But we are not the body, we are spirit soul and as a spirit soul we need spiritual food. We never get it, we don’t know about this. We do know that there is something missing in our lives, we do know that. Everyone, if they are honest and introspective at all, will know: I have got what I have got, but there is still something missing. Even the greatest personalities (material greatness), famous people, rich people have the same problem.
Elvis Presley, probably you have heard of Elvis Presley even here. I grew up in that era: I lived in the state next to him. I remember when he was just young and he came out with his first songs, he became more and more famous and of course very wealthy. After years of this, everybody knew him and everybody loved him. “Elvis the King” – that was his name, the King. But the King actually was very depressed and there was a video made where he is sitting like this and holding his head, he had on his Las Vegas clothes. In the end of his life he did a lot of shows in Las Vegas, you very well may have seen pictures of that. So, here he is like this in his Las Vegas clothes and he is saying, “You know, I’ve got money, I’ve got fame, I have a beautiful wife, I have a wonderful daughter – I have got everything, but there is still something missing.” Shortly after that he died, choked on his own vomit sitting on the toilet – not a very glorious way for the King to go away. He knew it, but he didn’t know what to do about it. He had a spiritual advisor, but this spiritual advisor didn’t know either.
We are like that ourselves, in some way or another, “I don’t know what to do,” and life becomes more and more frustrating. You see, it is the nature of the soul eternally to be happy – that is our true nature and that never changes. That is an eternal quality – happiness. Happiness is our eternal quality. Here in the material world identifying with our material body we are not finding that happiness, but the need is there.
So how do we try to find happiness in this world? Because I identify with the body, “This is me,” I experience I want to be happy, then my conclusion is: I can be happy if I make my body happy because that is me. If I satisfy my body and my mind, I will be happy. And how do we make our body happy? Through the senses, sense gratification.
We have our eyes and they bring us pleasure. I’m talking about the pleasure, but they also bring us pain. Each sense has the potential to bring us pleasure or pain. But I’m talking about the pleasure part now, so let’s just focus on that. Our eyes are always looking for pleasure. What is my interest? What do I perceive as pleasurable? That is where my eyes go and almost without exception one object of pleasure is the opposite sex. So the men are looking for the beautiful ladies: the face, the body. “Oh! Wow!” That is why pornography is so prevalent and all the magazines, “Oh, look.” Pleasure.
We are always looking for pleasure. If you like to eat, “Oh, look at that cake! Look at that pie! Look at that pizza advertisement!” Whatever it is, here is one big source of pleasure. That is why if we lose the function of one of our senses, it’s a big loss. If you lose your eyesight, it’s a big loss, not only because you can’t get around but because you can’t see that pleasure any longer. No more ladies, just in the mind. You are already at a disadvantage; a lot of your pleasure potential has been removed.
Another sense – the ears. We are always looking for sounds we like; music, everybody likes music. Certainly different people like different kinds of music, but everybody likes music. Everybody has got some kind of sound system. Everybody now has cell phones with music in the phone, listening, ear pieces. You almost can’t talk to anybody anymore; everybody’s got stuff stuck in their ears:
-Excuse me!
They don’t hear you.
-Hey! Hey!
-Oh, yes? Ok, thank you.
Listening, listening. Pleasure, pleasure. Listening is pleasure.
The nose likes certain smells. Different types of consciousness are attracted by different smells. People in the mode of goodness, they like the smells of nature: the smell of the sea, the smell on a hot day when it starts to rain (there is a certain smell), flowers. Flowers are both objects of pleasure for the eyes and the nose. Unfortunately, most modern flowers don’t smell. Looks good, but… modern flowers, they manufacture them. They look good, but they don’t smell. There is a beautiful rose, you paid a lot of money for it, but… you may as well make it out of paper. Anyway, this is the idea. “Wow, smell that bakery!” Then you go; your nose takes you into the bakery.
The tongue takes us all over the place. You know, so much of our life is focused on putting something we like on the tongue, from the time we get up through the whole day – some kind of tongue pleasure. We eat all kinds of garbage, which actually is poison, just because it tastes good. It has no nutritional value at all, completely artificial, destroys the health, makes us fat, but it tastes good. People have cancer and you say, “You know, you have to change your diet,” but they can’t do it. These sweets and all the stuff you are eating is feeding the cancer, but they cannot give it up, “That is my pleasure,” so the tongue controls us.
And the genitals: the whole scenario around that. We do the stupidest things, we get into the weirdest situations just because of that pleasure. So much trouble comes from that.
And then completely connected with physical senses is the mind and the intelligence. It’s like a team: the mind thinks about it, “Oh, that dinner is going to be so good, I’m going to take the one who I really love and we are going to go out to eat.” You think about it, you think about it, and intelligence comes in, “Ok, we will get the money like this, and we will arrange it like that.” Then the tongue enjoys it, but it doesn’t make us happy. You can do anything and everything with the senses – it doesn’t make you happy.