Now Arjuna gets a question at this point, yes I know, even if I agree that material enjoyment leads to misery but still by knowing this my desires won’t go away, the desires stays so what should I do. So Sri Krishna says tolerate, he throw a challenge to Arjuna, tolerate 

Bg 5.23

śaknotīhaiva yaḥ soḍhuṁ
prāk śarīra-vimokṣaṇāt
lkāma-krodhodbhavaṁ vegaṁ
sa yuktaḥ sa sukhī naraḥ

Word for word: 

śaknoti — is able; iha eva — in the present body; yaḥ — one who; soḍhum — to tolerate; prāk — before; śarīra — the body; vimokṣaṇāt — giving up; kāma — desire; krodha — and anger; udbhavam — generated from; vegam — urges; saḥ — he; yuktaḥ — in trance; saḥ — he; sukhī — happy; naraḥ — human being.

Translation: 

Before giving up this present body, if one is able to tolerate the urges of the material senses and check the force of desire and anger, he is well situated and is happy in this world.

 

śaknotīhaiva yaḥ soḍhuṁ, śaknotīhaiva yaḥ, Arjuna śaknotī, if it is possible for you soḍhuṁ to tolerate, what? kāma-krodhodbhavaṁ vegaṁ, by lust and anger certain urges has come, tolerate them, and how long to tolerate them, prāk śarīra-vimokṣaṇāt, these urges are born from the body and since they are born from body you have to tolerate them as long as you have the body, now this can be sobering and also it can be hope giving, sobering means we know that we have struggle as long as we have the body, but as we purify the struggle becomes more and more manageable this struggle becomes more and more winnable for us, prāk śarīravimokṣaṇāt what will happen sa yuktaḥ such a person will be well situated, not only well situated such a person will be happy, sa sukhī naraḥ.

It is interesting what Sri Krishna is telling over here, that urges will come but tolerate it, O Arjuna you are a warrior you can tolerate on slaughter. You keep fighting in a war even if you are wounded, can you tolerate attack of lust & anger and fight back even when you are wounded, śaknotī, tolerate. 

So tolerance is the wall between temptation and transgression, temptation means O I wanted to enjoy some images comes up in our mind some desires come up we start feeling temptation, now all of us will get temptation but transgression means when we act on temptation and we do something wrong, it is not that every time there is temptation there is transgression no that is not necessary, the tolerance is the wall, suppose a vehicle is moving from one point to another suddenly there is a wall so the vehicle cannot move, so tolerance is the wall that prevents temptation from transgression. When temptation come, I will tolerate, it will go away, it won’t be there forever, calm down calm down, don’t get excited about it, śaknotī, if possible tolerate it, Now all of us tolerate various things in our life, if we are working with superiors and he says some harsh words we will not snap back to the person or reply back harshly, we tolerate using our good intelligence, if I snap back, it will make things worse, later I will communicate myself properly, my feelings my concerns later I will communicate, so we all have to use tolerance, tolerance is not necessarily weakness actually often it is intolerant that makes us weak, tolerance can help us become strong, so we can help us choose the right response and to make right response. So tolerance is strength and lack of tolerance is weakness because it makes us slave to impulses, So Sri Krishna said tolerate śaknotī, is it possible for you Arjuna, to a warrior if challenges are thrown he will accept and he will said yes, I can do it. So that is how we should feel, when the temptation come we shouldn’t think Oh temptation has come I have to fall down, what can I do if temptation are coming? No, the temptation simply indicates that We have become disconnected from Sri Krishna, so when temptation comes it doesn’t mean that we have to do sense gratification. In certain countries like America the roads are long and clear so sometime a person will doze off while driving on the side of the road, humps like structure will be there so if a person forces off track, there will be jolts then suddenly the person will wake up, because jolt has come that doesn’t mean that the person has to go and meet accident he will control the vehicle, so jolts are warning that one is going off track, so as soon as the jolt comes pull the Vehicle back on track, so similar when the material desire start raising in our mind that simply means we are going off track, when temptation starts coming in our mind and it starts agitating us, that means our connection with Krishna has become weak at that moment, we are meant to be going straight on Krishna Consciousness track but we are going off track, so when we are straight off track what we will do? Pull back and come on track not that because temptation has come so I have to go and fall down, because jolt has come so I have to go and hit, No, it is not like that, so at that time pull back. So rather than see temptation as cause for capitulation (means giving up), we should see arrival for temptation as cause for retaliation, my mind is off track I will fight and come back on track. It is not safe to fall back on sleeping but it happened so we have to pull back, so the jolt we started feeling inside because of temptation that is an indication that we are going off track, we are going away from Krishna Consciousness track, and now it is time to put more effort and pull back on track, chant Hare Krishna, remember some philosophy, pray to Sri Krishna, think of some beautiful pictures of deities, sing some melodious bhajan, some prayers all of us should have our ready stock of weapons, weapons means by those we beat down the temptation, all of us should have ready stock of weapons when we beat down the temptation we become calm, stead and we become composed and then we can come back on track, Sri Krishna is saying tolerate till prāk śarīra-vimokṣaṇāt, till the moment of death, actually we should never let our guard down. If a fire fighter has become expert after many years of service it is not that fires are going to become weak after seeing him, he has become more expert by practice, first time when he sees big fire he becomes nervous and water pipe itself will fall down from his hand, and then someone gives him more courage by cheering him up and as he works fires starts extinguishing but for an experienced fire fighter when he sees fire he knows what to do and where to put more water and exactly with intelligence with diligence and with speed he extinguishes the fire. So it is not that fires will shut off because fire fighter is having experiences, so lust is like a fire, so it is not that just I have practices Krishna consciousness for 5-10-15 years it is not that lust of fire will not set off, so there will be provocation of sense object of course our provocation will be lesser but it doesn’t matter where the provocation is lesser or not the important thing is we have the means we have the knowledge to extinguishing it so rather than lamenting that why these fire of lust are coming we should be more experienced more seasoned that when fire is set up, extinguishing them by fire house what is our fire house our fire house is remembrance of Sri Krishna, then fire will start extinguishing.

So what we should expect is not that these desire won’t come, actually the desires will also stop coming but they will not stop coming because we expect them to stop coming, they will stop coming when we repeatedly and insistently say no to them, No nothing doing nothing doing, every time we indulge in desire the desire blazes more and every time we says no to them the desire dies down dies down, sometime when we say no to desire it becomes stronger, we say no to temptation and we feel that the temptation is troubling me more, actually it is not like that, Srila Prabhupada gives example of a tiger trained in circus, initially when tiger does the things he will be feed otherwise the tiger is not fed, so when the tiger is not fed the tiger will starts more roaring more threatening as if it is going to shake off and break off the whole cage itself the way it roars, and inexperienced observer will think that it is better to feed the tiger but the experienced circus trainer say no, tiger may be roaring louder but it is becoming weaker, it is roaring louder externally but because it is not feed it is becoming weaker, and if one can tolerate that how much loud you roar I am not going to threat, that tiger cannot come out of the cage it can’t do anything then gradually it will calm down understanding that my roaring will not get me anything, I have to simply do what this trainer is telling then I will get food otherwise I will not get food then tiger will become obedient and after the tiger become obedient it has to be dealt with caution, it cannot be trusted very easily. When mind said enjoy we say no, the mind will say enjoyyyyyyyyy… start roaring like a tiger, come on do it and we fold our hand ok…ok don’t trouble me so much we start becoming submissive to the mind instead of being submissive to the Krishna we start becoming submissive to the mind, we don’t have to become submissive to the mind, we should not be doing like this mind may be screaming louder but if we don’t fulfill it will become weaker it will become weaker initially it will roar and roar but if we don’t fulfill its desire it will whimper and become silent. So repeatedly and consistently we have to say no to the desire and not intimated by threats then they will become weaker they will become weaker, so when we become seasoned we don’t expect desires to go away rather we become expert in our responses like an expert fire fighter will become quick in responses, quick and expert this is how I will douse or extinguish this fire, secondly what we should do is when we are practicing spiritual life is we don’t  intimated by the threats and starve the mind when we starve the mind it will eventually become silenced, so Sri Krishna is saying śaknotī, is it possible for you Arjun, if it is possible for you then you will become Sukhi, Yuktah means well situated, Sukhi means happy, actually we will be relived we will be happy when we are detached, if we are nudging our desires will be blazing more and more and we will never have happiness.

Srila Prabupada’s Purport: It is the duty of the transcendentalist to try strenuously to control desire and anger.

This is very significant usages “try strenuously” Srila Prabhupada says most people “try strenuously” to fulfill the desires, materialists to fulfill the desire what all they are ready to do, when a boy fall in love with a girl he is ready to do so much that people read it in novel and watch in movies he is ready to even risk his life, risk his good name risk everything for the sake of love, actually most of that love is lust but the point is people are ready to strenuously working for that, people strenuously work to fulfill their desires but devotees strenuously work to transcend their desires, they tolerate first and then transcendent, so no doubt the spiritual life is hard work, the work is inner it is inward not outward but work is no doubt there and when we will do the work the result is far better, far greater, when we fulfill our desire the result is going to be temporary, if the desire is fulfilled the result will not be attainable, not palatable, not retainable. If we become purified then it is going to be ever relish able ever fresh that is what we are going to get therefore a devotee learns to tolerate, a devotee become determined to tolerate.