection of material things. So, sometimes some devotees may be very devoted to Krishna, but at the same time, they may be surrounded by material things. It is not that renunciation alone is a sign of devotion.
Renunciation can be a sign of devotion, but Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and most of his associates were Maharashtras and they were exalted devotees. So, that’s how we can avoid judging and recognize that within bhakti many things can be used in Krishna’s service and having opulence is not necessarily bad. Many times, if from a practical perspective, suppose, you know, if all the grahastha in temple were living very simply, then they would live in a locality which would also be very relatively simple.
And people also have their sense of class. So, people who are high class, they may not come to a low class person’s house, low class not in a judgmental sense, but in a financial bracket sense, to a, if a house is very simple, they may not feel inspired to come there for a program also. So, material things are important for various purposes.
And the principle of bhakti is that whatever is attractive in this world, if we use it to attract people towards Krishna, so we build big temples. And similarly, we can have attractive venues. So, devotees may also use material attractive things.
And even if somebody is initially attached, by using those things in Krishna’s service, gradually the attachment will come. And for exalted devotees, when we say they enjoy material opulence, it simply means that they see them as Krishna’s gifts to be used in his service. So, when just as we should not put, like just as when you get delicious food, now we can be grateful to Krishna, such delicious food Krishna has given me and we can release the taste of the food.
Is it that, you know, to avoid sense gratification, I should deny the taste. I will take sweet rice, but I will not taste sweet rice. It’s not like that.
So, we see even the taste of that pleasure as Krishna’s mercy. So, Krishna also says, dharma viruddho bhuteshu, kamosmi bharatarshiva. So, he says, I am sexed like that is not contrary to religious principles.
So, the scope of Krishna consciousness, Prabhupada writes in the seventh chapter, purport that the jurisdiction of Krishna consciousness extends everywhere. So, it extends even to the realm of artha and karma. And even those activities can be done in a mode of devotional service.
Does it answer your question? Unfortunately, my problem is that I am putting myself in Karnataka’s shoes. Yeah. And I am thinking that how is it possible for him to enjoy, though I see his sense pleasures, he is actually enjoying his sense pleasures.
How is he going to use it in Krishna’s service? That’s my position. How is he using that at that extreme? I can understand he is using it in school, he is using it to go out and everything. Yeah, ok.
So, how can Kardamoni use sex pleasure in Krishna’s service? Somehow, you know, we stigmatize sex pleasure too much. What happens is in material life, sex pleasure is over glamorized. And in spiritual life, sometimes you go to the other extreme and we demonize sex pleasure.
And, you know, I answer questions on my website. This is a slightly off track, but it is a good example to illustrate this. So, because people can ask anonymous questions, sometimes people ask very candidly.
So, one Mataji asked a question to me. She said that I and my sister, both of us were religious from our childhood. And we decided that we will only marry men who are devoted to God.
She says, my sister, in her workplace, she developed a relationship with a devoted Christian man and she married this Christian man. She says, I met a Hare Krishna devotee, I saw that he is very seriously devoted to God and I married him. He says, my sister’s, now she became a Christian, my sister’s religion, that teaches her husband that a good wife is a gift from God.
But it says throughout my life, my husband treats me as a temptation who has deviated him from God. She says, is this the way I am meant to feel throughout my life? He says, I also want to be devoted to God and I also want to move towards God. So, sometimes I feel I should also have married a Christian man.
My life would have been happier. So, then I wrote an answer in several quotes of Prabhupada. No, I didn’t write, I spoke answers.
Actually, for a householder, a wife is Ardhangini. Ardhangini is the half of the body. They are together meant to serve Krishna.
If a husband starts seeing the wife as a temptation, then that is a misunderstanding. They are partners. Yes, there is a sexual aspect to the relationship, but that is not the primary definer of the relationship.
That is just one aspect which is surfaced, which will be dealt with. It’s their business how they deal with it. But primarily, they are partners in their spiritual life together.
So, how they deal with the sexual aspect of their life, that should not define their relationship. Their relationship should be defined on the fact that both of them are devoted and both are trying to serve Krishna. And if we demonize this sex as activity too much, then that is also a negative obsession with that.
There are people who can renounce sex life, but they may just be very proud. There are others who may be devoted to Krishna. So, we should not very simplistically equate renunciation of sex with advancement in devotion.
Rather, it is advancement in devotion which will gradually lead to renunciation of sex. But if we equate this with this, we think of it as a causal thing, then it is a problem. So, sex is for procreation as we say, but procreation is not just something that is, how should I put it? It is not that procreation is meant to be done in an utterly unfeeling, machine-like way, where one engages in their activities without thinking about that activity or whatever.
It’s a part of life. The problem and Prabhupada condemns it strongly is that, see, it’s a part of life and it should be left as a part of life. But in today’s society, it is made into like the, not a part of life, made into goal of life.
But then we go to the other extreme and we think that it should not even be a part of life itself. Well, that is also not proper. So, both extremes are wrong and this demonization of sex in terms of, that can be very, it can lead to hard-heartedness.
And it is based on an incomplete understanding of what bhakti is. Bhakti encompasses all our life and we don’t have to get into the details of how somebody will, that’s not our business as brahmacharis. I conclude with one example that aahar, nidra, bhai, maithun, these are basic bodily activities.
So, we should not put maithun into demonia ka category. It’s basically bodily function. So, just like with respect to food.
Now, it’s ideal, that is the ideal standard is food that is cooked for Krishna, offered to Krishna and then eaten. Now, if that is not possible, then we may take vegetarian food, which is, many grahasthas may have to do that. Vegetarian food, they offer it to Krishna and then they take that.
So, just as within food there is a hierarchy. The ideal food is of a particular standard, but if the ideal is not possible, then there are various levels, or rather descending levels, various levels at which one can take food. Now, somebody says, oh, if I cannot take the ideal food, then I will eat meat.
Oh, you cannot eat meat, there is no need for you to eat meat. You take vegetarian food and even if you can’t offer it, just offer it in the mind. So, there are various levels and there is one, like no meat eating or meat eating, it is a very serious breaking of the level.
But within that there are various levels and it’s not a big issue. It’s not a violation of regulative principle. So, in general, when Prabhupada talked about the principle of no illicit sex, whenever he has talked about it in the context of initiation, as an initiation vow, he always talks about that in terms of no sex outside marriage.
Other places in his purport, he talks about sex only for procreation. So, we can see this, sex only for procreation is the ideal. That is like taking food cooked for Krishna, cooked by devotees, cooked for Krishna and offered to Krishna, served by Krishna, served by devotees and like a complete devotional environment.
So, like that, that is the ideal standard with respect to sex. But sex outside marriage, that is like meat eating. And within that, it’s a continuum which is acceptable.
So, there is one incident that when Prabhupada was in Mayapur, it came to know that some devotee, he had gone in Mayapur to some prostitute. And when Prabhupada came to know about it, Prabhupada told her, he says, you are married? She said, yes, but my wife wants to follow very strictly and she doesn’t want to have sex. So, Prabhupada said, this is nonsense.
The husband and wife, sometimes it may happen that, again, I don’t want to go into too many details here, but just because you asked the question, the husband and the wife, sometimes one partner may have a highly sexual, as they use the word, sex drive. So, and the other partner may have less sex drive. So, now, it’s not that the two have to be antagonists.
The two have to help each other. And you shouldn’t think that as a sinful activity. So, sex within marriage is the basic regulatory principle.
Sex for procreation is the highest standard. Within it all, there is a various, it’s a various levels of acceptability. But it is not considered unacceptable.
So, the thing is that sometimes we consider anything below the standard as sinful. It is not sinful. It is, yeah, it is distraction from spiritual life.
It can be a potential, a major distraction, major cause of bondage. But we shouldn’t put that activity as an entirely out of the normal category. It is basically bodily function.
Don’t hype it up. Don’t glamorize it. Don’t demonize it.
Let people do their business and move on with their lives. Does that answer your question? I think we will stop here.