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Articles: My Thoughts | Sthitaprajna
- Mr. Bhuvanendra Bhupala
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There is a story in the Mahabharata. During the Bharata war, Ashwathama sneaks into Arjuna’s camp at the dead of night and murders his sons and other brave soldiers. The fight starts between the two. Ashwathama tries all his weapons and as a last resort uses his Brahmastra. Arjuna has no other go but use his own Brahmastra. Caught between these two deadly weapons, the whole world quakes. At this Sri Vedavyasa orders both of them to withdraw their respective weapons. Arjuna withdraws his weapon easily but Ashwathma does not succeed in doing so because he had lost that power due to his moral turpitude in murdering Arjuna’s children against all canons of warfare. We are also in the same ridiculous situation as Ashwathama. We only know how to send our senses out into the world but hardly know how to withdraw them when required. Our senses behave as did the Brahmastra from the hands of Ashwathama. Instead of we dictating to them, they are dictating to us. We, who should have been masters of the senses, have become their slaves.
By self-discipline and fasting we try to overcome temptations and control our senses. But what usually happens is that we abstain from these temptations physically but hanker after them mentally. While we fast on Ekadashi we are always thinking of the next day’s feast. Without food, all the other sense organs may become weak, but the tongue remains ever sharp and hankers after delicious food. Even if we cut the branches of a tree, so long as the root is intact, it will put forth afresh when we water; similarly if the tongue is left uncontrolled, the sensual desires keep on cropping up. But complete termination of the sensual desires can happen only by the realization of God. Before that beatitude all otherworldly pleasures fade into insignificance. An illumined soul is not tempted by such worldly pleasures. You may give sweets to a child crying for its lost mother but the child will throw away the sweets in its ecstasy when it sees its mother. So also an illumined soul spurns all worldly pleasures when it reaches this beatitude. (The realized soul loses his taste for worldly pleasures at the sight of God.)
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