Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to guru and Gauranga.
I am not knowledged but will make an attempt to answer your query. Please forgive me for any incorrect understanding or interpretations.
In the casinos, they go by the logic/notion that a player who wins the first time around will always come back for more and over time he/she will leave everything on the table because the machines are designed to always favor the house (casino owners). So, the longer he/she stays there, there will always be loss for the player.. The casino feeds your appetite for more money, but they patiently wait at the start to take the motherload.. In the end, the player will feel disgust that he/she dint take the profit while they had in their hand.. Their greed for more got the better of their reasoning and thinking capabilities.
The verse is talking pretty much the same, the more we feed the desire, it comes to a tipping point that we detest it.. Try over eating for one thing or even drinking too much water for instance.. you will end up throwing up for sure.. The same goes to lusty desires.. the more we indulge in it, we feel unclean in thoughts, action and mind and we will feel disgusted over time, that we start to refrain from it..
I dont remember this very clearly, but there is a story that I read somewhere regarding feeding one's lusty desire. There was a king who was mainly indulged in drinking wine and enjoying women all day... so much so that he decided to do just that all night for one night and in the morning he was dead..
O best of the Bharatas, now please hear from Me about the three kinds of happiness which the conditioned soul enjoys, and by which he sometimes comes to the end of all distress. That which in the beginning may be just like poison but at the end is just like nectar and which awakens one to self-realization is said to be happiness in the mode of goodness.
I hope my attempt provided some answer to your query prabhuji.
All glories to Srila Prabhupad!!!!
Hare krsna.
Bhagavad Gita As It Is, 18.36-37: Conclusion--The Perfection of Renunciation, Text 36-37.
O best of the Bharatas, now please hear from Me about the three kinds of happiness which the conditioned soul enjoys, and by which he sometimes comes…
Prabhu your point is that indulging in lust would ultimately end in frustration so his desires would be mitigated...so will they never emerge since it says 'mitigates them entirely'?
The nature of the senses is that they are constantly waiting for an opportunity to take over us. To give an example, if a person is a chain smoker and decides to give up his/her addiction, then it is given that they have to constantly guard themselves against the craving or desire to smoke again. Lust is also like that. one carries the lusty desire until he/she quits this body and the desires can attack us at anytime. To give you another example, lusty desires for women in old men is not uncommon. So, lust can attack at anytime, even if one feels he/she has controlled it.
As an aspiring devotee/devotee, one needs to guard against such unwanted attacks. As soon as one wages war against sense gratification, maya will put them through testing times to see if one goes back to his/her old ways. Hence we take the shelter of saadhu, shastra and sanga to keep us away from such unwanted desires and instead desire to associate with devotees and hear krsna katha.
When krsna is in the centre, then lusty desires cannot attack a devotee.
Hope I was able to provide a proper explanation to your query prabhuji.
Well said....but my question is how, as this verse indicates, overindulgence in lusty desires mitigates them since its only with bhakti do the lusty desires go away.. So I want to reconcile the apparent contradiction..
SB 7.11.33 -- "My dear King, if an agricultural field is cultivated again and again, the power of its production decreases, and whatever seeds are sown there are lost. Just as drops of ghee on a fire never extinguish the fire but a flood of ghee will, similarly, overindulgence in lusty desires mitigates such desires entirely. "
Purport
If one continuously sprinkles drops of ghee on a fire, the fire will not be extinguished, but if one suddenly puts a lump of ghee on a fire, the fire may possibly be extinguished entirely. Similarly, those who are too sinful and have thus been born in the lower classes are allowed to enjoy sinful activities fully, for thus there is a chance that these activities will become detestful to them, and they will get the opportunity to be purified.
My Understanding is When these desires become destesful then and only then can we fully approach Bhakti and render service to the Lord , Knowing that there is nothing more Blissfull than the Holy Name in this World, every thing else is temporary ,decreasing & Dejectful Habits.Hence go on Chanting Japa or Sankirtan 24/7 .
Apoorv > Bhanu Krishna DasFebruary 27, 2018 at 11:05pm
Yeah.. .i was also thinking in that way... I think that is the correct import of this verse... Since sensual pleasures are a womb of misery (BG 5.22)
Very nice answer.. Now I understood it better... So the result of lust is surely like poison... So the person becomes detestful... Thatz a good insight...
Replies
I saw a lot of useful Tips for myself Thank you very much
Hare krsna prabhuji,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to guru and Gauranga.
I am not knowledged but will make an attempt to answer your query. Please forgive me for any incorrect understanding or interpretations.
In the casinos, they go by the logic/notion that a player who wins the first time around will always come back for more and over time he/she will leave everything on the table because the machines are designed to always favor the house (casino owners). So, the longer he/she stays there, there will always be loss for the player.. The casino feeds your appetite for more money, but they patiently wait at the start to take the motherload.. In the end, the player will feel disgust that he/she dint take the profit while they had in their hand.. Their greed for more got the better of their reasoning and thinking capabilities.
The verse is talking pretty much the same, the more we feed the desire, it comes to a tipping point that we detest it.. Try over eating for one thing or even drinking too much water for instance.. you will end up throwing up for sure.. The same goes to lusty desires.. the more we indulge in it, we feel unclean in thoughts, action and mind and we will feel disgusted over time, that we start to refrain from it..
I dont remember this very clearly, but there is a story that I read somewhere regarding feeding one's lusty desire. There was a king who was mainly indulged in drinking wine and enjoying women all day... so much so that he decided to do just that all night for one night and in the morning he was dead..
Krsna also tells us how can we be happy in https://asitis.com/18/36-37.html
O best of the Bharatas, now please hear from Me about the three kinds of happiness which the conditioned soul enjoys, and by which he sometimes comes to the end of all distress. That which in the beginning may be just like poison but at the end is just like nectar and which awakens one to self-realization is said to be happiness in the mode of goodness.
I hope my attempt provided some answer to your query prabhuji.
All glories to Srila Prabhupad!!!!
Hare krsna.
Prabhu your point is that indulging in lust would ultimately end in frustration so his desires would be mitigated...so will they never emerge since it says 'mitigates them entirely'?
Hare krsna prabhuji,
The nature of the senses is that they are constantly waiting for an opportunity to take over us. To give an example, if a person is a chain smoker and decides to give up his/her addiction, then it is given that they have to constantly guard themselves against the craving or desire to smoke again. Lust is also like that. one carries the lusty desire until he/she quits this body and the desires can attack us at anytime. To give you another example, lusty desires for women in old men is not uncommon. So, lust can attack at anytime, even if one feels he/she has controlled it.
As an aspiring devotee/devotee, one needs to guard against such unwanted attacks. As soon as one wages war against sense gratification, maya will put them through testing times to see if one goes back to his/her old ways. Hence we take the shelter of saadhu, shastra and sanga to keep us away from such unwanted desires and instead desire to associate with devotees and hear krsna katha.
When krsna is in the centre, then lusty desires cannot attack a devotee.
Hope I was able to provide a proper explanation to your query prabhuji.
All glories to Srila Prabhupad!!!!
Hare krsna.
Hare krishna Prabhu
Well said....but my question is how, as this verse indicates, overindulgence in lusty desires mitigates them since its only with bhakti do the lusty desires go away.. So I want to reconcile the apparent contradiction..
Hare Krishna , PAMHO
SB 7.11.33 -- " My dear King, if an agricultural field is cultivated again and again, the power of its production decreases, and whatever seeds are sown there are lost. Just as drops of ghee on a fire never extinguish the fire but a flood of ghee will, similarly, overindulgence in lusty desires mitigates such desires entirely. "
Purport
If one continuously sprinkles drops of ghee on a fire, the fire will not be extinguished, but if one suddenly puts a lump of ghee on a fire, the fire may possibly be extinguished entirely. Similarly, those who are too sinful and have thus been born in the lower classes are allowed to enjoy sinful activities fully, for thus there is a chance that these activities will become detestful to them, and they will get the opportunity to be purified.
My Understanding is When these desires become destesful then and only then can we fully approach Bhakti and render service to the Lord , Knowing that there is nothing more Blissfull than the Holy Name in this World, every thing else is temporary ,decreasing & Dejectful Habits.Hence go on Chanting Japa or Sankirtan 24/7 .
Yeah.. .i was also thinking in that way... I think that is the correct import of this verse... Since sensual pleasures are a womb of misery (BG 5.22)
Hare Krishna...
Hare krishna
Very nice answer.. Now I understood it better... So the result of lust is surely like poison... So the person becomes detestful... Thatz a good insight...
Thank you very much...