Thursday, August 03, 2006
GITA 108 DAYS - DAY 32
32. Desires are behind the sins
Arjuna’s doubt was that ‘who’ makes everyone commits these horrible sins? Lord Krishna replied that the sins are due to the endless desires born out of ‘rajo guna’. It is the desire that makes people to commit sinful actions.
The Indian philosophy doesn’t preach us to deny desires, but the desires must be in accordance with dharma. If we fulfill certain desires by the single pointed attention of the mind and the intellect, those will be a blessing to the whole world. Assess all desires –whether they are dharmic or not. If it is according to dharma, one can earn any amount of wealth or perform any action. If the fulfilling a desire is the goal, check to see if the way to achieve that is dharmic or not.
If we undertake a wrong action to fulfill a desire, it will result in a fall and behind all our sorrows, there is a desire. Desires and rage due to non-fulfillment of desires are man’s enemies.
Truth has been concealed in different levels - at intellectual, mental and at the sense level. Intellectually, it is like the ash covering the fire. If we blow a little, we can reveal the fire. Mentally, it is like a dirty mirror. One should work hard to wipe clean the mirror. At the sense level, it is like the baby in the womb, covered by the skin bag, that only the time can remove. Everyone has the ability and power to remove the cover and find the truth. We just have to work a little.
For a wise man, his prime enemy is the desires that conceal the knowledge of the self. We run after money thinking that it can fulfill our desires, but these journeys create more afflictions in us. Winning over the senses doesn’t mean that we should suppress the senses because forceful control of the senses will create more problems and illness. It is about observing everything from a standpoint beyond the sway of the senses. With that vision, one should annihilate those desires destroying our knowledge and experience.
Senses are great indeed. Greater than senses is the mind and the intellect is the greatest of the three. But these three are abodes of desires. But the noblest of all is the ‘self’ and everyone should know this eternal Truth.
Arjuna’s doubt was that ‘who’ makes everyone commits these horrible sins? Lord Krishna replied that the sins are due to the endless desires born out of ‘rajo guna’. It is the desire that makes people to commit sinful actions.
The Indian philosophy doesn’t preach us to deny desires, but the desires must be in accordance with dharma. If we fulfill certain desires by the single pointed attention of the mind and the intellect, those will be a blessing to the whole world. Assess all desires –whether they are dharmic or not. If it is according to dharma, one can earn any amount of wealth or perform any action. If the fulfilling a desire is the goal, check to see if the way to achieve that is dharmic or not.
If we undertake a wrong action to fulfill a desire, it will result in a fall and behind all our sorrows, there is a desire. Desires and rage due to non-fulfillment of desires are man’s enemies.
Truth has been concealed in different levels - at intellectual, mental and at the sense level. Intellectually, it is like the ash covering the fire. If we blow a little, we can reveal the fire. Mentally, it is like a dirty mirror. One should work hard to wipe clean the mirror. At the sense level, it is like the baby in the womb, covered by the skin bag, that only the time can remove. Everyone has the ability and power to remove the cover and find the truth. We just have to work a little.
For a wise man, his prime enemy is the desires that conceal the knowledge of the self. We run after money thinking that it can fulfill our desires, but these journeys create more afflictions in us. Winning over the senses doesn’t mean that we should suppress the senses because forceful control of the senses will create more problems and illness. It is about observing everything from a standpoint beyond the sway of the senses. With that vision, one should annihilate those desires destroying our knowledge and experience.
Senses are great indeed. Greater than senses is the mind and the intellect is the greatest of the three. But these three are abodes of desires. But the noblest of all is the ‘self’ and everyone should know this eternal Truth.
# posted by Sukumar Canada @ 2:42 PM 
