Materialistic people consider sense gratification to be life’s ultimate purpose – they crave and slave to achieve it.

However, sense pleasure is inescapably temporary. The more we indulge in it, the more we find ourselves dissatisfied because every indulgence increases the craving for more and more pleasure. The Bhagavad-gita (05.22) states that wise people abstain from sense pleasure, knowing that it is temporary and that it leads to misery. The previous verse states that those who develop their spiritual connection with their inner core relish unlimited happiness. These two verses imply that we need the wisdom to recognize the inadequacy of pursuing sense pleasure and look for something higher in our pursuit for pleasure.

Unfortunately, in today’s world, the technological facilities that surround us submerge us in an ocean of temptation. With the almost unlimited options for sense pleasure dangling around us, we keep believing that somewhere out there exists some sense pleasure that will satisfy us. Even if thousands of past indulgences have left us unsatisfied, the sheer force of the world’s sensual propaganda makes us believe that our next indulgence will satisfy us, and that not indulging in it will keep us unbearably dissatisfied.

Only when we regularly and rigorously expose ourselves to Gita wisdom will we get the sharp and strong intelligence to see through the façade of sense pleasure and seek something higher. And when we become such intrepid seekers, the path of bhakti-yoga beckons us to connect with all-attractive Krishna, who is the reservoir of all pleasure and is the source of the attractiveness of even the most attractive sense objects. When we become absorbed in Krishna with single-minded devotion, we relish the unending spiritual happiness that far supersedes sense pleasure.

By thus having the sense to see beyond sense pleasure, we can savor the supreme pleasure.

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