In this day and age it is almost impossible to control the senses. I have tried and failed. And I have seen others more experienced and learned than me also try and fail. Despite all the education, warnings, urging, reward and role models, I and almost all others who I have seen in the Boomers and GenX which include me and my elders, we all failed.
My elders and I joined yoga ashrams as students in the seventies, eighties and nineties, inspired by the allure of transcendence from the hardships of life on earth, and yet earthy sense attractions defeated us all. It’s hard to beat the body and mind. They usually win over the intelligence like a dog wins over their master, either by force or coercion.
Does that mean we simply give up trying? Perhaps. It seems the only thing keeping us from indulging our senses in fulfilling their desires is threat of harm and fear of reprisal, either by the law or other authority figures. That’s why we have laws and educators who attempt to inculcate in us some sort of self-discipline.
Yet despite being in a community of like minded souls (which makes it easier), all undergoing strict, vigorous full time non-stop training, my senses and their desires for gratification got the better of my mind and even my intelligence, and I found myself behaving foolishly in pursuit of the objects of the senses. Even risk of shaming, reprisal, punishment and all of that could not stop me from attempting to indulge my senses in their demands.
I was like a boat swept about by the wind without a guiding hand on the rudder. And so I know about the nature of the mind and senses, as we all do intuitively and via common sense and personal experience. We all see animals following their noses and instincts. We have seen infants in a similar mindset, like a bundle of instincts for sense indulgence to further survival. And we have seen it in ourselves constantly. The desire for sense gratification is the foundation of this body and it’s instinct to survive.
Food and sex are attractions as strong as any other on the planet. We will go to the ends of the earth to get them. We will kill for them if it means we will survive. And that is actually natural. We all live according to natural propensities. But following nature or our instincts is not enough, for they think mostly on the immediate present rather than long term or the bigger picture. It takes intelligence to be able to extrapolate the consequences of our actions into the future. So the battle wages on within us regarding short term versus long term survival or growth.
While undergoing my training as a monk for ten years in the yoga ashram in my youth, I had a combination of conflicting desires that were tested during my training. Part of me wanted to evolve in consciousness, yet the other part wanted to satisfy the biological drives for food and sex. Food was easy to obtain and the tongue was pacified, but the genitals were not willing to be refused their desires. Even though I had no desire to have children whatsoever, still the desire for sex and procreation was insatiable, which is natural for a person in their twenties.
This seems strange. What is it about these desires of the senses for pleasure, despite no real practical purpose. If my intelligence concludes that I don’t want or need children for a better quality of life, then why are the senses still demanding sex? There seems to be a disconnect in us, like there are two captains commanding the ship. So I left the monastery after ten years and all the prestige and perks of being the head monk of my branch, and went to indulge my sex desires, without having any children.
It’s described to be like scratching an itch. The desire of the skin for touch and the pleasure of rubbing the skin appears to bewilder the greatest attempt at intelligent use of this human form of life. To this day I’m bewildered by the workings of this body/mind machine, which seems to be like a modern AI bot – brilliantly brainy but also dumb at the same time. The one semblance of intelligence did stay with me in the fact that I was capable of fulfilling my desires while still keeping to my need to refrain from fathering children, since I knew that this was not the lifestyle I wanted.
Others who never underwent my type of monastic training also succumbed to the allure of sex, yet they were unable to avoid making babies, so in a sense I was able to stay ahead of the herd in that regard. So there is a sliding scale of how much or how little control over our animal body we actually have. Some have it and others don’t, to varying degrees. But we all fall victim to our basic instincts, which may appear to keep the species going, yet also ruin our lives if we lose control in more problematic circumstances.
It takes more than mere education, role models or whatever else you have, to really master the senses. Will power may help and a strong desire for something higher, yet the senses can even override that. Ultimately it takes some sort of blessing from a higher source. I had all the tools, knowledge and will power for a decade, yet despite that, I failed to keep up my control over my senses. That led to me finding the middle way, where artificial impositions were not necessary or recommended.
Others without a semblance of training have fallen by the wayside of this middle way, as we see all around us. At least I aimed high to begin with. Even though I failed to maintain my celibacy in youth, today in maturity as I approach retirement, it is easy. The senses are now less strong, they are pacified and my resolve throughout this lifetime has delivered results. Now I can say that the allure of sex looks so childish and immature to me, that I laugh at it in my fifties. My training in celibacy has paid off and finally I have been able to cut through the illusion, see it for what it is and break free of the imaginary fantasy that sex is something meaningful rather than just the animal nature wanting to keep the species going.
Sometimes a lifetime of effort, based on a well-spent youth undergoing training, can bear the fruits of your endeavor. Having the desire to be free from desire (paradoxically) becomes easy with age, if you have set yourself along the right trajectory from early on. Whatever path you follow in youth will become hard-wired and thus harder to change in old age. If you pursue a lifestyle of indulging the senses, then those senses will keep their grip on your mind and override your intelligence out of habit. So even a lifetime of struggle can bear fruit despite years of failure, if you keep the goal in mind.
Bhagavad Gita ch2:67-68
इन्द्रियाणां हि चरतां यन्मनोऽनुविधीयते ।
तदस्य हरति प्रज्ञां वायुर्नावमिवाम्भसि ॥ ६७ ॥
तस्माद्यस्य महाबाहो निगृहीतानि सर्वशः ।
इन्द्रियाणीन्द्रियार्थेभ्यस्तस्य प्रज्ञा प्रतिष्ठिता ॥ ६८ ॥
indriyāṇāṁ hi caratāṁ
yan mano 'nuvidhīyate
tad asya harati prajnāṁ
vāyur nāvam ivāmbhasi
tasmād yasya mahā-bāho
nigṛhītāni sarvaśaḥ
indriyāṇīndriyārthebhyas
tasya prajnā pratiṣṭhitā
indriyāṇām—of the senses; hi—certainly; caratām—while herding over; yat—that; manaḥ—mind; anuvidhīyate—becomes constantly engaged; tat—that; asya—his; harati—takes away; praj�ām—intelligence; vāyuḥ—wind; nāvam—a boat; iva—like; ambhasi—on the water
tasmāt—therefore; yasya—of one's; mahā-bāho—O mighty-armed one; nigṛhītāni—so curbed down; sarvaśaḥ—all around; indriyāṇi—the senses; indriya-arthebhyaḥ—for the sake of sense objects; tasya—his; prajnā—intelligence; pratiṣṭhitā—fixed
TRANSLATION
As a boat on the water is swept away by a strong wind, even one of the senses on which the mind focuses can carry away a man's intelligence.
Therefore, O mighty-armed, one whose senses are restrained from their objects is certainly of steady intelligence.
COMMENTARY
Unless all of the senses are engaged in the service of the Lord, even one of them engaged in sense gratification can deviate the devotee from the path of transcendental advancement. As mentioned in the life of Mahārāja Ambarīṣa, all of the senses must be engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, for that is the correct technique for controlling the mind.
As enemies are curbed by superior force, similarly, the senses can be curbed not by any human endeavor, but only by keeping them engaged in the service of the Lord. One who has understood this—that only by Kṛṣṇa consciousness is one really established in intelligence and that one should practice this art under the guidance of a bona fide spiritual master—is called sādhaka, or a suitable candidate for liberation.
Reference: Bhagavad Gita As It Is, translation and commentary by Swami A. C. Bhaktivedanta, original 1972 Macmillan edition (www.prabupadabooks.com)
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