Category:Bodily Pleasure
Theme Analysis
Śrīla Prabhupāda consistently describes "bodily pleasure" as temporary, flickering, and distinct from the actual self. Unlike the Māyāvādīs who might claim the body and its feelings are false (mithyā), Śrīla Prabhupāda argues that bodily pleasure is factual—we feel it—but it is not permanent. Therefore, it cannot satisfy the eternal soul. He uses the analogy of a pot of milk on a fire: just as the heat transfers to the milk and rice, the pains and pleasures of the body affect the conditioned soul due to attachment. True knowledge involves realizing "I am not this body" and tolerating the inevitable ups and downs of material experience (tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata). The ultimate example of renunciation is found in the gopīs, who sacrificed all bodily pleasures and social customs for the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa.
- Flickering Nature: Bodily pleasure is compared to intoxication; it is momentary and cannot be truly enjoyed because it ends quickly.
- Soul vs. Body: The soul is distinct from the body. Identifying with the body and working hard for its pleasure is a symptom of ignorance.
- Not False, But Temporary: Śrīla Prabhupāda clarifies that while the material world is temporary (asat), it is not false. If it were false, no one would feel pain or pleasure.
- Tolerance and Transcendence: The instruction of the Gītā is to tolerate bodily demands and focus on the soul. Advanced devotees, like the gopīs, transcend bodily happiness for the sake of serving the Lord.
- Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: Bodily Pleasure - The Flickering Intoxication.
Pages in category "Bodily Pleasure"
The following 20 pages are in this category, out of 20 total.
B
- Bodily pains and pleasure come and go; they are not permanent. Tams titiksasva bharata. So you have to learn how to tolerate these bodily pains and pleasure, but you have to take care of the soul
- Bodily pleasure is flickering and intoxicating, and we cannot actually enjoy it, because of its momentary nature. Actual pleasure is of the soul, not the body. We have to mold our lives in such a way that we will not be diverted by bodily pleasure
I
- If one is engaged in his cultivation of spiritual life, then he should tolerate all these bodily pains and pleasure, because they come and go
- If the bodily pains and pleasures were false, the creation would be false also, and consequently no one would take very much interest in it. The conclusion is that the material creation is not false or imaginary, but it is temporary
- It is not a fact that the soul or Supersoul becomes poor simply because the body is poor. These are the statements of ignorant people. The soul and Supersoul are always apart from bodily pleasure and pain
T
- That is the critical point, that if we indulge in our bodily pleasure, that pleasure is flickering. That pleasure is flickering. We cannot enjoy. Bodily pleasure we cannot enjoy
- The bodily needs, bodily pains and pleasures, there we are affected. So how you can say it is false? Similarly the mind, and soul is absolutely factual. So any item you take, you can understand by thorough study
- The living entity has nothing to do with bodily pains and pleasures. These are simply mental concoctions
- The soul has nothing to do with the body and the senses, but due to ignorance, he identifies himself with the body, and he feels pleasure and pain due to bodily pleasure and pain
- 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
- There are those who are striving for temporary things (asat). Matter and the body are temporary, and if one only engages himself for bodily pleasure, he is conditioned by temporary things
- This argument (that bodily desginations like pain and pleasure are felt by the soul) put forward by Maharaja Rahugana is correct from the practical point of view, but it arises from an attachment to the bodily conception
- This body is true. We have got body. We don't say it is false. It is true. Bodily pains and pleasures we feel, so how can I say that the body is false?
- This is very important verse. In the previous verse it has been described, dehino 'smin yatha dehe (BG 2.13). Actually, we living entities, we are within the body. The bodily pains and pleasure are not the pains and pleasure of the soul within