The best time to win the battle against temptation is before
it begins by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 02
To practice spiritual life means to enter into a war against
temptation, the temptation for enjoying matter. The arena of battle is our own
consciousness, and the two contending armies are our intended desire to serve
Krishna and the unwanted desire to enjoy matter that manifests in the consciousness
either from our past conditionings or our circumstances or a combination of
both. Whichever desire we dwell on gains strength and eventually emerges
victorious.
When we dwell on tempting sense objects, we become
disconnected from higher sources of pleasure, especially the highest source of
pleasure – remembrance of Krishna. As we are innately pleasure-seeking
creatures, our need for pleasure pushes us to seek it somewhere, and the sense
objects seem to be a readily available source. Consequently, the desire to
enjoy matter strengthens and the desire to serve Krishna weakens. Thus, we find
it increasingly difficult to win the battle against temptation.
In a war, its far better for defending soldiers to
watchfully prevent hostile forces from penetrating into home territory than to
counter them after they have penetrated, positioned themselves for attack and
started firing. Similarly, it is best to win the war against temptation before
it begins, that is, before temptations enter into our consciousness and start
seducing us, thereby attacking and wounding our desire to serve Krishna.
The Bhagavad-gita (02.68) urges us to rigorously control all
the senses so as to not let temptation slip in. The most positive way to
actualize such sense control is by striving for absorption in Krishna so that
there’s no room left for thoughts of the sense objects to enter and entice. By
such absorption, we will not only safely survive in the war against temptation,
but also march swiftly towards victory by growing in our devotion to Krishna.
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