The senses - friends or foe?

It is evident to all that our awareness of the world of objects around us come from our five senses. Let us try to look at the senses and their impact in the world.

The sense of sight gives ability to the firefly to see the light and what does it do? It rushes headlong into the fire and meets its end. The fish with its sense of taste gets attracted to a measly insect at the end of a fishing rod and gets caught. The deer because of its love for sound stands totally motionless when it hears sound and makes it a "sitting duck" for hunters. A male elephant because of its love for touch of a female elephant falls into the trap laid by the elephant hunters. Finally the bee because of its love for the scent of a flower gathers honey and is finally killed by the honey seeker. Well, if each of the attraction of the senses could prove so deadly for the animal world, what of us in whom all five senses are active and pulling us to the material world?

The five senses are like the horses yoked to a chariot in which our life moves ahead. Without a harness, these five horses or senses can lead us totally astray. But what is the harness? Our mind which gets inputs from each of the senses is our harness. But the mind being what it is, always goes with the senses just as a harness not held by a charioteer would just run with the senses. So what should hold the harness? It is the intellect which should hold the harness. Now taking this analogy further, what if the charioteer is not good? Then the horses have full sway and will drag the chariot anywhere they like and end in a disaster. Similarly without a strong intellect, the senses will drive us recklessly leading to our downfall.

Just as a good charioteer has to be trained to manage the horses, a good intellect needs to be developed to control the senses. Well, a question could arise. Can we just forsake everything and go off to the Himalayas where there is no chance of any sense objects disturbing us? One may physically move anywhere, even to the deepest jungle, but the mind can still very much be in the world of objects. Next, is it possible that we constantly practice giving up desires? This is impossible for us. Desires are absolutely essential in this world and cannot be suppressed. We have read enough cases of forced celibacy and what such so called divine people  who proclaimed celibacy have done.

There could be different ways to manage desires depending on temperaments of people. One way could be to raise the bar of desires higher. Today my desire could be just for myself. This may be the height of selfishness. When I get married, I may start thinking of my wife and kids. Though still selfish, the goal of desire has slightly shifted higher. This can gradually be moved to think of doing something beneficial to my extended family, my caste, my religion, country etc. So through a step by step process, the goal of desire can be moved higher and higher, thus making the senses move towards objects of higher level desires rather than selfish petty desires.

At another level, each of the senses can be made to experience an object of desire differently. When I see a beautiful flower and desire that I give it to my beloved, it is possible to see the same flower and desire to offer it at the Lord's feet. When I use my eyes to look at the beauty of a heroine and desire her, I can use the same eyes to admire the Lord who created such a beautiful person. I can listen to music and at the same time express wonderment at the Lord for giving such a super ability to a person. When I make a great speech and get applauded and satisfy my desire to be praised, I can also think of the Lord who gave me this capability. So each of the senses even as they are enjoying the objects of desire can be tuned to think of the Lord who made such objects of desire possible. So even though there is a desire expected to be fulfilled by the senses, the thought of a higher power behind the sense objects is likely to make us have less selfish desires towards the objects and to that extent, the intellect is guiding the senses towards a higher objective.

At the highest level, desire can be seen as an absolute absurdity. Who am I? I am like the wave of an ocean. So am I different from the ocean? Can I look at another wave and admire its beauty or feel jealous of its height. As a wave, if I realise I am really the ocean and everything is me, where is there a need for anything more? As the great Upanishads say, I am the consciousness which pervades everything. Because of the senses, I am identifying myself with a physical form and seeing a duality between myself and the world resulting in love, anger, lust etc which are all due to my senses running freely without the harness controlled by the intellect. Once I realize that the same consciousness is there in everyone, isn't it absurd to say I hate myself or I am jealous of myself. How can I desire any object when I know it is already mine? There is no way I can get attracted to my own body, because it is me. The day I realize I am consciousness, every vestige of desire will die away and the sense organs will be fully under the control of the intellect.

In the Mahabharatha war, Arjuna is the person in the chariot. There are five horses and their reins are held by Krishna. Hence victory was assured because the chariot was in safe hands.

In any picture of Ganesha, we see a little rat which is silently sitting though plenty of tasty food is in front of it. The rat represents our mind. The food stuff represents the objects of desire and Ganesha represents intellect. Since the rat is looking at Ganesha, it is not touching the food. Similarly if the mind is under guidance of intellect, it will not sway.

We know of Adishesha and Vishnu sleeping on it. At the same time we know of Kalia and Krishna destroying it. Both were snakes. The Lord slept on one in Ksheera Sagara, an ocean of peace, whereas he destroyed the other in a poisonous lake. Well, Adishesha the snake on which Vishnu slept was looking inward at the Lord whereas Kalia was looking outward. When the mind looks inward under the guidance of the intellect there is peace. When the mind looks outward through the senses, there is disturbance and finally destruction.