How desire abducts and abandons us
Desire abducts with the promise of pleasure and abandons us in the province of trouble. The Bhagavad Gita (18.38) states that sensual desires lead us [...]
Tackling impurity from indulgence to transcendence
Impurity needs to be tackled by focusing on transcendence, not tickled by fantasizing about indulgence. Whenever we have any impurity within us that triggers desires [...]
Is sense pleasure imaginary?
Sense pleasure is a product of imagination, but it is not imaginary. When we try to grow spiritually, we understand that we need to turn [...]
Awesome or Wholesome?
Not everything wholesome is awesome, and not everything awesome is wholesome. We are often attracted to things that feel good, even if they're not actually [...]
Gita 18.38 explained
Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan Let us look at happiness [...]
The problem with doing whatever we like
Suppose we are studying for an important exam the next day. Suppose further that success in this exam can launch our career in a field [...]
How free pleasures are not free …
Today’s culture often dangles many pleasures that seem free. For example, the Internet offers loads of entertainment, apparently free. But are such pleasures really free? [...]
Contemplation on temptation changes our disposition from zero tolerance to zero resistance
Suppose a country that is being overrun by illegal immigrants has adopted a zero tolerance approach at immigration. But suppose some illegal immigrants approach the [...]
When the mind believes something is enjoyable, it stops evaluating whether it is actually enjoyable
Our mind often works like a programmed device, giving particular responses to particular stimuli. Some of this programming protects us from pain. For example, if [...]
The search for pleasure is often the source of the greatest trouble
The search for pleasures drives all of us. Unfortunately, it drives many of us to the opposite of its purpose – to trouble. Consider people [...]
Temptation buys us on an installment basis
When we buy something on an installment basis, we need to pay only small amounts at a time. By thus manageably dividing a large amount, [...]
Thwart the desires that titillate initially but torment eventually
When worldly desires tempt us, they promise us a lot of pleasure. And contemplating attractive worldly objects does titillate. However, no matter how intoxicating this [...]
Education is meant to inform and transform our imagination
Imagination is a basic human faculty that is value-neutral; it can be used both negatively or positively. Our education is meant to increase the positive [...]
Worldly enjoyment is the bait to worldly entanglement
When a fish that is swimming freely in the ocean gets allured by a bait, it soon gets trapped. We all are like that fish, [...]
Sense control will make us not deprived, but relieved
Consider an alcoholic who has understood the gravity of their addiction and is struggling to break free from it. For such a recovering alcoholic, the [...]
Focus on the present, but don’t fragment it from the future
“Live in the present” is a popular self-help slogan that can enhance our concentration and contribution in whatever we do. However, if this slogan becomes [...]
The mind can make us give up the wonderful for the dreadful
Suppose we are at a buffet meal in which one item is delicious and another is tasteless. If someone misinformed us and filled our plate [...]
To seek shortcuts is to be shortsighted
Shortcuts promise to take us to our destination quickly. But in our search for pleasure, sensual indulgences are shortcuts that actually take us away from [...]
Be not alarmed by the presence of impurities; be heartened by the presence of the alarm
The presence of impure desires in our consciousness can alarm us: “If despite my practice of bhakti, such dirty things are still there in my [...]
Sense gratification is a fascinating path to frustration
“Eat this; see this; touch this – and you will enjoy.” The world glamorizes sense gratification thus. In striking contrast, the Bhagavad-gita (05.22) asserts that [...]
Poison kills on consumption, but passion kills on contemplation
Most people won’t take poison willingly. In the past, when hemlock was used to execute capital punishment, it had to be administered forcibly. Yet there [...]