Saturday, November 20, 2010

vimoha

The next quality to examine is the vimoha. That is not giving any room for lust. This will release us from the bindings of karma. Our senses lead to attachments and if these attachments are intense it will greatly affect the mind. The equilibrium will be lost, and therefore the spiritual progress will be affected. Those who are led by their senses will soon get caught in an unstable confused mind that for if the mind has to be pure we need vimoha.
Krishna paramatma says,

nāsti buddhir ayuktasya

na cāyuktasya bhāvanā

na cābhāvayataḥ śāntir

aśāntasya kutaḥ sukham


[One who is not connected with the Supreme can have neither transcendental intelligence nor a steady mind, without which there is no possibility of peace. And how can there be any happiness without peace?]

One who is not conquered the senses will not have a steady mind. One who does not have a steady mind will not have peace of mind. He who does not have peace of mind, can he have happiness?

These attachments come from the conjugation of mind and the senses. Only these two determine what one's quality is. The person's qualities determine his raise and fall.
The corrupt forms of mind or six in number. They have been given special names. They are as follows: kāma (lust); krodha (anger); lobha (avarice); moha (infatuation); mada (insolence), mātsarya ( jealousy).

How these are handled depends on the person. It is basically a question of who is controlling whom. A snake charmer has a lot of snakes in baskets and places from all over his body. He controls the snakes and they don't control him. Therefore they are quiet. But if we see the snakes, we panic.

Similarly, those who are in control of the senses, use them to their ends and we the mere mortals cannot do that. Just one of the six is enough to control us.
In viveka chudamani Sri Shankara warns us....
He quotes the example of five animals.
To catch a deer hunters will go into the forest and play the flute. Listening to the music the deer will stay quiet, and someone will go and catch it.
To catch an elephant, the hunters take a trained elephant and let it go and rub against the wild elephant. Being sensitive to touch of the opposite sex the elephant is tamed. The elephant can be caught unaware and is easily trapped.
Most of us are aware of the flies are attracted by fire. The fly straight into the fire and die there.
It needs no special brain to know that fish are caught by the sense of taste for the worm pinned to the fish hook.

Insects are attracted to flowers, and if the flower happens to close at sunset they will be trapped.

Sri Shankara appeals to the man. "Oh! man these beings are caught, just because of one of the senses. But you have five and you run after them. What will be your fate!"

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