Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
750208 - Lecture BG 16.13-15 - Honolulu
But that is not possible. Desire must be there. Because I am living there, living being, I must have desires. That is the symptom. A stone has no desire, but a living being, however small, insignificant ant, it has got desire. The insignificant ant gets information that in the other corner of the room, which is one hundred miles for the ant... Because the world is relative, relative world, so this length of the room, from this corner to the other corner, for an ant it is hundred miles, yes, because the world is relative according to the size, atomic size, the distance. Now we have got speedy aeroplane, the distance has reduced. Distance from Honolulu to India, if you go by land it will be ten thousand miles, but... It is ten thousand miles, but the speedy aeroplane has reduced. So relatively... Everything is relative. This is called relative world. Dar... What is...? Professor Einstein, he has proved the law of relativity. So the ant, he has to go, to pick up one grain of sugar, by going hundred miles in his capacity. But it will go. That is desire. You have got experience. You put little sugar here. You don't invite ants, but they'll come. They'll come. They'll get immediately information. Just like from Europe many people came in America—gold rush desire. So desire must be there. The ant has desire; Lord Brahmā has desire; I have got desire; you have got desire. This is artificial, to make desireless. That is not possible.
- Therefore bhakti means to purify the desire. That is bhakti. Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam.
- anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ
- jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam
- ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-
- śīlanaṁ bhaktir uttamā
- (Brs. 1.1.11)
Tat-paratvena nirmalam. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam (CC Madhya 19.170). I am desiring now with upādhi, designation. I am Indian; I am desiring in a way. You are American; you are desiring in another way. Similarly, cat is desiring in another way. The dog is desiring another way. Everyone has got desires, different types of desire. Child is desiring some way or other. The boy is desiring another way. So the desire is on account of this body, different desire. So when we become transcendental to the bodily concept of life, then we come to the spiritual platform. In that platform the only one desire is how to serve Kṛṣṇa. That is required: not to become desireless, but to purify the desire. That is bhakti.
Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam (CC Madhya 19.170). Nirmala means without any dirt, cleansed completely, crystal clear. That is required. The senses will be there, the mind will be there, the intelligence will be there, I'll be there—everything will be there, but we have to cleanse the desire, purify the desires. Āśā-pāśa-śatair baddhāḥ (BG 16.12). Here, the demons, they're also desiring, but baddhāḥ: they are becoming conditioned. But a devotee, he's also desiring, but he's mukta, means liberated. Therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, yajñārthe karmaṇo 'nyatra, karma-bandhanaḥ (BG 3.9): "You work for performing sacrifice." Performing sacrifice. Sacrifice, yajña... Yajña means to satisfy the Supreme. That is sacrifice. I sacrifice my own convenience. I take all kinds of troubles... There is no trouble; it is pleasure. Just like the mother takes all kinds of trouble for the little child, but she does not think that is trouble. That is pleasure. When you do something out of love, that is pleasure. That is not trouble. In the transcendental platform, devotional service, anything you do, that is pleasure. That is not trouble. Just like you are dancing here. Actually, bodily, there is some trouble because you are perspiring, but you are not feeling the trouble; you are feeling pleasure. Otherwise how you can dance? This is the transcendental platform. So the demons are bound up by material desires, and the devotees, apparently there is desire, but there is no bondage. This is the difference. There is no bondage. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam (CC Madhya 19.170).
| 
