Stopping the waves of material Desire
SB 4.22.39–TRANSLATION–The devotees, who are always engaged in the service of the toes of the lotus feet of the Lord, can very easily overcome hard-knotted desires for fruitive activities.Because this is very difficult, the non devotees—the jñānīs and yogīs—although trying to stop the waves of sense gratification, cannot do so. Therefore you are advised to engage in the devotional service of Kṛṣṇa, the son of Vasudeva.
PURPORT—There are three kinds of transcendentalists trying to overcome the influence of the modes of material nature—the jñānīs, yogīs and bhaktas. All of them attempt to overcome the influence of the senses, which is compared to the incessant waves of a river. The waves of a river flow incessantly, and it is very difficult to stop them. Similarly, the waves of desire for material enjoyment are so strong that they cannot be stopped by any process other than bhakti-yoga. The bhaktas, by their transcendental devotional service unto the lotus feet of the Lord, become so overwhelmed with transcendental bliss that automatically their desires for material enjoyment stop. … As long as one continues to try to artificially stop the waves of desires, he will certainly be defeated. That is indicated in this verse. Desires for fruitive activities are strongly rooted, but the trees of desire can be uprooted completely by devotional service because devotional service employs superior desire. One can give up inferior desires when engaged in superior desires. To try to stop desires is impossible. One has to desire the Supreme in order not to be entangled in inferior desires….As long as one is unable to stop the desire for material enjoyment, there is no possibility of becoming liberated from the entanglement of material existence. …When the tide comes over the river, it overwhelms the flowing of the river, and the river itself becomes overflooded, and the waves from the sea become more prominent than the waves from the river. Similarly, a devotee with intelligence plans so many things for the service of the Lord in Kṛṣṇa consciousness that stagnant material desires become overflooded by the desire to serve the Lord. .. The conclusion is that by developing a loving desire for the service of the lotus feet of the Lord, we subdue all material desires for sense gratification.
April 3 1975 Mayapur–If you think, “Now I have chanted my sixteen rounds. Now I’ve finished my business. Now I can do whatever nonsense I like,” no. Kṛṣṇa says no. Satata. Therefore we have to plan our life in such a way that we haven’t got any other engagement than service of Kṛṣṇa. This is required. ….. Unless you develop love for Kṛṣṇa, you cannot be engaged twenty-four hours. That is not possible.
SB 4.22.39–purport–Jñānīs maintain a desire to become one with the Supreme, but such desire is also considered to be kāma, lust. Similarly, the yogīs desire mystic power, and that is also kāma. And the bhaktas, not being desirous of any sort of material enjoyment, become purified. There is no artificial attempt to stop desire. Desire becomes a source of spiritual enjoyment under the protection of the toes of the lotus feet of the Lord.
751102mw.nai –Conversations
Harikesa: So if a devotee dies and remembers Krsna, although he is not perfect…
Prabhupada: Unless he is perfect, he cannot remember Krsna. That is
not possible. That is not possible. That is theory only. He must be
perfect.
SB 4.28.34 The word madireksana is also significant in this verse. Srila Jiva
Gosvami has explained in his Sandarbha that the word madira means
“intoxicating.” If one’s eyes become intoxicated upon seeing the
Deity, he may be called madireksana. Queen Vaidarbhi’s eyes were very
enchanting, just as one’s eyes are madireksana when engaged in seeing
the temple Deity. Unless one is an advanced devotee, he cannot fix his
eyes on the Deity in the temple.
Lecture NY sept 18 1966
So in my childhood, when I was five or six years old, I requested my father that “Father, give me this Deity. I shall worship.” So father purchased for me little Krishna, Radha, and he gave me, and I was imitating. Whatever foodstuff I was getting, I was offering to Krishna and eating. In this way I got my life developed. And there was a temple in our neighbourhood.So I was seeing the Krishna deity. Oh, I was thinking…..I still remember. I was standing for hours together.
So the above statements are meant to show us that spiritual life is not something cheap.
Oh, I am initiated, I am “saved” or…“I am going back to Godhead at the end of this life”.
That may be, but we must first of all, become 100% pure and free of all desire for material enjoyment, and mental speculations. This is not such an easy thing to do. Srila Prabhupada explains to us that to get rid of material desire by the process of jnana (mental speculation) or yoga, gymnastic mystic exercises, is a waste of time and impossible. When the rivers of desire over flood our minds the only thing that will stop them is when the ocean itself over floods the rivers, and that ocean is the ocean of Bhakti yoga or devotional service, which must be uninterrupted and unmotivated.
So now the next question one may ask is HOW AND WHY did we get into this situation in the first place anyway? Here is Srila Prabhupadas answers.
SB 2.9.1-purport–Mahārāja Parīkṣit’s question as to how a living entity began his material life, although he is apart from the material body and mind, is perfectly answered. The spirit soul is distinct from the material conception of his life, but he is absorbed in such a material conception because of being influenced by the external energy of the Lord, called ātma-māyā. This has already been explained in the First Canto in connection with Vyāsadeva’s realization of the Supreme Lord and His external energy. The external energy is controlled by the Lord, and the living entities are controlled by the external energy-by the will of the Lord. Therefore, although the living entity is purely conscious in his pure state, he is subordinate to the will of the Lord in being influenced by the external energy of the Lord. In the Bhagavad-gītā (15.15) also the same thing is confirmed; the Lord is present within the heart of every living entity, and all the living entity’s consciousness and forgetfulness are influenced by the Lord.
Now the next question automatically made will be why the Lord influences the living entity to such consciousness and forgetfulness. The answer is that the Lord clearly wishes that every living entity be in his pure consciousness as a part and parcel of the Lord and thus be engaged in the loving service of the Lord as he is constitutionally made; but because the living entity is partially independent also, he may not be willing to serve the Lord, but may try to become as independent as the Lord is. All the non devotee living entities are desirous of becoming equally as powerful as the Lord, although they are not fit to become so. The living entities are illusioned by the will of the Lord because they wanted to become like Him. Like a person who thinks of becoming a king without possessing the necessary qualification, when the living entity desires to become the Lord Himself, he is put in a condition of dreaming that he is a king. Therefore the first sinful will of the living entity is to become the Lord, and the consequent will of the Lord is that the living entity forget his factual life and thus dream of the land of utopia where he may become one like the Lord. The child cries to have the moon from the mother, and the mother gives the child a mirror to satisfy the crying and disturbing child with the reflection of the moon. Similarly, the crying child of the Lord is given over to the reflection, the material world, to lord it over as karmī and to give this up in frustration to become one with the Lord. Both these stages are dreaming illusions only. There is no necessity of tracing out the history of when the living entity desired this. But the fact is that as soon as he desired it, he was put under the control of ātma-māyā by the direction of the Lord.
Seattle oct 7 1968—
Upendra: Prabhupāda, can you explain mahāmāyā and yogamāyā? Was Arjuna under yogamāyā or mahāmāyā?
Prabhupāda: Arjuna, when he was thinking in terms of his personal sense gratification, he was under mahāmāyā. And when he agreed to execute the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then he’s under yogamāyā.
Upendra: How is it Arjuna, if he was eternally liberated…
Prabhupāda: Because he is living entity, he is marginal. There is chance of... Marginal means… I have explained several times. Just like the land. Between the ocean and the land, there is a portion of land which is sometime merged within water, sometimes it is land. So a living entity’s position is like that, marginal energy. He may be under the influence of yogamāyā or he may be under the influence of mahāmāyā. When he is under the influence of mahāmāyā, that is his conditional life. And when he is under the influence of yogamāyā, he’s free. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.