So for this pleasure only we are making so many plans. According to our own brain, teeny brain, we are making plans. Just the, in the state also, they're making plans. Personally, individually, and commercially, everyone is making plan. The plan-making means becoming entangled. And he has to, they have to take birth again to fulfill the plan. Vāsanā. This is called vāsanā. So we have to purify the vāsanā, desire. That is required. If we don't purify, then we have to take birth, birth and death, repetition of birth and death. So that desire, how it can be purified? That desire can be purified. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam (CC Madhya 19.170). We have to give up this designation, "I am brāhmaṇa," "I am śūdra," "I am kṣatriya," "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am this and..." So many designations. Because I am spirit soul, but this is, this covering is my designation. so if I identify with this designation, then I'll have to repeat the birth and death. That you can purify. How it can be purified? That can be purified by devotional service. When you understand that you are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, when I understand that "I am eternally related with Kṛṣṇa. He's Supreme, I am servant," and when I engage myself in His service, that is the purification of desires. Without Kṛṣṇa consciousness, everyone is acting on different material consciousness. "I am American. Therefore I must work in this way. I must fight with the Russians." Russian thinking that "I am Russian. I must fight the Americans." Or the China... So many designations. This is called māyā, illusion.
Purification of desire (Lectures)
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Indian: Kindly let me know that what is desire. So long desire is there, we can't realize God. And realizing God is also a desire.
Prabhupāda: Desire means material desires. If you think that you are Indian and your desire is how to make your country improve... Or so many desires. Or if you are a family man. So these are all material desires. So long you are enwrapped by material desires, then you are under the condition of material nature. As soon as you think that you are, your, you are not Indian or American, you are not a brāhmaṇa or Vaiṣṇava, brāhmaṇa or kṣatriya, you are eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa, that is called purified desire. Desire is there, but you have to purify the desire. That I have explained just now. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam (CC Madhya 19.170). These are upādhis. Suppose you are in a black coat. So does it mean you are black coat? If you say... If I ask you, "Who are you?" If you say, "I am black coat," is that the proper answer? No. Similarly, we are in a dress, American dress or Indian dress. So if somebody asks you "Who are you?" "I am Indian." That is wrong identification. If you say, "Ahaṁ brahmāsmi," that is your real identification. That realization required.
Jaya Gopāla: Are the people in this age lusty in the modes of ignorance or are they lusty in all three modes?
Prabhupāda: Anyone who is in the material world, he is lusty. Maybe difference of degrees. That doesn't matter. But he is lusty. Kāma eṣa krodha eṣa rajo-guṇa-samudbhavaḥ. Everyone is trying to lord it over the material nature. That is lust. Now, the ant is trying to lord it over the material nature in his own way, and the big politician, he is trying to lord it over the material nature in a different way. Everyone is trying. So that lording it over the material nature is a sign of lust. So you can take it for granted that anyone who is within this material world, he has got that contamination of lust, maybe manifested in different degrees.
But who has come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he has no more lust because he wants to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. He doesn't want to satisfy his senses. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. His aim of life is how Kṛṣṇa will be pleased. That's all. And lust means "how my senses will be satisfied." That is the difference. The process of satisfying is going on. In our conditioned life we are trying to satisfy our senses, and in our Kṛṣṇa consciousness life we are satisfying to please Kṛṣṇa. That is the difference. So my work is not stopped, but the goal of life is changed. That is liberation.
We don't say that you kill your desire. No. You purify your desire to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. That's all. Now your desire is to satisfy your senses. That's all. This has to be purified, that you shall desire, but you shall desire to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. Then your perfection is there.
So how you can be master of the senses? It is dependent on something else, the master of senses. When Kṛṣṇa says, sarvataḥ pāṇi-pādaṁ tat. Kṛṣṇa has got hands and legs everywhere, or Brahman has got hands and legs... What is that hands and legs? Your hand, my hand, it is the Brahman's hand, because you are part and parcel of Brahman. So now your hands and legs are engaged with upādhi. Everyone is working, "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am brāhmaṇa," "I am śūdra," "I am this family," "I am this," "that," so many... So you have to forget this, that "I don't belong to this material world and so nice division," either you call brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, or American, Indian. "No. Purely I am spirit soul, and my business is to serve Kṛṣṇa." Then you will be able to control your senses.
Because senses want engagement. If you artificially stop, it will not stay. For the time being, it may be appearing, but it is not possible. You cannot be desireless. Sometimes we say that "We should be desireless." That is not possible. The whole process should be purifying desire, purifying desire, mind. Mind is the source of desires. Therefore the bhakti process is first of all engage the mind. Sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayoḥ (SB 9.4.18). If you engage your mind, always thinking of Kṛṣṇa, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru... (BG 18.65). This is the recommendation given by Kṛṣṇa.
So achieving something pleasant... Generally we accept a thing pleasant when it satisfies our senses. We accept it as pleasant. But actually, satisfaction of my sense is not real pleasure because my senses are at the present moment diseased. Therefore as it is stated in the Nārada-pañcarātra, that tat-paratvena nirmalam (CC Madhya 19.170). One has to purify the senses in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is not to become void of the senses. The other philosophers, they say that "You don't desire." We say that we don't desire nonsense but we desire Kṛṣṇa. Desire is there, but as soon as desire is purified, then I shall desire Kṛṣṇa. When one is desiring only Kṛṣṇa, that is his healthy state. And if somebody is desiring something else, something other than Kṛṣṇa, then he is to be understood in diseased condition.
So diseased condition means contaminated by māyā. This is external. So our philosophy, Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, is not to stop desiring but purify desiring. And how you can purify it? By Kṛṣṇa consciousness. If you desire... Just like—concrete example—if I desire a very nice apartment for my personal sense gratification, this is diseased desire. And if I desire a nice costly temple for Kṛṣṇa, that is purified desire. So desire is there. You are sitting here in a very nice room, very cleansed, very good atmosphere. But this desire is purified desire. And if you require similar room for your sense gratification, that is impure desire. So desire there must be. But when it is desired for Kṛṣṇa it is purified desire. And when it is desired for non-Kṛṣṇa then it is impurified. So those who are desiring for Kṛṣṇa, they are not behind any enjoyment. They are rather in perfect enjoyment. These Kṛṣṇa conscious students, they are desiring for Kṛṣṇa nice prasādam, so they are not bereft. Practically they are enjoying but it is Kṛṣṇized. Therefore their everything is becoming purified.
Just like in the sunlight, there is possibility of darkness. Similarly, if you keep Kṛṣṇa on your mind always, this māyā or illusion cannot reach there. She will be unable to reach there. That is the process. He should be free from desire and possessiveness. The whole material disease is that I want to possess and desire. And whatever is lost, I lament for it, and whatever there is, whatever we haven't got, we desire for it. So, brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54)—one who is actually God conscious, Kṛṣṇa conscious, he has no desire for material possession. He has only desire how to serve Kṛṣṇa. That means his desire is purified. This desire is, you cannot give up desire. That is not possible. You are living entity, you must have desire. But our desire is at the present moment is contaminated. "I want to, I desire to satisfy my senses by material possession." But if you desire for Kṛṣṇa, this desire for material possession will automatically vanish.
Now, what is the sign that one has attained perfection in yoga? The Lord says, yadā viniyataṁ cittam. Cittam means your heart or your consciousness. When it is self-controlled, consciousness (is) completely under your control, you do not become dependent on the dictation of your mind, but mind becomes under your control... Yadā viniyataṁ cittam ātmany evāvatiṣṭhate. And mind does not go out because the yogi's principal business is to think of Kṛṣṇa or Viṣṇu always. So yogi cannot allow his mind to go out. That is possible in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. When we are engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, always engaged in Kṛṣṇa's service, naturally my mind cannot go out besides Kṛṣṇa. Besides Kṛṣṇa. The mind is automatically controlled. Nispṛhaḥ sarva-kāmebhyaḥ. And you shall have no desire for material sense gratification. Sarva-kāmebhyaḥ. Kāma means material desires, and sarva, and all kinds of. That means if you are in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then you have no other desires. So your desires... Desireless you cannot be. That is not possible. Desireless means... Here it is clearly said, sarva-kāmebhyaḥ. Kāmebhyaḥ means desire for sense gratification. That is to be purified. But desire to serve Kṛṣṇa, that is very good, very nice thing.
So we have to transfer the desire. This is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That's all. Desire we cannot kill. It is not possible. I am a living being. Desire is my constant companion. So therefore Kṛṣṇa consciousness means to purify the desire. How is that? Without sarva-kāmebhyaḥ, without desiring for material sense gratification, I can desire so many things for Kṛṣṇa's service. There are so many things. And suppose... Just like take for example eating. Eating, we want palatable dishes. Very good. But you prepare the palatable foodstuff for Kṛṣṇa. For Kṛṣṇa you prepare hundreds of palatable... Don't think that "It is being prepared for me." Therefore one who prepares foodstuff for Kṛṣṇa, he has to take very precaution. You see? That it is being prepared for Kṛṣṇa. Sometimes I therefore ask the students "Don't touch your mouth. Don't... Very cleanly, very sanctifiedly." Because it is being prepared... So now, that desire, that "Kṛṣṇa will eat such nice cake and such nice rice," so the whole thing is prepared in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and when it is offered to Kṛṣṇa, you taste. So your kāma is already sacrificed because from the very beginning you're thinking that "It is being prepared for Kṛṣṇa." You have no desire for that. But Kṛṣṇa is so merciful that He gives you the foodstuff for your eating; so your desire is already fulfilled. You do not desire it, but Kṛṣṇa's mercy is so that He can fulfill your desire.
So here Kṛṣṇa says how to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. That is for the brāhmaṇas, or the intellectual class of men. That is being described by Kṛṣṇa. What is that? Mayy āsakta-manāḥ: "The mind should be attached upon Me, Kṛṣṇa." This is the beginning. Some way or other we have to... Our mind is attached to something else. Mind cannot be detached. We have got so many desires. So mind's business—to become attached. Therefore, I accept something, I reject something. This is mind's business. So you cannot become zero, you cannot become desireless. That is not possible. Our process... Just like others, they say, "You become desireless." That is a foolish proposal. Who can become desireless? It is not possible. If I am desireless, then I am a dead man. A dead man has no desire. So that is not possible. We have to purify the desires. That is required. Purify the desires. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam (CC Madhya 19.170). This is called purification. Nirmalam. Tat-paratvena. Tat-paratvena means when God conscious, Kṛṣṇa conscious, then desires become purified.
So we have to come to the point of not desirelessness, but to the point of purified desires. That is wanted. Therefore here it is said, mayy āsakta-manāḥ: "You can not make your mind desireless, but you fix up your mind upon Me." That is required. Mayy āsakta-manāḥ pārtha. This is the yoga system. This is called bhakti-yoga, and this is called first-class yoga. That is described in the Bhagavad-gītā, that yoginām api sarveṣāṁ mad-gatenāntar-ātmanā (BG 6.47). The yogi, the first-class yogi, yoginām api sarveṣām... "There are different kinds of yoga systems, but the person who has accepted this bhakti-yoga, he is thinking of Me always." Just like these boys and girls they are being taught always thinking of Kṛṣṇa, "Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare." So if you read Bhagavad-gītā and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, immediately you learn the whole science, how to become attached to Kṛṣṇa. This is called mayy āsakta-manāḥ. Mayy āsakta-manāḥ pārtha yogaṁ yuñjan, to practice yoga... This is bhakti-yoga. Mad-āśrayaḥ. Mad-āśrayaḥ means "under My direction," or "under My protection." Āśraya.
| Page Title: | Purification of desire (Lectures) |
| Compiler: | Labangalatika |
| Created: | 06 of Apr, 2012 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=35, Con=0, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 35 |