Krishna describes enemy, the enemy covers our intelligence. Where is that enemy present?
BG 3.40
asyadhishthanam ucyate
etair vimohayaty esha
SYNONYMS
indriyani — the senses; manah — the mind; buddhih — the intelligence; asya — of this lust; adhishthanam — sitting place; ucyate — is called; etaih — by all these; vimohayati — bewilders; eshah — this lust; jnanam — knowledge; avritya — covering; dehinam — of the embodied.
TRANSLATION
The senses, the mind and the intelligence are the sitting places of this lust. Through them lust covers the real knowledge of the living entity and bewilders him.
The senses, the mind and the intelligence are the sitting places of this lust. Through them lust covers the real knowledge of the living entity and bewilders him.
Lust is situated in our own mind our own senses and our own intelligence.
Lust is not situated in the female form, lust is not situated in the female dress or no dress. Male may see a female and get provoked but lust is not there in female form, a baby may be touching some private part of a female but baby doesn’t get agitated that means lust is not there in female form. Lust is not present in the form but lust is provoked through that form but it is situated in our own body mind and senses.
We can’t blame others if we become lusty, lust is there within us.
There is a very sad phenomena called blaming the victimizing women, if a women is violated people say because she was dressed like that or she went here and there so she was violated, no matter how women dresses if a male has forcibly violated women the responsibility is on male and not on women.
The character of women doesn’t matter. If someone dresses like that it doesn’t give us license to do bad, lust is within us.
The other perspective is the way we dress and the way we behave it sends massages about us to other person, it is the way people perceive us, that is natural, and that is inevitable. If women are wearing provocative dresses they are sending messages that they wanted to be seen as sex objects. So women also should asked question to themselves is that the message I wanted to send out to people, if no then I shouldn’t dress like that
E.g. A person carrying thousands of money is passing through a lonely place in night and money is exposed from here and there and he is robbed, when the person will go to police station, inspector ask him in wonder why you were exposing money like that and then the person replies it is his money and it is his right, so here the question is not about the legal right, the robber has committed the crime so he will be caught and punished, from the legal point of view whether the money is concealed or exposed it doesn’t matter if someone forcible robbed it then he will be punished, it is just a matter of common sense, is this I want, if I will expose people will come and rob me, so we are trying to convert a common sense issue into a moral right issue we just muddy the whole field of discussion. Somebody says no I don’t want to send the message but I wanted to keep my money like that, no that is not possible. If someone is showing money like that, that is the message people are going to pick up whether we want or not.
Lust is situated in both men and women’s senses as men has to regulate their senses similarly women also has to regulate their senses.
BG 3.40
Here Krishna is also saying that lust is situated in intelligence, normally we think that intelligence will enable us to see and free us from lust. In many cases lust takes over the intelligence and after that intelligence instead of curbing lust it uses to fulfill lust.
Filth is on internet and intelligence is required for this, it perpetuate illusion. Intelligence can also become perverted by lust and this is very dangerous as the person is not impelled by whimsical passion but methodical means that comes in the person. E.g. serial rapist, they make a plan how to catch and brutalize their victim. In our case also when enjoying mentality become too strong and in that case also we wanted to maintain façade that I am a good devotee but privately when we see that nobody is seeing me that time it comes out but then actually we wanted to do it so it is coming out in private. If we are strong in Krishna Consciousness then lust will not find us out. We are habituated to enjoy intelligently. Enjoyment at spiritual level is enlightenment and bodily level is ignorant. At the very least we should be in transition.
At Sadhaka level we can put lot of trust on intelligence, initially the motivation may be good that I am doing this for Krishna’s service but whether same motive will stay eventually we can’t say.
In contact with senses objects the intelligence becomes corroded and as it will become more and more corroded contamination will become more. When others are warning us we should hear, as our intelligence may be hijacked by lust.
When we are doing activities which scriptures has instructed us not do then it is could be harmful e.g. preaching or counselling to women (particular in private) so initially the intention was very good but that can change very easily. We thinking that nothing is going to happen. When intelligence tells us to do things that are contrary to scripture but not necessarily directly wrong at that time the chances of danger is there. E.g. Bharat Maharaj in SB, deer was in danger so he should have helped the deer, in emergency we have to do needful, but taking care of deer was misunderstanding of his duty and it continued… intelligence led him in wrong direction.
Intelligence
Spiritual intelligence given by Guru Sadhu and Shastra
Material intelligence should be under spiritual intelligence.
Material side of intelligence (rational facility) is covered by lust.
In purport Srila Prabhupad has mentioned:
This false identification of the spirit soul is very nicely explained in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.84.13):
yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke
sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma ijya-dhīḥ
yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile na karhicij
janeṣv abhijñeṣu sa eva go-kharaḥ
“A human being who identifies this body made of three elements with his self, who considers the by-products of the body to be his kinsmen, who considers the land of birth worshipable, and who goes to the place of pilgrimage simply to take a bath rather than meet men of transcendental knowledge there is to be considered like an ass or a cow.”
Q1. Someone may think above mentioned verse is irrelevant in this section
Q2. Why cow is also quoted here or in some other verses as cow is the one Krishna likes very much and is very gentle and loving.
Answer 2. Although cow is like that in this material world she can be put under illusion and she is in sub human body … e.g. cow doesn’t give milk herself, a calf is brought to milk cow or sometime a calf like toy is brought and when cow sees the calf it starts releasing milk and then people removes cow and milks the cow for their purpose.
Answer 1. So such a person is in animal consciousness … in this verse a person is not indulging in any lusty things but when Buddhi is contaminated this type of things comes up … we thing about lust when people do immoral / brutal activities but from Bhagvatam perspective even if a person engages in material goodness and he think this is all about then that person intelligence is consider to be equal to cow or ass.
So here Srila Prabhupada has quoted this verse as an example of how buddhi gets contaminated.
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