All material pleasures are essentially chemical highs. Whenever we perceive any attractive objects with our senses, the corresponding sensory mechanisms secrete certain chemicals. This chemical secretion gives us a temporary titillation that we call enjoyment. As our bodily capacity to secrete any chemical is limited, the enjoyment that we can ever get from any chemical high is also limited.
On the other hand, spiritual happiness exists in a realm far beyond chemical secretions; it depends on the connection of love between the soul and Krishna. This connection, being spiritual and eternal, floods us with a happiness that is free from the limits of matter and time.
We may wonder, are spiritual joys too not chemical phenomena? No, because their locus is in the soul. Of course, as long as we are embodied, all our emotions will generally correspond with a chemical expression in the body. However, spiritual emotions, unlike material emotions, are not limited by the secretory capacity of the body and can continue even when that capacity is exhausted. That’s why we can experience spiritual happiness by loving remembrance of Krishna in the most adverse of material circumstances when no chemical secretion or material enjoyment is possible: severe bodily pain or the last stages of terminal disease, for example.
The Bhagavad-gita (2.44) indicates that those addicted to material pleasures just can’t have the freedom of consciousness necessary to achieve and relish spiritual absorption. That’s why, the more we delight in chemical highs, the more our consciousness gets riveted to our material body which secretes these chemicals and becomes desensitized to spiritual emotions.
When we understand this mutual exclusivity of material enjoyment and spiritual fulfillment, then we can forego the fleeting chemical highs for the everlasting spiritual highs.
Bhagavad Gita Chapter 02 Text 44
“In the minds of those who are too attached to sense enjoyment and material opulence, and who are bewildered by such things, the resolute determination for devotional service to the Supreme Lord does not take place.”
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