HOW TO OVERCOME TEMPTATIONS - 6

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HOW TO OVERCOME TEMPTATIONS - 6

"Senses run after objects, but we should not follow them and crave for their

objects" – Sri Sai Satcharitra, Ch. XLIX.

In the Gita, Sri Krishna gives us the mechanics of desire. Desire is man’s

deadliest foe: and how does it work?

In answer to this question, Sri Krishna says: "Arjuna, desire, kama, lust enters

through the outer gates of the senses and captures the fort of the mind and then

invades the region of determination and will."

Therefore, if you are wise, if you wish to overcome temptation, if you wish to

live a pure, peaceful, happy life, a life of freedom and fulfillment, you must

guard the gates. Each sensation of pleasure should be to you a warning.

Watchman! Let not the enemy in! When kama, lust leads the senses; the mind and

the reason, the man goes swiftly down the path of decline.

Goethe was a great man. He was, perhaps, the greatest poet the world produced

during the nineteenth century. But when kama, lust darkened his senses, he ran

after girls in restlessness. Nelson was a great general who won many victories

on the battlefield: he could not gain victory over desire. In the face of kama,

lust, he crumbled. Nelson lived with the wife of another man. Shelly was a man

of poetic genius; but his poetic intuitions were darkened by lust, and Shelly,

leaving his wife, married another woman and the first wife committed suicide.

I could go on and on, but my time has travelled fast, and the question still

remains: How to overcome temptations? What may we do to overcome this which is,

perhaps, the greatest foe of man, man’s arch enemy, desire?

What may we do to overcome temptations? And so let me pass on you some practical

suggestions, which I have found helpful in overcoming temptations. If I have

time, I would wish to pass on to you thirteen practical suggestions. It is not

necessary that all the thirteen suggestions be put into practice at once and

the same time. It is enough if you pick up one of them and try to live up to

it: you will be benefitted greatly.

(To be continued; Author. Sri. J.P. Vaswani)

Tamaso Ma Jyotirgamaya ........

John Ruskin, the great English artist and writer, who had a profound influence

on Mahatma Gandhi, said on one occasion: "I believe the first test of a truly

great man in his humility." How true!

When they praised Einstein for his rich contributions to science, he humbly said

that what he knew was only a fraction of what yet remained to be known.

Newton was another great scientist. When he was on his death bed, someone said

to him: "It must be a source of pride and gratification to know that you

penetrated so deeply into a knowledge of nature’s laws."

Newton answered: "Far from feeling proud, I feel like a little child who has

found a few bright coloured shells and pebbles, while the vast ocean of truth

stretches unknown and unexplored before my eager fingers." There spoke a man of

wisdom and knowledge.

In an interview, Einstein was asked: "What is the reason that pure science,

without which there would be no applied science, is flourishing so much in

Europe and so little in America?"

Einstein answered that it was so because the Europeans had something, the

Americans had not yet learnt – and that was appreciation of thought. There was,

he added, one quality essential for science which some men of science in America

lacked. It was humility.

Be humble: this has been the teaching of the great ones throughout the ages of

history. Vidya dadati vinayam. True knowledge, true science, true education

giveth humility.

 

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