We all have a certain capacity for determination that enables us to resist temptation. Still, we are innately pleasure-seeking. To resist temptation steadily, we need to find happiness elsewhere. Otherwise, when confronted with a persistent temptation, our determination will eventually falter. 

Gita wisdom explains that the highest happiness is found in connecting with our essence. We are at our core souls, and we are parts of the whole, the all-attractive Supreme Person, Krishna. When we connect lovingly with him, that connection gives us a profound satisfaction. The Bhagavad Gita (05.21) states that when we turn away from outer pleasures and establish an inner connection with Krishna, then we can relish inexhaustible happiness. That happiness is what we all seek, even if we seek it in many mundane things. And that happiness we all can relish if we strive to connect with Krishna. 

Rather than worrying about whether we will be able to resist temptation in the future we can focus on connecting with Krishna. And we can strengthen that connection through those service-engagements that give us a sense of meaning and fulfillment. Through such engagements, our connection with Krishna will become robust, then we won’t feel deprived by the lack of sensual pleasure; to the contrary, we will start seeing sensual indulgence, and all the hankering that precedes it and the lamenting that succeeds it, as simply an unnecessary distraction. Thus, our renunciation remains not a painful process of deprivation but instead becomes a joyful process of absorption. 

Therefore, rather than worrying whether our renunciation will in the future go bust, we can focus in the present on making our spiritual connection robust 

One-sentence summary:

Make our spiritual connection robust, lest our determination when faced with temptation go bust.

Think it over:

  • Why does our determination to resist temptation go bust?
  • How can we find higher happiness?
  • What temptation do you need to resist? How can you shift your focus to establishing a robust spiritual connection?

***

05.21: Such a liberated person is not attracted to material sense pleasure but is always in trance, enjoying the pleasure within. In this way the self-realized person enjoys unlimited happiness, for he concentrates on the Supreme.

To know more about this verse, please click on the image