abhyAsa : bhOga
bhOga generally means enjoyment though it has also been translated as any winding or curve, coil (of a serpent). The root of this word is bhuj. (Details)
So seeing a movie is bhOga, a walk in the park is bhOga if you enjoy it.
The puritanical religions of the world are all anti-bhOga.
The general belief is that people like bhOga and hate karma (work) and dharma (duty/ethics/righteousness)., so we think we must encourage dharma and karma and discourage bhOga.
We are taught bhOgAh na bhuktAh, vayamEva bhuktAh – Enjoyments are not consumed, it is we who are consumed. (subhA’sita).
Krishna tells us in the Gita that bhOgais’varyAs are lesser goals.
Doctors tell us to eat less and avoid sugar, starch, salt and fat! (A common joke says – “Anything that tastes good is either sinful or fattening or both!“).
Kunda guruji gets only 3 khadi sarees a year, for the whole year. She is very strict about the cAturmAsyAs and what maybe eaten when. She has never married. She resists gifts and practices aparigraha – all this looks like extreme denial to me.
Among the people I know, guys are better at bhOga than girls – though this is apparently changing a little. (In the “size-zero-ideal” of the western culture, women have practically given up eating! if tv is to be believed.)
I know at least two young women who are so averse to bhOga, that one always falls sick due to not eating enough and is always unwell and the other has other problems. – This also annoys me.
I have been accused of close family of being excessively dharma-karma oriented and am continually advised to ‘take a break’, ‘get yourself some new stuff’, and ‘go out and have fun’.
Hmm.
Krishna said that those who torture the body, torture Him who dwells in it! He advocated mental renunciation, not physical self-denial. But it so much easier to “dream about a cake” and “not eat it”, than it is to ‘eat a kachori’ and ‘not think about it’. So many people go through aggressive external self-denial with their minds firmly on the bhOgAs they are missing out on. Krishna calls them mithyAcArIs – practioners of illusion – hypocrites?
Cruelty to body is hardly regulation of mind. I think!
Hmm.
Why this huge ramble?
I had a lovely coffee, a walk in the park, visit with a friend and a dinner outing yesterday. A complete mental break from dharma-karma. I enjoyed the lights, enjoyed the food and enjoyed myself. I had rest.
All this is bhOga.
The phala s’Rti of the viSNu sahasranAmam says that “the Self of all beings, who was First, expanded into all the three worlds and this unchanging enjoyer of the universe (vis’va-bhuk), enjoys or consumes it!
So when you pause to smell a rose or a pArijAta flower, it is He (That) who/which is enjoying the fragrance.
I wish the people I love would enjoy themselves., not illness-causing-society-ruining-indulgence, but please do have a good cup of coffee, a nice walk and an occasional rest. It is REALLY nice! Or go play something! Krishna, your in-dweller, will enjoy that!!
Satya Sarada Kandula
