When you look at the world, you think, "Oh yeah, I know how this works. I know causality. I know the resultant vector of what's taking place here." And when you read the Bhagavad-gītā and Kṛṣṇa tells you, "Here's how to identify the modes of nature, and here's the effect of each mode of nature." For instance, He says, in passion, it's like nectar in the beginning, but poison at the end. When you know that, and it's there in your intelligence strongly enough, and the opportunity comes and you go, there's a little screen in front of your face, like there's a little readout that you can see, like if you had those AI glasses or something. And then you look, and you go, "Rajas: happy in the beginning, poison in the end." And like, "Would you like poison?" "No thanks." Even though the senses are going, "Take it, come on, take it," and then the intelligence says, "No, we don't want to drink poison right now. Thanks a lot. Maybe, you know, some other time."

This is what we get from the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So in the beginning, if we're diligent in doing vaidhi—taking shelter of the scripture. Vaidhi means scripture. In the beginning, we're not practicing spontaneous devotional service. We don't have a taste, but we have faith in śāstra. As it is pointed out many times by our ācāryas and by Prabhupāda, śāstra or śastra. It comes from the same root, but śāstra means the scripture which gives us this razor-sharp intelligence, and śastra means the sword of the material world. If you put your hand in the wrong place, you get your fingers cut off. So which do you prefer? You take the śāstra or the śastra? That's why we emphasize our movements based on this śāstra. If you join a movement and there's no śāstra and they just have emotions, you really won't be able to make advancement.

This is also there in the Second Chapter—it's a few verses before where we are now, śṛṇvatām. It says (SB 1.2.12),

tac chraddadhānā munayo

jñāna-vairāgya-yuktayā

paśyanty ātmani cātmānaṁ

bhaktyā śruta-gṛhītayā

To make advancement on this path, you need śāstra. It has to be there. And if you don't have that, then it's going to be very difficult just to say, "Okay, I already have a higher taste; therefore, I won't be attracted to everything else." If you don't have that yet, you will be pulled back into the idea that maybe I can enjoy both things—I'll do devotional service and also enjoy the material world at the same time. And that doesn't work out well.

Verse for discussion: https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/1/2/17/

------------------------------------------------------------

To connect with His Grace Vaiśeṣika Dāsa, please visit https://www.fanthespark.com/next-steps/ask-vaisesika-dasa/

------------------------------------------------------------

Add to your wisdom literature collection:

https://iskconsv.com/book-store/

https://www.bbtacademic.com/books/

https://thefourquestionsbook.com/

------------------------------------------------------------

Join us live on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FanTheSpark/

Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sound-bhakti/id1132423868

For the latest videos, subscribe https://www.youtube.com/@FanTheSpark

For the latest in SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/fan-the-spark

------------------------------------------------------------