Often people try so hard to find happiness through sense pleasure that they may attempt to gratify several or all of their senses at the same time. For example, you may simultaneously be watching TV, listening to the radio, munching potato chips, sipping beer, and smoking a cigarette. Perhaps you may have your arm around the shoulders of your girlfriend or boyfriend. You may also have a magazine at your side, which you look at during commercials. You try to fill up every sense; yet still you’re not satisfied; still you want something more.
Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation
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Nor is sense gratification considered “bad.” Sense gratification comes and goes as a natural occurrence of the senses. For example, one cannot eat without tasting. The point is that a life that is centered around sense enjoyment, that makes sense enjoyment the goal, is a wasted life. Economic development is necessary for the maintenance of the body; so therefore it cannot be neglected. But to seek economic development simply for the sake of endlessly increasing sensual pleasure is foolish. No amount of sensual pleasure will ever really satisfy a person, so no amount of economic development will ever be considered “enough.” This is why people in modern Western societies are still not satisfied, even though they are so economically advanced and thus have so much facility for sense enjoyment. They always want more.
Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation
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According to the Bhagavad-gita, when you falsely identify with the body, you use your intelligence to increase your facilities for sense enjoyment. You use your intelligence and mind to direct the brain and the rest of the body in a way that will bring you sensual enjoyment. You identify with the senses, and so believe that sensual pleasure will bring you satisfaction. Of course you are never really satisfied, nor are you the one who is really making the decisions.
Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation
~ Jagad Guru (Jagad Guru Chris Butler)
© 2008 Science of Identity Foundation
