View source for The whole Vedic scripture describes that happiness derived of sense perception out of the body, that is not real happiness. If we are to enjoy real happiness, then we have to transcend these bodily pleasures

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[[Category:Whole]]
[[Category:Described in the Vedas]]
[[Category:Happiness]]
[[Category:Derive]]
[[Category:Sense Perception]]
[[Category:Out Of]]
[[Category:Body]]
[[Category:That Is Not]]
[[Category:Real Happiness]]
[[Category:If We]]
[[Category:Enjoy]]
[[Category:Real Happiness]]
[[Category:We Have To]]
[[Category:Transcend]]
[[Category:These]]
[[Category:Bodily]]
[[Category:Pleasure]]
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<div id="Lectures" class="section" sec_index="4" parent="compilation" text="Lectures"><h2>Lectures</h2>
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<div id="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is_Lectures" class="sub_section" sec_index="0" parent="Lectures" text="Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures"><h3>Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures</h3>
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<div id="LectureonBG52229NewYorkAugust311966_0" class="quote" parent="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is_Lectures" book="Lec" index="206" link="Lecture on BG 5.22-29 -- New York, August 31, 1966" link_text="Lecture on BG 5.22-29 -- New York, August 31, 1966">
<div class="heading">Happiness which is derived by touch senses, saṁsparśajā... Saṁsparśajāḥ means happiness, so-called happiness derived by touch senses. Lord Kṛṣṇa says that this is not real happiness. Anything, any happiness derived out of touch sensation, that is not real happiness. Rather, that is the gate for various miseries. The whole Vedic scripture describes that happiness derived of sense perception out of the body, that is not real happiness. If we are to enjoy real happiness, then we have to transcend these bodily pleasures. Happiness is there because I am spirit soul.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on BG 5.22-29 -- New York, August 31, 1966|Lecture on BG 5.22-29 -- New York, August 31, 1966]]: </span><div class="text">Prabhupāda:
:ye hi saṁsparśajā bhogā
:duḥkha-yonaya eva te
:ādy-antavantaḥ kaunteya
:na teṣu ramate budhaḥ
:([[Vanisource:BG 5.22 (1972)|BG 5.22]])
Happiness which is derived by touch senses, saṁsparśajā... Saṁsparśajāḥ means happiness, so-called happiness derived by touch senses. Ye hi saṁsparśajā bhogāḥ, enjoyment. Duḥkha-yonaya eva te. Lord Kṛṣṇa says that this is not real happiness. Anything, any happiness derived out of touch sensation, that is not real happiness. Rather, that is the gate for various miseries. The whole Vedic scripture describes that happiness derived of sense perception out of the body, that is not real happiness. If we are to enjoy real happiness, then we have to transcend these bodily pleasures. Happiness is there because I am spirit soul. Actually I am full of pleasure, but because my sense of happiness is being manifested through this matter, therefore we are being frustrated in deriving real pleasure. So those who are in the, advanced in spiritual life, they are called yogis. Yoginaḥ. Ramante yoginaḥ anante ([[Vanisource:CC Madhya 9.29|CC Madhya 9.29]]). Those who are spiritualists, they also enjoy. But they enjoy in the real happiness which has no end. Any happiness which is ended at a certain point, that is not happiness. That is, rather, source of distress. Ādy-antavantaḥ kaunteya na teṣu ramate budhaḥ. Budhaḥ means who is learned. A learned person does not enjoy such flickering or transient happiness which is derived by sense touching.
:śaknotīhaiva yaḥ soḍhuṁ
:prāk śarīra-vimokṣaṇāt
:kāma-krodhodbhavaṁ vegaṁ
:sa yuktaḥ sa sukhī naraḥ
:([[Vanisource:BG 5.23 (1972)|BG 5.23]])
Śaknoti. Śaknoti means one who is able to tolerate. Ihaiva. Ihaiva means in this body. And soḍhum. Soḍhum means to tolerate. Prāk. Prāk means before. Śarīra-vimokṣaṇāt. Before leaving this body, if one practices that... What is that practice? Kāma-krodhodbhavaṁ vegam. Vegam means urge. Just like sex urge. Everyone has got sex urge. Or so many things, we have got some urge. That Kṛṣṇa advises, that before quitting this body... The example is that suppose a man is diseased, is suffering from a type of disease. And doctor has asked him not to take solid food. Now, if he is thinking that... Because he is practiced to take solid food, he is thinking, "I must take solid food. I must take solid food..." But if he can tolerate—"No, doctor has advised not to take solid food"—if he can tolerate, then he becomes very easily cured. Similarly, sense perception, sense pleasure, is reserved for us in our spiritual life. That is actual sense pleasure. Here we are having sense pleasure artificially through this body. Before leaving this body, if we practice to stop sense pleasure as much as possible... There is training, of course. Without training, nothing can be done.
So according to Vedic civilization, this training was given, student life, complete abstinence from sex life, then vānaprastha life, complete abstinence, and sannyāsa life, complete abstinence. The whole training was to abstain, to cure. Because... The same example: In diseased condition we cannot enjoy the foodstuff which we take. When we are healthy, we can enjoy the taste of the foodstuff. So we have to cure. We have to cure. And how to cure? To be situated in the transcendental position of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is the cure. So Kṛṣṇa advises here anyone who is able to tolerate the urge of sense pleasure. But we have to mold our life in such a way that we should be able to tolerate. Tolerate. That will give us our advancement in spiritual life, and when we are situated in spiritual life, that enjoyment is unending, unlimited. There is no end. Exactly similar verse is there in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Ṛṣabhadeva is advising his sons that
:nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke
:kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye
:tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena sattvaṁ
:śuddhyed yasmād brahma-saukhyaṁ tv anantam
:([[Vanisource:SB 5.5.1|SB 5.5.1]])
It is very nice verse. He says, "My dear boys, this human form of life..." Na ayaṁ deha. Ayaṁ deha means "this body." Na ayaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke. Everyone has got body. The cats, dogs, hogs, and birds, beasts, man, human being demigod—everyone has got this body, material body. But he's especially advising nṛdeha. Nṛ means human form of life. He says that this human form of life is not meant for working hard for sense pleasure just like the hogs and dogs. Human life. Then what it is meant for? He says, tapo divyam ([[Vanisource:SB 5.5.1|SB 5.5.1]]). One should undergo penance for transcendental realization. And what will be the result of such penance? He says that yataḥ śuddhyet sattvam. Your existence will be purified. And when your existence is purified, then you enjoy  brahma-saukhyam, the unlimited spiritual happiness.
You are hankering after happiness. Happiness is your prerogative. You must have. That is your life. You cannot stop happiness. But happiness in the diseased condition is not happiness. That we must understand. So we have to cure this diseased condition and then enjoy happiness, then enjoy pleasure that will be unlimited. There will be no end. In the diseased condition... Suppose whatever pleasure we take, it is for fifteen seconds or few minutes or few hours or few days—it will end. But real happiness, what is real happiness, that is unending. Brahma-saukhyam anantam ([[Vanisource:SB 5.5.1|SB 5.5.1]]). Anantam means unending. So we are meant for unending happiness. So Kṛṣṇa advises here that śaknotīhaiva yaḥ soḍhuṁ prāk śarīra-vimokṣaṇāt. Before quitting this material body, if one practices to tolerate the so-called urges of sense pleasure, then he becomes very happy at the long run. He recommends it. And that is the real purpose of human form of life. That we should not derive. We should not try to derive that false happiness in this diseased condition of material life. This is temporary. That is not happiness. We should understand that out of ignorance we are engaged to derive such kind of happiness, but that is not happiness. Real happiness is in spiritual life.
We have to attain that spiritual life and just a man tolerates so many things for being cured, similarly we have to practice tolerance. Then there will be urges, certainly, because we are practiced to these sense urges for so many births in so many evolutionary process. Now in this human form of life we have to consider that "I am not this body; I am spirit soul." So I have to search out the happiness of the spirit soul, and for that, I have to train myself under superior guidance, as Arjuna has put himself under the guidance of Kṛṣṇa.
:yo 'ntaḥ-sukho 'ntar-ārāmas
:tathāntar-jyotir eva yaḥ
:sa yogī brahma-nirvāṇaṁ
:brahma-bhūto 'dhigacchati
:([[Vanisource:BG 5.24 (1972)|BG 5.24]])
One who is aspiring after that transcendental happiness which is called brahma-sukha, brahma-sukha... One who is, yaḥ antaḥ-sukha, that brahma-sukha is within. That brahma-sukha is not without. Yaḥ antaḥ-sukhaḥ antar-ārāmaḥ. And is happy and satisfied by enjoying within. Antaḥ-sukhaḥ antar-ārāmas tathāntar-jyotir eva yaḥ. And who is trying to find out the brahma-jyotir, the effulgence of Brahman within. Sa yogī brahma-nirvāṇam. That yogi is already situated in Brahman. Nirvāṇam means ending all this material contamination. Brahma-bhūto 'dhigacchati. And he becomes a realized soul or the brahma-antaḥ.
:labhante brahma-nirvāṇam
:ṛṣayaḥ kṣīṇa-kalmaṣāḥ
:chinna-dvaidhā yatātmānaḥ
:sarva-bhūta-hite ratāḥ
:([[Vanisource:BG 5.25 (1972)|BG 5.25]])
Now, Kṛṣṇa says, kṣīṇa-kalmaṣāḥ. Kṣīṇa-kalmaṣāḥ, one who is able to reduce the reaction of all sinful life. We must know it that this material existence, either in any form, they are all reactions of our sinful life. That we must know. So in any condition, it does not matter that a highly advanced person, educated, learned, rich, or beautiful, or anyone—more or less, according to degree, they are all enjoying or suffering the reaction of their past karma. And, more or less, all the world, they are considered to be sinful. So kṣīṇa-kalmaṣāḥ. Kṣīṇa-kalmaṣāḥ means those who are trying to reduce the reaction of sinful activities. How? By practicing that sense control. Sense control. Practicing sense control. Just like a diseased person. By controlling... By controlling according to the prescription of the doctor, by controlling himself he becomes reduced in the sufferings of the disease. The fever diminishes from 105 degrees to 102, then 100, then 99, then 98—he is cured. Similarly, we have to reduce the temperature. We haven't got to increase the temperature. We are just like in the matter of increasing our temperature. We are thinking that by increasing the temperature we shall be happy. We do not know that by increasing temperature we shall never be happy. We have to decrease the temperature. There is a very nice story. Perhaps I have many times told you, that there was a householder, a very rich man. His wife was sick and the maidservant was also sick. So the gentleman called for a doctor, and the doctor treated both the patients, and the doctor said that "Your wife has got 98 temperature, nothing serious. But your maidservant, she has got 104 temperature, so she should be taken care of." Now, the housewife, she became angry. She told the doctor, "Oh, I am the head of the family. I have got only 98 temperature? And my maidservant has got 104? So you are not a doctor!" So that is going on. From 104 we want to increase. 107 degrees and death will come. So the modern civilization is increasing the temperature. So we have come to the point of 107 degree-atom bomb. So we are prepared for killing ourselves. So this degree, this increasing of temperature of material enjoyment will never make us happy. We have to decrease the temperature. We have to come to the point of 97, not to the 107.
So labhante brahma-nirvāṇam ṛṣayaḥ kṣīṇa-kalmaṣāḥ. Just like by decreasing temperature we come to the path of healthy life, similarly, if we decrease our sensual activities... The material life means sensual activities, nothing more. Whatever advancement of civilization we are creating, that means we are simply creating artificial sense enjoyment. That's all. This is called material civilization, simply sense enjoyment, nothing more. So we have to... Of course, we don't decry the modern civilization, but it has its proper use. Just like we are also using here electric light, the microphone, and the tape recorder. This is the gift of the modern science. So instead of decrying them, let them engage in the matter of understanding Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then everything will be properly utilized. We cannot go back. You cannot go back in the matter of advancement of modern civilization, but here we have got a point, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Nirbandhaḥ kṛṣṇa-sambandhe. We can engage everything in the matter of understanding Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Everything can be utilized properly. Yuktaṁ vairāgyam ucyate. We haven't got to give them up. Our Gosvāmīs, our predecessors, ācāryas, they do not recommend that whatever is produced we shall not give them up. "Oh, it is all material. We don't want." No. Even if that is material... Material is everything. My body is also material. So as I am utilizing my material body for spiritual advancement, similarly I can utilize anything material for spiritual advancement. That is possible. So that prescription is given, nirbandhaḥ kṛṣṇa-sambandhe. You just try to engage everything in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then you'll have... That means everything will be transformed into spiritual. By Kṛṣṇa consciousness everything will be transformed into spiritual. Just like the iron rod, if you put into the fire it gets warm, warmer, and when it is red-hot, then it is no longer iron rod, it is fire, similarly, if we constantly engage all our energy in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then, even though we have increased the temperature to 107 degrees, that will be transformed into 107 degree of spiritual life. Yes. That is the secret of this Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
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