“We are bombarded with adverts subliminally inviting: ‘Come on, enjoy sex.’ But no matter how hard we try to enjoy sex, we cannot be satisfied. That is certain. Unless we come to the spiritual platform of enjoyment, we will never be satisfied.”
This explanation of a Bengali song written several centuries ago by a great Krishna-conscious spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, proposes that there is a pleasure higher than sex, and tells us how to begin experiencing it.
Narottama dasa Thakura, who wrote this song, is a famous spiritual master, and his compositions are accepted as Vedic truth. In this song, he represents himself as a common man, as one of us. He laments, appealing to Hari, Lord Krishna, “My dear Lord, I have uselessly spoiled my life, because I have not worshipped You.” People do not know that they are spoiling their lives. They are thinking, “I’ve got a very nice apartment, a very nice car, a very nice wife, a very nice income, a very nice social position.” All these material attractions make us forget the purpose of our life: to worship Krishna.
In one verse (5.5.8), the Srimad-Bhagavatam summarises the material attractions: The basic principle of material attraction is sex. A man hankers after a woman, and a woman hankers after a man. And when they actually engage in sex, they become very much attracted to each other. So when a man and a woman engage in sex, the hard knot in the heart is tied. “I cannot leave you,” he says. “You are my life and soul.” And she says, “I cannot leave you. You are my life and soul.” For a few days. Then divorce. But the beginning is sex. The basic principle of material attraction is sex.
We have organised sex life in many social conventions. Marriage is a social convention that gives sex a nice finishing touch, that’s all. Sometimes, it is said that marriage is legalised prostitution. But for keeping up social relations, one has to accept some regulative principles, some restrictions on sense gratification. Therefore, civilised human beings recognise that there is a difference between sex in marriage and sex outside of marriage, which is just like sex between animals.
In any case, when two people unite some way or another, their next demand is a nice apartment and some land. Then children. When you have an apartment and a wife, the next requirement is to have children, because without children no home life is pleasant. “Home life without children is just like a desert.” Children are the real pleasure of home life. Finally, there is the circle of relatives, or society. And all these paraphernalia have to be maintained with money. So money is required.
In this way, one becomes entangled in the material world and covered by illusion.
Why illusion? Why are such important things – wife, children, money – illusion? Because although at the present moment you may think everything is all right – you have a nice arrangement of home life, apartment, wife, children, society and position – as soon as your body is finished, everything is finished. You’re forced to leave everything and move on to your next platform. And you do not know what your next platform will be. Your next body may be that of a human being or a cat or a dog or a demigod or anything. You do not know. But whatever it is, as soon as you leave your present body, you will forget everything. There will be no remembrance of who you were, who your wife was, what your home was like, how big your bank balance was, and so on. Everything will be finished in a flash, just like a bubble bursting in the ocean. The thrashing of the waves in the ocean generates millions and billions of bubbles, but the next moment they are all finished. In this way, material life is going on. The living entity travels through many species of life, many planets, until he comes to the human form of life.
Human life is an opportunity to understand how we are transmigrating from one place to another, from one life to another, and simply wasting our time, not understanding what our constitutional position is and why we are suffering so much distress.
These things are to be understood in this human form of life. Instead of inquiring about our real position, we are simply engaged with sex, wife, home, property, children, society, money and position. We are captivated with these things, and we are spoiling our lives.
So Narottama dasa Thakura, representing us, is lamenting, “My dear Lord, I have spoiled my life.” Why? “This human form of life is meant for understanding Radha-Krishna (the Lord and His energy) and worshiping Radha-Krishna. But
instead of making contact with Radha-Krishna, I am simply spoiling my life in sense gratification.”
Then his lamentation goes on: “Alas, why have I no attraction for chanting Hare Krishna?” The chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra is a transcendental vibration; it is not a material thing. It is imported from the transcendental abode of Krishna. From there, the transcendental sound of Hare Krishna has come. This sound is like the sunshine coming from the sun. Although you cannot go to the sun – it is far beyond your reach, you can understand that the sunshine is coming from the sun globe. There is no doubt about it. Similarly, the vibration of the Hare Krishna mantra is coming from Krishna’s planet, Goloka. And this chanting produces love of Krishna.
Narottama dasa Thakura laments, “Alas, why do I have no attachment for the chanting of Hare Krishna?” Why should one be attached to this chanting? “Chanting Hare Krishna is the only remedy to relieve the heart from the burning poison of sense gratification.” No sense-gratificatory process can give me satisfaction. People are trying sense gratification in so many ways, and now they have come to the last point: the naked dance. Because in the material world, the basic principle is sex, everyone is inviting, “Yes, come on, enjoy sex. Come on, enjoy sex.”
But no matter how you try to enjoy sex, you cannot be satisfied. That is certain, because sense gratification is not your real platform of enjoyment. You are a spirit soul, and unless you come to the spiritual platform, you will never be satisfied by any sense gratification. So chant the Hare Krishna mantra and be happy: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.