HOW TO OVERCOME TEMPTATIONS - 10

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HOW TO OVERCOME TEMPTATIONS - 10

Practical suggestion number five:

Never forget that impurity begins in the thought. Therefore, take care of your

thoughts. Thoughts are forces, not to be trifled with: thoughts are the

building blocks of life. If you entertain pure thoughts, you build for yourself

a noble future. If otherwise, you work for your own ruination. St. Thomas

A’Kempis says: "First there cometh to the mind a bare thought of evil, then a

strong imagination there of, afterward delight and evil motion, and then

consent." His advice is, "withstand the beginnings!" Therefore, take care of

your thoughts!

The great Prophet of Islam, Prophet Muhammad, said, "Temptation comes as a

passer-by, then knocks on the door of your heart to be taken as a guest. But

once you open the door to temptation, it will stay as a master!" Then man is

doomed. Therefore, do not let temptation in! Withstand the beginnings. The

moment temptation comes to you, drive it out with all the force you can summon.

Thomas Acquinas, one of the greatest saints of the Catholic Faith, when he was

sixteen years of age, was locked up in a castle tower. A woman was sent to

entice him to evil. "Let me flee," thought Thomas to himself. But every exit

was locked: he could not flee. He then took from the chimney a burning log and

chased the shameless woman away.

That is how everyone of us must try to deal with temptation, chase it away the moment it appears.

This leads us to practical suggestion number six. The moment an evil desire or

thought wake up within me, I should immediately, without the least delay, push

it out and punish myself. Beloved Dada always carried with himself a pin: and

on his body, we found ,many scratches. When he was a young man, he kept with

himself a stick. If an undesirable thought came to him, he would close the door

of his room and beat himself with the stick, until his mind repented and

promised never to entertain such a thought or desire.

One chilly, winter night, St. Francis of Assisi felt within himself, as never

before, the rebellion of the flesh. He got up and found some brambles with

thorns and, without hesitating a moment, lay down on it, crying out: "O Lord,

it is better to suffer your thorns than to fall into satan’s hands."

St. Benedict lived a life of great austerity. He wore a rough shirt and lived

for three years in a desolate cave, beyond the reach of man. His scanty food

was let down to him at the end of a rope. Even there, temptation did not leave

him. The memory of beautiful woman he had met haunted him continually and so

impressed him that he was on the point of leaving his seclusion to follow her.

Near his cave was a clump of thorns and berriers. Having undressed, he threw

himself among them and rolled around till his body bled with many wounds. This

continued to do till the fires of passion were quenched forever.

Many of us think that the saints are never tempted. That is not so. Only the

other day, I read concerning a young man who complained to a saint that, after

struggling for eight years, he had not yet succeeded in restraining his

passions. "Eight years of struggle!" replied the saint. "For sixty years I have

been fighting them in the desert, and so far I have not been spared a single

day!"

Saints, too, are tempted even as we ordinary men are. The difference is, we

easily succumb to temptation, saints overcome it and grow in spiritual strength

and splendour.

It was Emerson who said, "As the Sandwich-Islander believes that the strength

and valour of the enemy he kills passes into himself so we gain the strength of

the temptations we resist."

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

Tamaso Ma Jyotirgamaya......

The test of friendship is assistance in adversity, and that too, unconditional

assistance. Co-operation which needs consideration is a commercial contract and

not friendship. Conditional co-operation is like adulterated cement which does

not bind.

It may be long before the law of love will be recognised in international

affairs. The machineries of government stand between and hide the hearts of one

people from those of another.

A vow is a purely religious act which cannot be taken in a fit of passion. It

can be taken only with a mind purified and composed and with God as witness.

Religion is a matter of the heart. No physical inconvenience can warrant

abandonment of one's own religion.

Non-cooperation is an attempt to awaken the masses, to a sense of their dignity

and power. This can only be done by enabling them to realize that they need not

fear brute force, if they would but know the soul within.

(Quotes from Mahatma Gandhi)

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