Now Sri Krishna will talk about on what basis a person will become bāhya-sparśeṣv asaktātmā. Why one should give up outer pleasures Sri Krishna says because they lead to misery.

 

Bg 5.22

ye hi saṁsparśa-jā bhogā
duḥkha-yonaya eva te
ādy-antavantaḥ kaunteya
na teṣu ramate budhaḥ

Word for word: 

ye — those; hi — certainly; saṁsparśa–jāḥ — by contact with the material senses; bhogāḥ — enjoyments; duḥkha — distress; yonayaḥ — sources of; eva — certainly; te — they are; ādi — beginning; anta — end; vantaḥ — subject to; kaunteya — O son of Kuntī; na — never; teṣu — in those; ramate — takes delight; budhaḥ — the intelligent person.

Translation: 

An intelligent person does not take part in the sources of misery, which are due to contact with the material senses. O son of Kuntī, such pleasures have a beginning and an end, and so the wise man does not delight in them.

 

ye hi saṁsparśa-jā -> saṁsparśa–jā means by contact of senses with sense object. Bhogā – means sense pleasure. When there is contact of senses with sense object, the tongue eats delicious food, hand touch soft objects, the eyes sees something beautiful so there is bhoga there is pleasure at that time but what happens Sri Krishna says duḥkha-yonaya eva te, there is duhkha, why there is duhkha because this is temporary, when we seek sense pleasure there are three possibilities 

  •  it is unattainable, our eyes see so many good looking forms no human being satisfy all good looking form that eyes sees, so most of the pleasure we look around are unattainable that just creates craving, craving, craving, I don’t get anything at all.
  1.  Even if it is attainable it is not palatable that means I get it but after I get it I think it is not pleasurable at all, I dreamt so much, somebody thinks there is this new hotel it serves so many delicious food I will go there to eat but when I go out and find out it doesn’t taste at all good. We get it, but it is not up to our expectation not palatable.
  2.  Even it is palatable it is not retainable. Even we get most attractive sense object how long can we enjoy it? Body’s capacity is limited, our body itself is time bound, every sense object is time bound so nothing is retainable.

 

So all these three ways not attainable, not palatable and not retainable all three ways we will get misery. Ultimately what we will get is Dhuk Yone Eve Te. So there is some pleasure but when it goes away it will lead to misery.

 

Sense pleasure is like a sandwich, in sandwich there are two thick loafs and it between there is some delicious item there may be some butter there may be some vegetables something fried or something spicy which taste really good. Now imagine a sandwich and both of its loaf upper and lower loaf is huge and they are not only tasteless they are unpalatable entirely, so one starts eating and it is not good so one things at least there is thin layer in between that I will enjoy but then if one goes through sandwich and goes through it and find there is nothing in between and then we find there is next loaf that is also dry and tasteless, so this two loafs refers, loaf before the thin layer represents hankering and loaf after thin layer is lamentation, and it between there is little pleasure. And sometime we are cheated where there is nothing in between only two loafs, there are just two loafs together. So every sense pleasure if we think of, first there is hankering, I wanted…I wanted…When I will get it…when I will get it. Mind is beating us come on I wanted it …so there is hankering, and hankering people call it pleasurable but it is not pleasurable it is miserable. Actually when we start fantasizing about sense gratification it is torcher when desire comes…do it…do it…do it. And as and when it experiencing the torment of hankering, craving and then one gets the enjoyment. Actually what we call it pleasurable it largely relief of that torment. That all a relief of the torment and then the tiny layer of the sandwich we taste it and Oh it got over. I wanted to go on but it got over. I wanted to go on but it got over why? I want more but I can’t get it, then there is lamentation. Between hankering and lamentation there is tiny little pleasure. 

So ādy-antavantaḥ kaunteya, what Sri Krishna is telling, this sandwich example is good to understand, just like sandwich where the taste layer is only in between and that is tiny by the time we will barely pass through it, it will get over. So similarly the sense pleasure is having beginning and it has end. Therefore a wise person na teṣu ramate budhaḥ, the wise person does not delight in such a pleasure. Buddha is wise person. So Sri Krishna is contrasting in what he has used in previous verse, in previous verse he has used AsamMudha, Asammudha is a person who is not deluded, here the person is buddha, so there is buddha and there is Mudha, Buddha is a person who is not infatuated by material pleasures, Mudha is a person who gets intoxicated and infatuated by material pleasure. Na Tesu Ramat, Na Ramate means does not delight, such a person knows that these pleasure there is nothing to look forward there is nothing to delight.

Now Sri Krishna is using a very precise words here duḥkha-yonaya eva te, yoni means womb, so duḥkha-yonaya means the womb of misery, what Sri Krishna is saying is sense pleasure is pregnancy of misery, now when there is pregnancy there may not seem to be any immediate change over there but once there is pregnancy there is delivery, similarly sense pleasure is pregnant with misery, once the pregnancy is there the delivery of misery is going to come and this is such a delivery that so abortion is possible, you can’t avoid it once it is started it will take off its own momentum, one cannot stop it, it will steamroll, ones protest and attempts to stop and the misery will hit us, we can’t avoid it so duḥkha-yonaya eva te, so it is a womb of misery, So when one understand that there is misery which is bound to come sooner or later when I will engage in sense gratification the person says I do not want to involve in this, na teṣu ramate budhaḥ.

 

Srila Prabhupada takes the word Rama, na teṣu rama, he connects with Padma Purana where it is described what word Ram means

ramante yogino ’nante
satyānande cid-ātmani
iti rāma-padenāsau
paraṁ brahmābhidhīyate

“The mystics derive unlimited transcendental pleasures from the Absolute Truth, and therefore the Supreme Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead, is also known as Rāma.”

 

ramante yogino ’nante, Ananta Raman, they enjoy unlimitedly, in what satyānande cid-ātmani, satyānand they experience real happiness, cid-ātmani, they experience spiritual happiness in the atma, mythiya-ananda, is what is there in this world, iti rāma-padenāsau – that absolute truth that is given the name Ram, paraṁ brahmābhidhīyate, ābhidhīyate means it is knows as. 

So that absolute truth which enables one to experience greater happiness that is called as Ram. The word Rama rmaite rememti it is said, one who delights and gives delight, so the Lord delights Himself and gives delights to others Ramti Rameiyte Iti Ram. 

That’s another explanation for yogis, now everyone cannot do Raman in Ram. Materialistic people will say what story you are talking about, what is the big deal about it, but they want some other stories, they want Mickey Mouse and Harry Potter. And they will be having all kinds of fantasy novels which they will be reading, so why not ready about Supreme Lord and develop a taste over there, so Ramante Yogino Anante, we all want something fantastic something wonderful something extraordinary to think about to study to hear, so if we get that in Supreme Lord it is wounderful. So Ramante Yogino Anante,

So na teṣu ramate budhaḥ, the wise people will not enjoy it, what wise people do they enjoy the relationship with Supreme Lord. And Srila Prabhupada quotes famous word of Sri Mad Bhagavatam, teaching of Rishavdev this is the starting verse but Prabhupada has quoted from this in 5.1 and 5.4 onwards. So ley us look at this verse: 

 

In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam also (5.5.1) it is said:

nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛ-loke
kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye
tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena sattvaṁ
śuddhyed yasmād brahma-saukhyaṁ tv anantam

“My dear sons, there is no reason to labor very hard for sense pleasure while in this human form of life; such pleasures are available to the stool-eaters [hogs]. Rather, you should undergo penances in this life by which your existence will be purified, and as a result you will be able to enjoy unlimited transcendental bliss.”

 

nāyaṁ deho, with this body, deha-bhājāṁ nṛ-loke, deha-bhājāṁ means one shouldn’t enjoy, nṛ-loke – especially in the human body, that pleasure which born with the deha, kaṣṭān kāmān arhate – so one should not do Kasta to fulfil Kama, one doesn’t have to do enormous hard work, Kama to fulfil lust, why? 

viḍ-bhujāṁ ye, so this word is like a slap on the face of sense enjoyer, what it said over there? That what is the pleasure that one is enjoying? It is pleasure of viḍ-bhujāṁ, Vid is stool, those who enjoy the stool that is their pleasure, what is the meaning of that? The stool enjoyers are the hogs, so what is the pleasure of the hogs, hogs are animals and animals live for eating, sleeping, mating and defending, so even pigs have their piglets, they also enjoy their sense pleasure and if human beings also do that then what is so special about human being? So viḍ-bhujāṁ, so He is saying this is standard of animal pleasure why should a human being work hard for that pleasure which is enjoyed by this low class animals, so what should one do? Tapo Divyam. Devine austerity one should perform, what will happen by that austerity? What will happen by that austerity? putrakā yena sattvaṁ, he is saying my dear sons, putrakā, yena sattvaṁ śuddhyed, your consciousness will become purified, if you do austerity your consciousness will become purified, then what will happen by that? yasmād brahma-saukhyaṁ tv anantam, You will experience Brahma Sukha which is Anantha. So this verse is saying don’t enjoy because it will lead to misery, Prabhupada says yes that is what the scriptures says that it is a low class pleasure, animal level pleasure don’t enjoy it but seek to become purified by performing austerity then one can have unlimited happiness. 

This brahma-saukhyaṁ tv anantam can be correlated with 5.21, Sukham Akshiyem eisnute …so here unlimited happiness there is saying imperishable happiness, same point, so how do it work why do we need to do austerity? Because in the transitional stage when we are winning ourselves away from material pleasure and we are trying to gain spiritual pleasure at that time there is struggle, but if we go through the struggle, if we weather the storm then what happens is we move further and we really experience spiritual happiness, so Sukham Akshiyem eisnute, it is like a diseased condition a diseased condition a person cannot enjoy, so the period of treatment is period of austerity after the austerity one gets the happiness. Once one is healthy, so Srila Prabhupada writes: The more one is addicted to material pleasures, the more he is entrapped by material miseries. So more pleasure we will seek in material level more misery also we will get we can’t avoid that.