The material world means bodily consciousness: how to keep the body in comfortable. But that is not possible. Body means misery. You cannot keep it comfortable

Expressions researched:
"The material world means bodily consciousness: how to keep the body in comfortable. But that is not possible. Body means misery. You cannot keep it comfortable"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

The material world means bodily consciousness: how to keep the body in comfortable. But that is not possible. Body means misery. You cannot keep it comfortable.

Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Nairobi, October 27, 1975:

So our this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means not bodily consciousness. The material world means bodily consciousness: how to keep the body in comfortable. But that is not possible. Body means misery. You cannot keep it comfortable. That is māyā. It will never be comfortable, but they are all trying to make it comfortable. This is called māyā. Kleśada āsa dehaḥ. So long you'll have a material body you'll have to suffer. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is not on the bodily platform. It is on the spiritual platform. To come to the spiritual platform, it is necessary that you reduce or make nil sex life. So if one remains brahmacārī throughout the whole life it becomes very easy for him to go back to home, back to Godhead. This is the secret. Therefore the whole Vedic civilization is based on first of all brahmacārī, no sex life. Gṛhastha, that is also very regulated. Only for begetting child one can have sex life, father, mother, man and woman. So dharmāviruddho kāmo 'smi. In the Bhagavad-gītā you will find Kṛṣṇa says that "Sex life which is prescribed by the religious system, that is, I am." Otherwise it is illicit sex. So illicit sex, there is punishment. These things are there. So tapasya means tapasā brahmacaryeṇa śamena damena vā (SB 6.1.13). You have to control. The more one controls, he becomes advanced in spiritual culture. The yoga system means yoga indriya-saṁyamaḥ. "Yoga means how to control the senses." This is yoga system, and therefore Kṛṣṇa says, mayy āsakta-manāḥ pārtha. So sex indulgence is against spiritual advancement of life. Therefore you have seen that the brahmacārīs, they go there. It becomes very easy to enter into the spiritual kingdom. So that you can do here also. If you increase your attraction for Kṛṣṇa, then naturally you lose attraction for sex. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Therefore Kṛṣṇa's name is Madana-mohana. Madana means sex life. He can enchant even madana. So these are things which the devotee will learn by studying the literature. But even without studying, if you sincerely chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra under regulation, everything, all good qualification will come.