Author: Mahabhagavat Das SDA

I am a formally initiated disciple of His Grace Sriman Sankarshan Das Adhikari. My spiritual master was initiated by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in 1971. He is the author of the famous Ultimate Self Realization Course. Check it out at www.joincourse.com.

Controlling lust

S K, 19th 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 , 19th 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.)

—–

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.)

—–

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 , 19th 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 , 23rd 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, 24th May,2011

 Perfect Answer, Thanks Vraja Kishore Prabhu

(Conversation compiled by Sunil)

Importance of hearing from right source

Rahul Mangla, Jun 2, 2011

The statement kariyāchi śravaṇa (“I have heard it”) is very important in the sense that hearing is more important than directly studying or perceiving. If one is expert in hearing and hears from the right source, his knowledge is immediately perfect. This process is called śrauta-panthā, or the acquisition of knowledge by hearing from authorities. All Vedic knowledge is based on the principle that one must approach a bona fide spiritual master and hear from him the authoritative statements of the Vedas. It is not necessary for one to be a highly polished literary man to receive knowledge; to receive perfect knowledge from a perfect person, one must be expert in hearing. This is called the descending process of deductive knowledge, or avaroha-panthā. 
CC Ädi 16.52

The Lord can be realized through the aural reception of the transcendental
message, and that is the only way to experience the transcendental subject.
As fire is kindled from wood by another fire, the divine consciousness of
man can similarly be kindled by another divine grace. His Divine Grace the
spiritual master can kindle the spiritual fire from the woodlike living
entity by imparting proper spiritual messages injected through the receptive
ear. Therefore one is required to approach the proper spiritual master with
receptive ears only, and thus divine existence is gradually realized. The
difference between animality and humanity lies in this process only. A human
being can hear properly, whereas an animal cannot.
Srimad-Bhägavatam 1.2.32 

 

Mahabhagavat Das SDA, Jun 14, 2011

Hare Krishna Rahul Prabhu,  Also, would like to add that reading is actually a form of hearing…
because when a pure devotee writes, then such a devotee’s spoken kirtana is
recorded in the form of writing, and when we read, we are hearing the
recording of the pure devotee’s written Kirtan… Prabhupada explained this
to his disciples.

So, that is why, Srila Prabhupada called the distribution of his books the
“Brhad Mridanga” or the “Great Mridanga”, the analogy he gave was that if we
have a Kirtan, then the sound of the Kirtan may reach a few metres, and as
someone goes further, the sound gets fainter and fainter until a point when
one cannot hear it at all, but the book travels great distances with the
“hearer” without losing its intensity.

Of course, books must be read in the company and association of devotees who are actually following properly what is in the books, otherwise there is the
danger of misunderstanding.

Your servant,
Mahabhagavat Das

 

(Conversation compiled by Nashvin Gangaram)

Hare Krishna, dear world!

Conversations on how to lead a Krishna conscious lifestyle