What restricts our acts of pleasing Krishna?

vāco vegam manasa-krodha vegam

jihva-vegam udaropastha-vegam

etan vegan yo vishaheta dhiraḥ

sarvam apīmāḿ prithvim sa sisyat

Nectar of Instruction Verse 1

TRANSLATION

A sober person who can tolerate the urge to speak, the mind's demands, the actions of anger and the urges of the tongue, belly and genitals is qualified to make disciples all over the world.- Power of the Tongue or Speech - It can either keep us in the material world or can take us back to the spiritual world. If it uses for material vibrations then it creates bondage and if used for chanting then can take towards liberation.

- The mind and tongue are intimately related because whatever impressions we have in the mind, the same will come in our speech.

- Manasa here means the mind filled with kama and desires and Krodha refers negative or hatred.
So these are the things Krishnan is telling us to create - iccha dvesa samutthena : The desire and hatred held in the mind make us to go through the materail universe. So the mind impells us to enjoy and for that we use our senses. The desire comes from the mind. Therefore the mind is generating us to do more activities in the world and increases desire for enjoyment. We don't like things which frustrate our happiness and the desire is that everything is for my enjoyment. But bhakti means only desiring happiness for Krishna. So if we indulge in all these things for our pleasue then how can we do bhakti? Because bhakti means only Krishna. Therefore it is necessary to control the mind. However Krishna is very merciful and He first tells that okay atleast start a little with faith. So he gives us sadhana bhakti which is still not pure but Krishna accepts it. With practice this sadhana bhakti can take us out of this iccha dvesa.

We should not be that we do our devotional service and then continue with what we want to do. That's why we have the 4 regulative principles which help us to control.

- The tongue is very difficult to control and simply by eating we can land up in Maya. It's because eating involves taste however whatever may taste nice will not be necessarily good for our spiritual or material advancement. It may look nice but it can be harmful for us. Your body is made up of what you eat and the food is also characteristised by the qualities of the gunas. So by changing one's food can change his mode of nature.

- Taking prasadam is an anga of bhakti. We can control jihva vegam by taking prasadam which is spiritual food and is purified and develops our attrcation for Krishna and distaste for material things. So again tongue is very crucial.

- Belly (Udara) : There is an urge to fill the belly is very harmful because the gunas keep going in and then it's affecting our mind.

- Upastha (Urges of the genitals): This is the real bondage and it keeps us attached to this material world. Like grha, ksetra, suta-apti.

- The best way is to do selfless service (devotional service) then the heart opens up and the mental body will also develop by process of bhakti. The peace of mind also comes by service by which one can focus on Krishna.

- Definition of Bhava is the heart becomes softenend and Prema bhakti means the heart becomes melted. Bhakti is not understood by intelligence but by taste.

- If one can simply control the senses, it does not make you a devotee however it is essential that we do control and not purposefully indulge in material pleasures as this will restrict our acts of pleasing Krishna.

(Explained by HH Bhanu Swami)

Posted by Jyoti to http://www.gloriouskrishna.blogspot.com/