When a boat is in the ocean, it can be buffeted by waves. The world we live in is often compared to an ocean. Herein, we can be buffeted by waves of desires for worldly objects.

Just as waves can make a ship go off-course, similarly, desires can make us go off course. Being driven by desires, we abandon our resolutions for constructive actions and succumb to indulgences that, though initially pleasurable, turn out to be distressing. Just as a boat gets buffeted when it comes in the path of stormy waves, similarly, we get buffeted by worldly desires when we come in their path. We place ourselves in their path by believing their promises for pleasure and by becoming habituated to those desires.

When worldly desires buffet us, we need a buffer to protect ourselves, just as, say, a large reef can shield a boat from a stormy wave. The best buffer is absorption in Krishna, the all-attractive supreme. The Bhagavad-gita (10.41) indicates that he is the source of the attractiveness of everything attractive in this world.

He is the whole and we are his eternal parts (15.07). As soon as we go apart from him, we get pulled by the worldly desires present in our mind and senses, thereby subjecting ourselves to struggle and suffering. But if we connect with Krishna, we can be protected. To connect with him, we need to have a desire for him. Such desire is stimulated and strengthened by our disciplined practice of bhakti-yoga (12.09).

The more we desire him, the more our consciousness becomes absorbed in him. When we relish the strength and satisfaction coming from such absorption, we become increasingly immune to worldly desires.

Thus, we can transcend worldly desires by intensifying our desire for the Lord of the world.

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