CHAPTER 18, TEXT 38: That happiness which is derived from contact of the senses with their objects and which appears like nectar at first but poison at the end is said to be of the nature of passion.
CHAPTER 16, TEXT 21: There are three gates leading to this hell – lust, anger and greed. Every sane man should give these up, for they lead to the degradation of the soul.
One evening many years ago, I was traveling on a bus. The driver of the bus, an elderly, spiritual man, was having a conversation with another traveler, and I eavesdropped on their conversation.
The man asked, "What is the function of the soul?"
The traveler was silent. My ears perked up and I leaned in to hear the man answer his own question:
"To desire. The function of the soul is to desire,"
Those simple words rang with an eternal truth, and they have echoed in my mind in the many years since. Interesting, no? I can still remember the deep blue evening light, the headlights from oncoming vehicles, the silhouettes of spiky trees as they rushed by. Those words anchor me to that time and space: The function of the soul is to desire.
I have seen this eternal truth play out in my life and in the world.
When the soul is in touch with material energy, that eternal propensity to desire transforms into lust. Trying to satisfy the soul's eternal, spiritual desires with temporary, material things is a recipe for frustration, drama, and pain. I speak from experience, here, and I'm sure anyone reading this post would say the same.
In this verse of the Gita, Krishna is saying that there are three gates leading to hell - lust, anger, and greed. Prabhupad emphasizes, though, that lust is the origin: "One tries to satisfy his lust, and when he cannot, anger and greed arise." Note that Prabhupad writes that one "tries" to satisfy lust, but he "cannot" - it is simply impossible to satisfy lust, like trying to put out a raging fire by feeding it logs soaked with gasoline. It is eventual that one will get to the point of anger and an even more inflamed greed. In verse 12 of this chapter, Krishna describes that an ungodly person is "bound by a network of hundreds of thousands of desires" which is not an exaggeration. Hundreds of thousands of desires may even be an understatement. Those desires lead to the degradation of the soul, as Krishna says in this verse.
Why? Where does lust come from, this raging fire of desire?
The soul.
The function of the soul is to desire.
To quench this fire of desire IS impossible, because to do so would snuff out our very existence.
The key, then, is to understand that this nature to desire something and someone, always, is divine. Originally, the soul desires to love and be loved, and ultimately to love God and be loved by God.
The whole process of bhakti yoga is about taking those tendencies of the soul offering them to Krishna. In this way the soul is not degraded, but uplifted.
Desire Krishna. Desire to serve, desire to connect, desire to love.
Full purport here: https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/16/21/
CHAPTER 15, TEXT 20: This is the most confidential part of the Vedic scriptures, O sinless one, and it is disclosed now by Me. Whoever understands this will become wise, and his endeavors will know perfection.
For about three years of my life, my suitcase was partially or fully (very fully) packed. For three years, I lived in almost a dozen different rooms, apartments, and houses in all parts of the world.
When I began to settle down and at last moved in with my husband after we got married, I became obsessed with staying in one place. I abhorred even the idea of getting on a plane. I gave my suitcases to Goodwill with a "good riddance!"
I then became obsessed with setting up our home. I would sometimes cackle to myself, "This is my kitchen, my bedroom, my apartment, my clothes, it's mine, all mine!" Over the past five years I have spent thousands of dollars on buying furniture, decor, plants, clothing, shoes, kitchen tools, and more plants. I must confess, I'm still consumed, because we have moved once again and are setting up our home again.
I have become aware of a needle that jabs at my heart the more I feed this desire to buy and buy and buy. That jabbing weakens me. Over the years I have felt the sting and the resulting weakness build.
How come this shopaholicism relates at all to this verse of the Gita where Krishna is describing a wise man who will know perfection?
Prabhupad writes how the word "anagha" is significant in this verse because it means that Krishna is addressing Arjuna as "O sinless one." This means that to know Krishna we must be free of all material contamination and bad karma. The loophole, though, is that "devotional service is so pure and potent that once one is engaged in devotional service he automatically comes to the stage of sinlessness." This is good news for all of us, because Krishna has described devotional service as so easy that one can simply offer a leaf, flower, fruit or water with love and Krishna will accept (9.26). By such a simple, painless process, we can all become sinless.
So if devotional service is that easy, how come we're not all doing it? How come we're not all wise and how come we're all so very far away from perfection?
Weakness of heart, Prabhupad says.
He writes, "The most important thing one has to surmount is weakness of the heart."
This weakness of heart determines more of our destiny than any bad karma. After all, bad karma can be lessened or even erased by devotional service. But when our very character is weak, then this is the greatest, most important thing to overcome. After all, all bad karma stems from a weakness of heart - that is what created all the negative reactions in the first place.
So what is weakness of heart?
"The first falldown is caused by the desire to lord it over material nature."
This is where we come back to my obsession with things. I had been so detached from my belongings and home and clothes for so long that I swung in the other direction and became obsessed with, shall we say, lording it over material nature. I became the lord of my apartment, and triumph flooded me - this place is all mine, muahaha!
That triumph still floods me. I relish in buying more and more things, and I'm never satiated. Always looking for the next conquest to purchase.
But the needle in my heart is beginning to sting and even make me go numb. When I get so absorbed in lording over material nature, "one gives up the transcendental loving service of the Supreme Lord." I'm so attached to material things that I feel a numbness to even performing a simple act here or there of love - you know, offer a leaf.
A leaf, man, that's it.
But no, I'd rather go buy a dress. Or a chair. Or a mirror. For us. Well, for me.
From this first weakness of heart, the desire to lord it over material nature, comes the second weakness of heart, which "is that as one increases the propensity to lord it over material nature, he becomes attached to matter and the possession of matter." In this way, I become more attached and more absorbed in the possession of matter than the expression of service to the Lord. I want to enjoy myself, not have God enjoy. I am in the center, not God.
Prabhupad concludes, "The problems of material existence are due to these weaknesses of the heart."
As long as I cultivate this weakness of my heart to lord it over material nature, so will the numbness continue to grow until I can no longer even fold my palms in prayer.
Once again I am writing this post, unsure how to conclude because I honestly do not have a straight solution for you. It seems far too simplistic to simply say, "I shall stop lording over material nature," snap my fingers and *poof* all gone! There go my desires! Now I can engage in devotional service again!
As I write, I realize that the only thing I can do is be aware that I even have a weakness of heart. There are plenty of people on this planet who are plagued with shopaholicsm on either or tiny or gargantuan scale who have no idea that it's a weakness of heart. They're just going along, looking for the next high by buying the next thing, not even aware that they're numbing their hearts more and more and more, the weakness draining their vitality.
So at the very least, I am aware. I feel the sting. And in that sense, I am grateful for the sting. Maybe that's the first step of wisdom.
Full purport here: https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/15/20/
CHAPTER 14, TEXT 16: The result of pious action is pure and is said to be in the mode of goodness. But action done in the mode of passion results in misery, and action performed in the mode of ignorance results in foolishness.
In this purport, Prabhupad lays out clear logic that "indulgence in animal killing for the taste of the tongue is the grossest kind of ignorance." This is not Prabhupad being judgmental or disgusted. He is simply building upon this verse, 14.16, especially "action performed in the mode of ignorance results in foolishness."
How is killing animals for the sake of the tongue foolish? How come it's it in the mode of ignorance?
The foundation of this logic begins with the word ignorance, which is translated as "lack of knowledge or information" (Oxford Languages).
Simple.
If one performs an action without appropriate knowledge or information, the action and the results are often harmful to the self and to others.
For example, I am ignorant of surgical procedures. I have a lack of knowledge and information (A BIG LACK) in order to produce a result that won't harm my patient (stab an artery...??) or harm myself (all those malpractice lawsuits!). In this regard, "the performer is without knowledge, and therefore all his activities result in present misery." This means that a lack of knowledge (ignorance) when we perform an action results in misery, not just a hazy confusion or discomfort.
Misery.
And misery for everyone.
Lack of awareness and the repeated choosing to ignore and turn away from knowledge and reality leads the soul to "go on toward animal life. Animal life is always miserable, although, under the spell of the illusory energy, māyā, the animals do not understand this." Animals are all in varying states of ignorance, surviving from day to day, operating from a place of instinct and driven to eat, mate, and defend. This is a miserable existence, but souls in these bodies are not even aware just how miserable they are. In a sense, animals are innocent. Animals do not produce karma, or reaction to their actions, because they are simply acting out of instinct.
But human beings can choose to act from a place beyond instinct, humans can act from a place of knowledge. Prabhupad writes, "Slaughtering poor animals is also due to the mode of ignorance. The animal killers do not know that in the future the animal will have a body suitable to kill them. That is the law of nature." Only human beings who kill animals or participate in the process of killing and eating animals recur this reaction to one day be slaughtered in kind. As Prabhupad says here, "That is the law of nature." If karma is working in all other spheres of existence as a divine system of justice, then this system also applies for killing animals. Thus, if one kills an animal to enjoy the tongue, "one has to pay for it." Action and reaction is a law of nature.
Thus we come to where we began this post: "indulgence in animal killing for the taste of the tongue is the grossest kind of ignorance." Animal killing is the grossest kind of ignorance because there is such a fundamental lack of knowledge and information that if I kill another living being I am responsible for its death.
What's more, "A human being has no need to kill animals, because God has supplied so many nice things." Nowadays, some would reject this statement and assert that some people just can't not eat meat because of his or her blood type or constitution. My sister professes that if she does not eat meat she becomes very unhealthy. I confess, I'm not a nutritionist or health science expert. That said, I am going off of Prabhupad's purport here, and he is emphasizing that [all] human beings do not need to eat meat, as "God has supplied so many nice things."
Okay, so if one is aware of the law of karma and aware that killing animals to enjoy meat is not the best for a bunch of reasons, how come this post or any debate or discussion is unlikely to change anyone's stance on eating meat?
I once debated this topic of vegetarianism in a Bioethics class in my undergraduate degree. We discussed all the reasons, from environmental impacts, to health reasons, and for this class especially, the ethical obligations of slaughtering animals for meat.
The conclusion was pretty obvious: don't eat meat.
But no one in the class, including my professor, was moved to make a change in behavior.
One day, I approached my professor after class to assert that really there is only one reason that people eat meat and will not give it up: the taste. People enjoy the taste, texture, and experience of meat.
The professor, a highly educated, sharp man in his thirties, at last conceded. He said, "I find it to be one of the greatest failings in my life that I'm not a vegetarian. But... I just love the taste of meat,"
One may have the knowledge and philosophical reasons to not eat meat, but at the end of the day, the fact that meat tastes good trumps all. In this sense, if one has the knowledge and information to not eat meat - that's not ignorance any more, right? In this case, then, ignorance is a true "ignore-ing" of what meat is (flesh of animals) and what the consequences are (being killed in kind). So "If one indulges in meat-eating anyway, it is to be understood that he is acting in ignorance and is making his future very dark."
Full purport here: https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/14/16/
CHAPTER 14, TEXT 12: O chief of the Bhāratas, when there is an increase in the mode of passion the symptoms of great attachment, fruitive activity, intense endeavor, and uncontrollable desire and hankering develop.
In the three modes of material nature that Krishna is describing in this 14th chapter, the primary mode that I identify with is the mode of passion.
Krishna describes in the seventh verse, "The mode of passion is born of unlimited desires and longings."
Yesss.
Unlimited desires.
Like a fire. The fire is blazing and hot and demands fuel. I feel the burn and so with great effort and sacrifice I find the fuel to place into the fire - but the fire only increases. The fire burns brighter and hotter, demanding even more fuel than before.
This is my life.
My desires are unlimited. From clothing to contact lenses. From shoes to dining chairs to trips to India. To earrings to pairs of glasses to a Mercedes-Benz SUV to analmondmilkmaker to a gymmembership
toawafflemakertorunningshoestomoreearrings
on and on and on and on and on
and on.
Not only do I yearn for tangible things, I yearn for intangible things, like a good job, good friends, recognition, degrees and accolades, invitations, and more. Prabhupad writes, "One in the mode of passion is never satisfied with the position he has already acquired; he hankers to increase his position." Always more. A fire doesn't burn peacefully at one steady level. The fire is consuming the fuel, and if the fire is not fed more, the flames begin to die out.
For some reason, I am deathly afraid of those flames going out - it's almost as if I let those flames go out, my very life would go out. I would have no spice to life, no reason to live. So my desires burn in my heart, and I feed them; I am always hankering to increase my position and my things and my importance.
Why? Why do I burn with so many desires?
Well, to enjoy. I want to enjoy my senses, both subtle and gross. For my gross senses I want to taste good food and drink, I want to see beautiful things and cool movies, I want to relax in a comfortable chair. For the subtle ways to enjoy, I want the prestige of having beautiful things and others admiring what I own, I want the honor of having a prestigious job and being seen as accomplished and powerful. For the person in the mode of passion (like me), "he develops a great hankering for sense gratification. There is no end to sense gratification."
No. End. As Krishna says in this verse, "uncontrollable desires" develop in the mode of passion.
I'd like to say that I'm on a spiritual path and want to learn how to love and clean my heart and all that.
At the same time, the fact of the matter is that if you really pulled back the cover of my heart and peeked inside, that is what you would see: a blazing fire of desires consuming my mind at all times.
Right now, I do not have any easy solution to these all-consuming desires, so simple trick to reduce the fire. The only way is to stop feeding them, and the prospect of not feeding them seems almost impossible right now. As I mentioned, feeding desires substitutes for a sense of purpose - it's easier to shop and acquire things than to live a purposeful life of navigating tricky relationships. To be honest, I choose shopping over calling a friend or spiritual activities.
So yeah, I don't have a solution.
But as I write this, some small voice is reminding me: there is a spiritual greed.
That greed is called laulyam.
You don't have to extinguish the fire of desire in your heart.
Just start feeding your fire some spiritual goals, some uplifting desires.
Being consumed with greed to know and love Krishna, or krishna laulyam, is a divine fire, a fire that I actually want to burn in my heart.
Full purport here: https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/14/12/
