#262 Compulsion - Why Can’t I Control Myself?
In this series, we previously learned that everything that happens to me is caused by my own actions - my past actions, my current actions and my future acts. My desires determine my actions, which in turn affect my consciousness, which then determines my desires. It is a cycle, and breaking that cycle is critically important if I want to experience peace and happiness. So losing control of myself because of compulsive behavior is disastrous for me. The most important thing to deal with compulsion is to cultivate the appreciation that I am an eternal spiritual being temporarily covered by a material body and the mind. The ancient texts I quoted in this talk: One must deliver themself with the help of one’s mind, and not degrade themself. The mind is the friend of the conditioned soul, and his enemy as well. - Bhagavad-gītā 6.5 For one who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will remain the greatest enemy. - Bhagavad-gītā 6.6 This uncontrolled mind is the greatest enemy of the living entity. If one neglects it or gives it a chance, it will grow more and more powerful and will become victorious. Although it is not factual, it is very strong. It covers the constitutional position of the self/atma. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 5.11.17 A hierarchy of control: The individual is the passenger in the chariot of the material body, and intelligence is the driver. Mind is the driving instrument, and the senses are the horses. The self is thus the enjoyer or sufferer in the association of the mind and senses. So it is understood by great thinkers. Kaṭha Upaniṣad 1.3.3-4 The working senses are superior to dull matter; mind is higher than the senses; intelligence is still higher than the mind; and he [the soul] is even higher than the intelligence. - Bhagavad-gītā 3.42 The cause of compulsive behavior: Arjuna said: O descendant of Vṛṣṇi, by what is one impelled to sinful acts, even unwillingly, as if engaged by force? - Bhagavad-gītā 3.36 Lord Kṛṣṇa said: It is lust only, Arjuna, which is born of contact with the material modes of passion and later transformed into wrath, and which is the all-devouring, sinful enemy of this world. - Bhagavad-gītā 3.37 Thus, a man’s pure consciousness is covered by his eternal enemy in the form of lust, which is never satisfied and which burns like fire. - Bhagavad-gītā 3.39 The senses, the mind and the intelligence are the sitting places of this lust, which veils the real knowledge of the living entity and bewilders him. - Bhagavad-gītā 3.40 Thus knowing oneself to be transcendental to material senses, mind and intelligence, one should control the lower self by the higher self and thus - by spiritual strength - conquer this insatiable enemy known as lust. - Bhagavad-gītā 3.43 How we lose control: While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises. - Bhagavad-gītā 2.62 From anger, delusion arises, and from delusion bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost, and when intelligence is lost, one falls down again into the material pool. - Bhagavad-gītā 2.63 As a boat on the water is swept away by a strong wind, even one of the senses on which the mind focuses can carry away a man's intelligence. - Bhagavad-gītā 2.67 All the senses have been under the control of the mind since time immemorial, and the mind himself never comes under the sway of any other. He is stronger than the strongest, and his godlike power is fearsome. Therefore, anyone who can bring the mind under control becomes the master of all the senses. - Bhāgavata Purāṇa 11.23.47 The solution: Therefore, O mighty-armed, one whose senses are restrained from their objects is certainly of steady intelligence. - Bhagavad-gītā 2.68 One who restrains the senses and organs of action, but whose mind dwells on sense objects, certainly deludes himself and is called a pretender. - Bhagavad-gītā 3.6 A person who is not disturbed by the incessant flow of desires—that enter like rivers into the ocean which is ever being filled but is always still—can alone achieve peace, and not the man who strives to satisfy such desires. - Bhagavad-gītā 2.70 One who is not in transcendental consciousness can have neither a controlled mind nor steady intelligence, without which there is no possibility of peace. And how can there be any happiness without peace? - Bhagavad-gītā 2.66 One who can control his senses by practicing the regulated principles of freedom can obtain the complete mercy of the Lord and thus become free from all attachment and aversion. - Bhagavad-gītā 2.64