Controlling lust

S K, 19^th May 2011

Hare Krishna

Humble obeisances to all devotees

All glories to Srila Gurudeva

All glories to Srila Prabhupada

I find it difficult to control lust.  What is the best and effective way to control lust?

Kindly advice

Humbly yours

Jagannatha dasa , 19^th May 2011

Hare Krishna prabhu,

Please accept my humble obeisances.

All glories to Sri Guru and Gauranga!

All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Please find below some advice from Srila Gurudeva on this topic.  Although they are lengthy and heavy quotes, I am sure they will be helpful when applied.  I have included the questions for context.

Question:

What Does Krishna Prescribe to Fight Lust?…

I would like to know how to fight against the greatest enemy of mankind, namely lust.  Krishna says that the senses, the mind, and the intelligence are sitting places of lust.  Even though it is 90% possible to fight against lust while we are awake and Krishna conscious, lust seems to be unconquerable while in dreams.  In sleep I utterly fail.

Your student

Answer:

Purify Your Love…

Our nature is to love.  When that love is selfish, it is lust.  When it is selfless, it is pure love.  Love become pure selfless love when it offered 100% in the Lord’s service.

It’s not that it is just 90% possible to fight lust when you are awake. It is 100% possible. Not only is it possible to fight lust. One can definitely 100% defeat lust by taking seriously to the pathway of Krishna consciousness.

When your waking consciousness is 100% immersed in Krishna bhakti, your dreaming consciousness will naturally mirror it and your dreams will be filled with thoughts of Krishna. This requires steady dedicated practice, but it most definitely attainable for those who are very serious about spiritual life.

(Thought For the Day Sep. 18th, 2006.  Q and A section.)

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Question: How to Control Lust?

I am really not able to control my lust, Maharaja! Please guide me properly for controlling lust (illicit sex).  I have heard that thinking about sex is also illicit sex.

Your student

Answer: Decide What You Want to Be

You simply have to decide whether you want to be human being or an animal and then act accordingly

(Thought For the Day

Dec. 18th, 2009.  Q and A section.)

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Question:  How Can I Give Up Lust?…

How can I give up lust?  Sometimes it is very strong desire and still there within my heart.  I really want to give up this desire and to be Krishna Consciousness. Please help me.

Your student

Answer:  Experience Genuine Pleasure on the Spiritual Platform…

Lust is a desire to enjoy the contact between your material senses and the object of the material senses in the form of a member of the opposite sex. In order for sex pleasure to be enjoyable one has to come down to the platform of identifying the body with the self. This is a false concept which prolongs one’s enslavement within the cycle of birth and death. By coming down to the bodily platform, on which there is only a perverted reflection of actual pleasure, one simply cheats himself out of factual happiness in the worst possible way. Why it is the worst way? Because there is no material pleasure greater than sex pleasure, there is nothing that reinforces the false bodily conception of the self more than sex. It causes one to very strongly identity as a male or as a female making transcendental realization impossible.

The first step in giving up lust is remember that you are not your body and that therefore sex pleasure does not actually touch the soul. You should realize that it is superficial, not real pleasure and that therefore it is tenth class pleasure at best. Remember that the first class pleasure, the real pleasure, comes from re-establishing one’s lost relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. There is no pleasure anywhere in the universe that comes even close to pleasure derived at every minute by one who has awakened the dormant love of God within their heart. So if one is seeking real and lasting pleasure and satisfaction, he should know that the best pleasure and satisfaction comes from developing one’s love for God.

The next step is to experience genuine pleasure on the transcendental platform. This pleasure, once tasted, will be experienced as a higher taste, a greater pleasure, that what can be derived by any amount of material sense gratification. This pleasure can be easily experienced by one who engages himself in the sankirtana yajna, the congregational chanting of the Holy Names of God in the association of advanced transcendentalists:

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare

Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare

(Thought For the Day Feb. 14th, 2007)

Please forgive the extra long post.

Your servant,

-Jagannatha dasa

Pranathi , 19^th May,2011

Hari bol prabhujis… essential question and amazing answers… thank you very very much for enlightening us… i am sure each and every one of us suffers from the inability to control lust… by Guru’s and Krishna’s immense grace i hope that we’ll all be able to love Krishna beyond this bag of flesh and bones!

Hare Krishna!

Vraja Kishor Das , 23^rd May,2011

If you have that wish to control it and that strong lust comes you

just shout

Jay Radha Madan Moahan!!!

Jay Radha Madan Moahan!!!

Jay Radha Madan Moahan!!!

and cupid will remove his piercing arrows 😉

Only by practising Krishna Consciousness you will able to purify from

lust.

Venudhari Krishna das, 24^th May,2011

 Perfect Answer, Thanks Vraja Kishore Prabhu

(Conversation compiled by Sunil)