Checkmate signifies final, irreversible defeat. In material existence, checkmate comes in the form of death. It terminates all our dreams and schemes for enjoyment at the material level.
Significantly, death is an event of the body, not of the soul. As long as we live in bodily consciousness, we suffer the trauma of death. Once we go beyond bodily consciousness, we go beyond death. That is, we see death not as a termination, but as a transition as a shift to another level of existence in our ongoing spiritual evolution.
What keeps our consciousness stuck at the material level?
Our desires to enjoy matter.
Central among these desires is sexual desire. Sex allures us with promises of bliss unending. These promises are patently false because the body’s capacity to enjoy, indeed the body itself, is temporary. Still, the allure of sex is so seductive that it keeps us forever captivated. If we wish to become free from this captivation, we need to check the urge to mate and choose to pursue spiritual happiness.
The Bhagavad-gita (05.22) underscores the temporary nature of sensual pleasures and declares that the wise don’t delight in such pleasures. To aid us in joining the ranks of the wise, the next verse urges us to tolerate sensual desires and live within the principles of dharma. To sustain this tolerance, the subsequent verse recommends redirection of our search for happiness from outwards to inwards, from matter to spirit. This verse assures that those who thus strive for inner happiness eventually attain spiritual liberation, thereby transcending death. Bhakti-yoga offers the most expeditious way to connect with the supreme spiritual reality, Krishna, thereby relishing the topmost spiritual happiness.
Thus by the strength of spiritual devotion, we can check the urge to mate and avoid the checkmate of death.
Brilliant title and precise explanation
Thank you Prabhuji for sharing.
Hare Krishna !
Hare krishna prabhuji,
Intelligent people test the real nectar of loving devotion towards Krishna and thus seek the true eternal happiness and for them sensual pleasures is nothingness.
Thank you very much.
Hare krishna Pr, Dandwat pranaam.
Very wonderfully described the root cause of all our suffering although the activity itself is very alluring.
I believe the only way we can detach from such sensory allurement and too much attraction of the opposite sex by association of saintly people who are always julibiliant and always so enthusiatic in their services.
Without the mercy of krishna and vaishanavs I think it is not possible to give up the attachment of “mate” since the allurement is very tempting.
jai radhe shyam.