We can’t avoid perceiving sense objects, but we can avoid pursuing themby Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 02
We live in a world filled with tempting sense objects, yet spiritual growth requires us to resist temptations. Are we being asked the impossible?
No, but abstinence can seem an impossible demand if we don’t understand the vital difference between perceiving sense objects and pursuing sense objects. Though we can’t avoid perceiving sense objects, we can avoid pursuing them if we don’t let our imagination transform perceptions into obsessions.
The Bhagavad-gita (02.70) points to the subtle but critical difference between pursuing and perceiving through its enigmatic usage of the alliterative compound word kama-kami, desire of desire. Here the second desire refers to the inward flow of desire, that is, the flow of alluring sensory impressions into our consciousness. And the first desire refers to the outward flow of desire, that is, the flow of our intention to indulge in those objects.
Urging us to not become a desirer of desire, the Gita verse offers us the metaphor of an ocean staying undisturbed despite the flow of rivers into it.
The ocean stays undisturbed despite the flow of rivers into it because the water in the ocean is far greater than that in the rivers. Similarly, we can stay undisturbed when we have within us a reservoir that offers far greater happiness than what is promised by the sense objects. The best such source is Krishna, the all-attractive supreme person who loves us eternally and who can fill us with oceanic love and the resulting happiness if we just open our heart to him by the diligent practice of bhakti.
When we start seeking and savoring devotional happiness, then we can perceive sense objects without being goaded to pursue them because we won’t feel deprived by not indulging in them, for we will feel fulfilled in Krishna.