Tag: Desires

When Indra sends Cupid to distract Nara-Nārāyaṇa Ṛṣi

When Indra saw Nara-Nārāyaṇa Ṛṣi doing severe penance in Badarikāśrama then he became fearful.  He thought that by doing such austerities Nara Narayana Rsi will become powerful and will take my heavenly kingdom.

Indra always gets disturbed when he sees someone engaged in spiritual activities very seriously. This is because he is attached to his power and position and do not want to lose his throne.

Srila Prabhupada explains that Indra did not understand the glories of the Supreme Lord. He thought the Lord to be like him, full of desires and getting affected by material senses.

To distract Nara-Nārāyaṇa Ṛṣi from doing penance, Indra sent Cupid to Badarikāśrama. But Nara-Nārāyaṇa Ṛṣi can never get agitated by lusty desires.

Never see the Supreme Lord with material vision

Srila Prabhupada always say that we should not consider the Lord to be at our level. In Mahaprabhu’s pastime also we see that Damodar Pandit did not like when Mahaprabhu was meeting a small child of a widow. Although Damodar Pandit did this because he had great love for Mahaprabhu, but Srila Prabhupada says that no one should think that Supreme Lord will be carried away by material desires.  

Later, in Mahaprabhu’s pastime we see that when the discussion came of Mahaprabhu meeting king Prataprudra then Mahaprabhu refused to meet him. He said, “People will criticize me saying that how as a sannyasi I can meet a worldly person. Leave the world, even Damodar Pandit, will criticize me.”

In Krishna Lila also we see how Satrajit started doubting that Krishna might have stolen Syamantaka jewel. Satrajit thought that like the demigods, the Lord will also be attracted to a jewel. Krishna is the master of the entire universe; he is the creator and maintainer of everything of this world. Then how can he be attracted to a mere jewel?

We should never see Lord with our material vision.  Material desires and material senses do not affect the Lord because he is spiritual and not material. He is the Supreme Lord of all the planets and creator of all the living entities.

Glories of Nara-Nārāyaṇa Ṛṣi

But unfortunately, Indra did not know the glory of the Lord. So, foolishly he sent cupid to Badarikāśrama to distract Nara-Nārāyaṇa Ṛṣi.

Now when the cupid began shooting arrows towards Nara-Nārāyaṇa Ṛṣi in the form of irresistible glances of beautiful women, they began laughing at their childish act. The Cupid and his associates understood their mistake and fell at the feet of the Lord. They begged Lord for forgiveness. The Lord who is always merciful forgave them.

To the surprise of the Cupid, many women began appearing from the body of the Supreme Lord who were extraordinarily beautiful.  And the Lord asked them to choose any one and take it as a gift to heaven. They chose Urvaśī and when in heaven Indra saw Urvaśī and heard the extraordinary qualities of the Supreme Lord, Narayana, he was frightened as well as astonished.

Lesser mortals of this Universe are attracted to sexual desires and fantasies, not the Supreme Lord. Also, those who understand these transcendental qualities of the Supreme Lord, use his mind and all senses in worshipping the Lord. By dedicating their lives in the service of the Lord they too lose taste for material sense gratification and get free from all sexual desires.

Free from all sensual desires, they live happy with the Lord forever.

Three Reflections

• To distract Nara-Nārāyaṇa Ṛṣi from doing penance, Indra sent Cupid to Badarikāśrama.
• When the cupid began shooting arrows towards Nara-Nārāyaṇa Ṛṣi in the form of irresistible glances of beautiful women, they began laughing at their childish act.
• Lesser mortals of this Universe are attracted to sexual desires and fantasies, not the Supreme Lord Narayana who is a plenary expansion of Krishna.

Ask Yourself

• Do I think the Supreme Lord will get affected by material desires?

Action Item

• Read the pastime of Nara-Nārāyaṇa Ṛṣi given in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.4.6 – 16.

Desires for sense gratification drive us crazy

Our heart is always filled with the desires for sense gratification and mind keeps on constantly planning how to actualize the desire.

We assume that our senses are subservient to us and it is our duty to provide them what it wants. So, we are always putting in our best efforts to satisfy our gross senses – eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and skin – and three subtle senses – mind, intelligence and false ego. 

Eyes want to see beautiful forms, ears want to hear different melody, nose wants to smell something nice, tongue is crazy for palatable food and skin long for sensual touch.

Similarly, our subtle senses are mad for gratification. 

And we think that as masters we should give best joy to our senses, and we hope that by doing so we will experience happiness. 

But the reality is that we are not the masters of our senses, but in fact we are under its control. And so, if we refuse to obey our senses then our senses make us go crazy.

Analyse your life and you will find that 24 hours in a day you are busy acting as per the dictate of your senses.

A person lives in vain, if he lives only to satisfy his senses

We think that by gratifying our senses we can be happy in this world. But this is never going to happen. And this is confirmed by none other than Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

He says to Arjuna that those who live only to gratify their senses lead a sinful and unhappy life.  “My dear Arjuna, one who does not follow in human life the cycle of sacrifice thus established by the Vedas certainly leads a life full of sin. Living only for the satisfaction of the senses, such a person lives in vain.” Bhagavad Gita 3.16

To lead a peaceful and blissful life, it is imperative that we take charge of our senses.  But it is important to understand that our senses cannot be inert and our heart cannot be without desires.

Currently our heart is impregnated with worldly desires and our senses are busy in fulfilling those desires. And because of this our heart is infested with vices and so, we suffer externally and most importantly internally.

So, to attain freedom from these unwanted sufferings, we need to have proper desires and the senses need good engagement.

Pain producing material desires

Just as a jasmine flower cannot give up its fragrance, similarly we the living entities cannot give up desires. So, we need to carefully analyse the desires which gives pleasure, and which produces pain. Engaging the senses to satisfy material desires rarely give any pleasure. 

And the dollops of happiness, we experience in this world by material means is always accompanied with the anxiety of losing it at any moment.

So, the wise men of the yore always advised against being bogged by pain producing material desires. Instead, they advised us to blossom our heart with spiritual desires which produces pleasures which are uncontaminated and unlimited and not ephemeral.

Krishna appeared to teach us the futility of material desires

Krishna personally appeared as Lord Chaitanya to teach us the necessity of giving up material desires and to pursue spiritual desires with determination.  He educated us by his own example. Lord Chaitanya was earlier known as Nimai and was recognized as a great scholar.

He had a very dedicated and beautiful wife and an extremely loving mother, but he gave up these worldly pleasures voluntarily. Instead, he donned a sanyasi robe at a young age to teach the world how to perfect once human life by sincerely engaging in Krishna Consciousness.   

His two foremost disciples, Rupa Goswami and Santana Goswami, too gave up wealth, power and position and engaged 24hrs in a day in Krishna Consciousness.

Similarly, Srila Prabhupada dedicated his life in fulfilling the desire of his spiritual master.  His spiritual master wanted him to broadcast the teachings of Lord Chaitanya all over the world. And Srila Prabhupada accomplished it with flying colours. His journey wasn’t smooth, but he bravely fought all the obstacles with grit and with faith in Krishna’s protection.

As of now we think that how can we be happy if we give up our material desires because we do not have experience of being happy by being spiritual. But at least we have the experience that worldly desires never satiate our heart.

Blossoming the heart with higher spiritual desires

And we see that pure devotees always remain blissful by just carrying the desire to always serve the desire of Krishna in their heart.

Replacing lower material desires become ultra simple if we replace it with bliss producing higher spiritual desires. Even Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita that lower taste can be given up only by higher taste and once taste for spiritual life fructifies in our heart, we will lose all our attraction for worldly desires.  

In this world one of the greatest desires is the desire to enjoy with the opposite sex. But even this can be given up easily if our heart gets attached to the lotus feet of Krishna.

There is a story of Dhanurdasa who was very attracted to the eyes of a lady. He would continuously look into her eyes thinking that this is the most beautiful creation in this world.  

Once Sri Ramanujacharya felt pity on him and showed him the eyes of Lord Ranganatha.

Dhanurdasa was wonderstruck. He got so mesmerized seeing the lotus like eyes of the beautiful Lord that he lost all attraction for the mundane eyes of the mortal lady.

Yamunacharya says candidly, “Since I have been engaged in the transcendental loving service of Kṛṣṇa, realizing ever-new pleasure in Him, whenever I think of sex pleasure, I spit at the thought, and my lips curl with distaste.”

Tolerating material desires

So, for our own good, we should focus on cultivating spiritual desires. But while doing so, we will be troubled by material desires. Unless we become completely purified, such lower desires will keep on knocking at our heart again and again. But we should not succumb to it.

Krishna advises in Bhagavad Gita 2.70 that just like ocean remains undisturbed by the incessant flow of rivers similarly we should not get agitated by the worldly desires which arise in our heart. We should neglect it and not act upon it. If we do so we will be peaceful.

Srimad Bhagavatam 7.15.22 says that if we make plans with determination then we will be able to ultimately give up lusty desires for sense gratification. And simultaneously, we should make plan to flood our heart with Krishna Conscious desires. In fact, just the desire to serve Krishna will fill our heart with joy.

Krishna says, “A person who has given up all desires for sense gratification, who lives free from desires, who has given up all sense of proprietorship and is devoid of false ego – he alone can attain real peace.” Bhagavad Gita 2.71

Purifying the senses by giving it blissful engagement

Now it is not just important to have the right desires, but we should also engage our senses in fulfilling those desires. If we study the life of pure devotees, we will see that their desire to serve the Lord did not remain dormant in their heart. But they worked tirelessly to serve the desire of the Lord.

For e.g. Hanuman was always busy in serving the wishes of Lord Rama to the best of his ability. And we know that Hanuman has humongous ability.  So, he did so many wonderful things for Lord Rama.

Rupa Goswami & Sanatana Goswami’s exemplary devotional service

Rupa Goswami and Sanatana Goswami were so busy in their devotional service that they hardly slept or ate.

They would be thoroughly occupied in writing transcendental books to glorify Krishna and the great fortune of the devotees who take shelter of Krishna. They revealed those glorious places in Vrindavan where Krishna performed his memorable pastimes. 

The two brothers also constructed gorgeous temples and installed beautiful deities for the people to come and relish the nectar of devotional life.  And the two brothers who were personally instructed by Lord Chaitanya spent every moment of the day in inspiring people to practice devotion to Krishna.  

Srila Prabhupada – the global spiritual warrior

Following the footsteps of Rupa Goswami and Sanatana Goswami, Srila Prabhupada too dedicated his life in widely distributing the transcendental message of Krishna and Chaitanya all over the world. He too built magnificent temples in different cities of the world, introduced the famous Rath Yatra festival outside India and wrote scores of transcendental literatures.

Like these liberated souls, we the conditioned souls should also not be idle but engage each of our senses in worshipping and serving the Lord. If we do so, we will be able to give up all desires for sense gratification and will always be engaged in the service of the Lord.

When toxic desires leave our heart, we feel great joy

And while doing so our heart will get cleansed of impurities like lust, anger and greed which is described as gateway to hell by Krishna in Bhagavad Gita.  Just like when toxins get removed from our body, we feel light and healthy.

Similarly, as the toxic desires will get flushed out from the heart and the senses will stop craving for those, we will start feeling light, healthy, peaceful and happy.  Once we free our heart of the desires for sense gratification, we will continuously experience great joy.

In that purified state, our eyes will enjoy seeing beautiful form of the Lord, ear in hearing the glories of the Lord, mouth in chanting the names of Lord, hands and legs in actively working for the Lord.

Experiencing the nectar of pure love of Krishna

Rupa Goswami shares his joy which he experiences while engaging his senses in chanting the names of Krishna in these beautiful words.

“I do not know how much nectar the two syllables ‘Kṛṣ-ṇa’ have produced. When the holy name of Kṛṣṇa is chanted, it appears to dance within the mouth. We then desire many, many mouths. When that name enters the holes of the ears, we desire many millions of ears. And when the holy name dances in the courtyard of the heart, it conquers the activities of the mind, and therefore all the senses become inert.” Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā 1.99

If we engage our senses in Krishna Consciousness, we will slowly begin realizing that if senses are pursuing material desires, we become miserable, but if senses are busy in the service of Krishna, then we feel contented and happy.

And a day will come when by the grace of Krishna, we will be able to give up all desires for sense gratification and attain freedom from all miseries.  Heart will no longer carry the burden of material desires and even if any worldly desire knocks at our heart, we will just ignore it.

By engaging the senses in always serving the lotus feet of the Lord, which is compared to wish fulfilling tree, we will taste the nectar of love of Krishna and will remain eternally happy.

Why did Prahlada pray for freedom from all material desires?

Prahlada could have asked anything but why did he pray to Lord Narasimhadeva to free his heart of all material desires. Lord Narasimhadeva had appeared for his pleasure, so, Prahlada could have easily asked for all material pleasures. But Prahlada who was just five years old was intelligent enough to understand that all material pleasures ultimately give great pain.

Many think that all powerful Lord Narasimhadeva whose nails are like sharp edged swords, appeared in this world to kill the demon, Hiranyakasipu. This can be one of the reasons. But the most important reason why Lord Narasimhadeva appeared was to bestow unlimited mercy upon Prahlada and to make Prahlada’s life glorious.   

This pastime of the Lord gives us great hope. We hope that a day will come when, like little Prahlada, we will at least get little mercy of Lord Narasimhadeva. But unlike Prahlada, our desires are not spiritual. We hope the Lord will merciful fulfil our material desires.

Are we visiting temple for right reason?

On the appearance day of Lord Narasimhadeva i.e. Narasimha Chaturdashi, we fervently pray to the Lord for his favor. So, we see that on that day, people in large numbers flock to Lord Narasimhadeva temple and wait with bated breath for the door of the temple to open. Is it because we want to see the Lord? It can be one of the reasons but may not be the main reason.

Why?

Because Lord Narasimhadeva is there in the temple 365 days of the year. But people think themselves too busy to go to the temple. So, now the original question, why do people go to temple on some important festivals like Narasimha Chaturdashi.

People flock to temple on auspicious days because scriptures say that on the day of festivals, Lord is extra merciful. Just like on a rainy day, sky bathes mother earth with unlimited quantity of water, similarly on the day of festivals like Narasimha Chaturdashi, Lord profusely distributes his mercy. 

So, lesser mortals like you and me think that Lord Narasimhadeva will be kind to us on the day he appeared. He will bless us, and his blessings will make sure that all the impediments which are coming in our way to actualize our cherished material goals will be destroyed. Once the obstacles are gone, material goals can be easily achieved.

And once we attain material success, we will attain happiness too. And then we will dance in delight like a child who after lots of crying gets a lollipop in his hand.

What if Lord refuses to fulfil our material desires?

Now, what if Lord does not fulfil our desires? He says, “You come to me, have my darshan but I will not give you anything in return.” In that situation, will we go to temple? Many of us will not then feel motivated to visit the Lord in the temple even on festival days.

Because, whatever we do in this world, we also want to find out, “What is there in it for me?”  As long as Lord is fulfilling our desires, we think God is Great. And if he refuses to be our yes man then immediately, we sideline him from our life.

So, if we analyse our life carefully then we will find that we do not generally go to temple because we have love for the Lord. We go there because we have love for ourselves. Almost all the time we think about ourselves, and we want the Lord to fulfil all our worldly desires.

We are self-obsessed. Always, we want something from the Lord. We rarely come to temple to give something to the Lord without expecting anything in return. Many businessmen give money to be used in the service of the Lord. This is good.

But in the back of their mind, they think that if we give Rs 1000 to the Lord then in return he will give us 10 times or maybe 100 times more.

Lord may give us. It is not difficult for him to make us rich. But this is not love. This is business. Just like when we invest in a mutual fund, we calculate how much return we will get. Similarly, when we invest money in the service of the Lord, we think how much return we will get.

Burden of material desires

We always think about our pleasure, but have we ever thought what pleases the Lord?

If we reflect on the life of pure devotees, we will see that they never asked for anything from the Lord. They always thought about the Lord’s satisfaction, not their personal satisfaction.

Let us see what exalted devotee Prahlada, who always meditated on the beautiful form of the Lord and his holy names, asked when Lord Narasimhadeva appeared in front of him.

Although Lord Narasimhadeva had killed the tyrant, Hiranyaskasipu, who had terrorized the universe he was still angry. But when the Lord saw little Prahlada who always thought well of others, he was so pleased. Looking into the innocent eyes of Prahlada, the Supreme Lord immediately said, “You ask for anything and I am ready to give.”

Now, suppose that if Lord showing compassion upon us appears in front of us and says the same thing, “I will fulfil all your desires, you just ask it.” We will immediately note down all our wishes neatly on a piece of paper and will start reading to the Lord.

Writing is important so that we may not forget anything to ask. And since our desires are unlimited, I am not sure how many reams of papers we will need to jot down our desires.

But Prahlada was not like us. He did not carry the burden of material desires in his heart. His tender heart was pure. Standing in front of Lord Narasimhadeva, Prahlada’s heart was filled with delight.

When material life ends, spiritual life begins

Folding his hands reverentially, Prahlada first bowed down unto the lotus feet of Lord Narasimhadeva and then he humbly said, “My dear most merciful Lord, my only desire is to not have any material desire. Please free my heart from all material desires.” 

“O my Lord, best of the givers of benediction, if You at all want to bestow a desirable benediction upon me, then I pray from Your Lordship that within the core of my heart there be no material desires.” Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 7.10.7

All the assembled great personalities like Mother Lakshmi, Lord Shiva and Parvati, Brahmaji and his spiritual master, Narada Muni, were so happy to hear this prayer of Prahlada.

Material desires are the root cause of our suffering. Almost always, our mind keeps on contemplating on material desires. And also keeps on planning how to fulfil those.

Once we free ourselves from the shackles of these unholy thoughts, our material life will end, and spiritual life will begin i.e. miseries will end and happiness will begin.  

Prahlada had asked the Lord to fulfil his desire which will free him from all present and future miseries. It will free him from the repeated cycle of birth and death. And most importantly, it will open the door of the spiritual world for him.

Desire to serve the Lord frees us from painful material desires

Hearing this desire of Prahlada, Lord Narasimhadeva who had decorated himself with the blood-soaked intestine of Hiranyakasipu became happy. The ferocious Lord had a big smile on his face.

The Supreme Lord said, “..the glories of your activities will be sung in the upper planetary systems, and being fully freed from all bondage, you will return home, back to Godhead.” Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.10.13

Hope a day will come when, like Prahlada, we will always think of the pleasure of the Lord. We will again and again pray to the Lord to free our heart and mind of all material desires and fill it with the desire to always serve the Lord without any ulterior motive.

When our heart blossoms with the desire to serve the Lord, painful material desires disappear.

Desire for material gain ultimately goes in vain

We all want inner peace, feel satisfied and want to be happy.  And the best way to achieve this,we think, is by satisfying all our material desires.  We tell to ourselves, “Once I accomplish my goal or goals I would be the happiest person.”

The problem is that even if we succeed in fulfilling some of our material desires we find that it does not give the expected happiness which we had thought of.  And soon some other desires pops up in our hearts and we start putting in our best efforts to fulfill it hoping that achieving it will fill our hearts with immense joy and satisfaction.  But upon achieving it too happiness and peace eludes us. And again we start working on our new material desires. The cycle continues.  In fact the desire for material gain ultimately goes in vain.

The other challenge is that it is not always possible to getwhat we want in this world. And if the desires remain unfulfilled then it generates anger and our mind becomes agitated. We constantly feel miserable.

So the books of wisdom such as Bhagavad Gita teaches us that happiness does not lie in endeavoring hard to satiate our material desires but in controlling them with intelligence and patience. Bhagavad Gita (5.23) teaches us that the forces of speech, the forces of belly, the forces of sexual desires should be controlled. In fact the urges of senses and mind which have the potential to make us and keep us agitated should be nipped in the bud.

Just like a fish if taken out from water and put in a golden jar suffers terribly and ultimately die. Similarly our soul cries in pain if we try to satisfy it by feeding it dollops of worldly pleasures.

Having material opulence does not guarantee happy heart.  Ravana had kingdom made of gold, Hiranyakasipu had every luxury which we can think of but their hearts remained always devoid of peace and bliss.  If we try to extinguish fire by pouring gallons of petrol over it the fire will become more dangerous. Similarly the more the material desires we cultivate the more our hearts will be agitated.

We are parts and parcels of Krishna and so we can be satisfied and be happy only when we dovetail all our desires towards the service of Krishna.  As of now we have willfully severed our relationship with Krishna so the material world keeps us agitated with the waves of worldly desires.   

But if we start tolerating material desires and start cultivating spiritual desires by following the guidelines of sacred books our mind will become peaceful, heart will be satisfied and we would achieve perfection.

“Those who are free from anger and all material desires, who are self – realized, self –disciplined and constantly endeavoring for perfection, are assured of liberation in the Supreme in the very near future.” Bhagavad Gita 5.26.

Spiritual desires keeps us blissful in this world and guarantee Supreme destination in next life. 

Don’t wait for old age. Let us give up the insatiable material desires now.