Sai Baba Gita - Do not Drive with your Foot on the Brake

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Do not Drive with your Foot on the Brake

Now, some of you may be thinking that if young children are taught sense control

they would turn into inert, helpless human beings? But nobody is telling them

that they should not make use of their senses. It is only that they should

learn to control them properly. There are brakes in a car, and whenever there

is danger you use the brakes to stop the car. When Swami is asking you to

control the senses and to control the mind, some of you might be wondering if

you would be able to live at all and carry on your routine functions. Swami is

not asking you to drive with your foot on the brake, but to use the brakes when

necessary to control the car, whenever there is some danger. It is when there is

some danger, such as impure thoughts, impure feelings, impure sights, impure

hearing and so on, that you have to exercise control. If you do not have any

brakes at all you will surely come to grief. A bullock which cannot be brought

under control, a horse without reins, a car without

brakes, a person without sense control, are all extremely dangerous and heading for disaster.

"Therefore, Arjuna," Krishna said, "control your senses and your mind, and

recognize the defects that are inherent in all the objects of the world. When

you turn from the changing manifestations and establish yourself in the

unchanging basis, then you will be able to live happily anywhere, because you

will be established in the source of all happiness, the atma, which is eternal

bliss."

The wisdom teachings do not admonish you to give up your family or give up your

worldly duties. Be in the world. Use your senses. But do so in a proper and

ethical way, appropriate to each time and circumstance, never forgetting your

true purpose. The Gita teaches the importance of discipline, of observing

limits in all your activities. The brakes are used in a car for the welfare and

protection of the passengers, so that they can safely reach their goal. In the

same way, the senses must be brought under control and used for the welfare and

protection of the individual, so that it can complete its journey safely. That

is why Krishna was so insistent that Arjuna develop sense-control.

http://www.atmapress.com/saibabagita/saigita192.html

Sai Baba Gita, Compiled and edited by Al Drucker - Published by Atma Press -

http://www.atmapress.com - ISBN: 0963844903Online Edition:

http://www.atmapress.com/saibabagita/index.html

 

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