In the Gita, Krsna says that only one who is free from sinful life can engage in His service with determination:
“Persons who have acted piously in previous lives and in this life and whose sinful actions are completely eradicated are freed from the dualities of delusion, and they engage themselves in My service with determination.” (Bg. 7.28)
Souls conditioned by material nature become used to obeying the demands of the senses.
One Vaisnava poet has compared the senses and their unhealthy demands to “bad masters.”
One who takes seriously to spiritual life must learn to tolerate the impulses of the senses, for by doing so the practitioner gradually becomes peaceful and gains the power to focus his or her mind on the supreme.
On the other hand, those who continually surrender to misdirected sense impulses eventually become addicted to obeying them. A person afflicted by addiction finds it nearly impossible to override the sense impulses with his or her intelligence.
Therefore Krsna recommends, “… in the very beginning curb this great symbol of sin [lust] by regulating the senses, and slay this destroyer of knowledge and self-realization.” (Bg. 3.41)
It is helpful to note that when one tolerates the impulses of the senses, the impulses gradually go out of the body, mind and senses; and they don’t come back (as long as one does not re-stimulate them).
A human being, equipped with knowledge from the Bhagavad-gita may make the wise choice to regulate and control the senses.
Others without such knowledge, who continue to entertain material desires, are obligated to rotate in the cycle of birth and death.
Fortify and spiritualize your intelligence each day by chanting Hare Krsna with attention, reading Bhagavad-gita, and accepting good association.
Following such an auspicious path, one gradually rises to the position of nistha, or steadiness in spiritual life.
In human life, we have the choice to exercise or exorcise the urges of the senses.
Krsna Himself implores Arjuna (and all of use) to choose the later:
“Thus knowing oneself to be transcendental to the material senses, mind and intelligence, O mighty-armed Arjuna, one should steady the mind by deliberate spiritual intelligence [Krsna consciousness] and thus—by spiritual strength-conquer this insatiable enemy known as lust. (Bg. 3.43)
Vaisesika Das
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