BHAGAVAD-GITA 2:59

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BHAGAVAD-GITA 2:59

 

visaya vinivartante

niraharasya dehinah

rasa-varjam raso 'py asya

param drstva nivartate

 

WORD FOR WORD

 

visayah--objects for sense enjoyment; vinivartante--are practiced to

be refrained from; niraharasya--by negative restrictions; dehinah--for

the embodied; rasa-varjam--giving up the taste; rasah--sense of

enjoyment; api--although there is; asya--his; param--far superior

things; drstva--by experiencing; nivartate--he ceases from.

 

TRANSLATION

 

The embodied soul may be restricted from sense enjoyment, though the

taste for sense objects remains. But, ceasing such engagements by

experiencing a higher taste, he is fixed in consciousness.

 

PURPORT

 

Unless one is transcendentally situated, it is not possible to cease

from sense enjoyment. The process of restriction from sense enjoyment

by rules and regulations is something like restricting a diseased

person from certain types of eatables. The patient, however, neither

likes such restrictions nor loses his taste for eatables. Similarly,

sense restriction by some spiritual process like astanga-yoga, in the

matter of yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana,

etc., is recommended for less intelligent persons who have no better

knowledge. But one who has tasted the beauty of the Supreme Lord

Krsna, in the course of his advancement in Krsna consciousness, no

longer has a taste for dead, material things. Therefore, restrictions

are there for the less intelligent neophytes in the spiritual

advancement of life, but such restrictions are only good until one

actually has a taste for Krsna consciousness. When one is actually

Krsna conscious, he automatically loses his taste for pale things.

 

Copyright 1983 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International. Used with

permission.