Beyond Conditioning

Sukadeva Goswami says: “These sins are like the dried leaves of creepers beneath a bamboo tree, which may be burned by fire although their roots remain to grow again at the first opportunity” (SB 6.1.13). The problem of sinful desires, or what may be more neutrally called addictive behaviours, has been of great interest in modern psychology. Different schools of thought have approached the problem differently, but perhaps the most prominent in recent modern history has been the behaviourist school of psychology.