05.21 – The road that turns into a roadblock

Our culture indoctrinates us with the belief that the body is the road to enjoyment, especially sexual enjoyment.

The sexual experience seems exhilarating while it lasts. But it doesn’t last for long – just a few minutes. Not that we don’t want it too last, but the body doesn’t allow it to last. The body’s capacity to enjoy is limited. The very body that seems to be the road to enjoyment becomes after a few minutes of indulgence the roadblock to enjoyment. We stop not because we have had enough, but because the body doesn’t let us have more.

Can we not have more after the body recovers its capacity?

Yes, but even that more is never enough. Also, that more becomes less and less as the body ages and loses its capacity to enjoy.

Hoping to increase the enjoyment, we may watch videos to turn ourselves on, read books on better sex or lie on the coaches of sexologists. But the body always remains the same: a road that soon turns into a roadblock. We can never remove the roadblock; we can at best push it back a few millimeters. A few moments more of pleasure is really not worth the struggle for hours and the fantasy for years.

Instead of futilely denying or battling the roadblock, we can look for another road to happiness. Instead of trying to uncork a bit more pleasure from the body, Gita wisdom urges us to uncork the soul’s potential for eternal happiness in loving Krishna. Using the body to render devotional service will cost us far less and will yield far greater happiness. The Bhagavad-gita (05.21) assures us that if we use our faculties to seek not external enjoyment but internal fulfillment, we will relish unending happiness (akshaya-sukha).