| If the senses are controlled, that
victory itself gives a rare joy. It is for this that the teachers have prescribed several
means. Japa, Dhyana, reading the scriptures, praanaayaama, austerities, all these and more
are means to this end. Even if our efforts do not give us immediate success, we should
endeavour without giving way to despair.
"You" are not the body. You are
the inner Person. The external form is certainly care-worthy; but it is the mind that must
be primarily attended to. The mind is the seat of all our thoughts and activities. It must
be guarded very carefully. As an alert army guards the citadel keeping the enemy out,
intelligence must, be ever awake and keep guard on the mind.
The function of intelligence is to
discriminate between the true and the false, between reality and appearance, between the
permanent and the impermanent-attend to these things with care, with great care, says Sri
Sankara, repeating himself, in order to emphasize the importance of using intelligence to
control the senses and guarding the mind against straying. |
