Know your Senses?

Sister Senses

Nose and anus are sister senses born of Earth principle. These two senses are the least mischievous. The olfactory sense and the olfactory nerve do not trouble you much. They can be controlled very easily. Tongue and genitals are sister senses born of Water principle. Eating strengthens the reproductive senses. It's most difficult to control them.

Eye and feet are sister senses born of Fire principle. Eye likes to see 'sights'. Her sisters, feet, say, “We are ready to take roam around the world. Be ready.” Skin and hands are sister organs born of Air principle. Skin says, “I want silk and other smooth articles for my enjoyment.” Her sister, hand, says, “I can feel through my tactile corpuscles. I shall get for you fine soft silk. Do not be afraid, my dear sister.” Speech and ear are sister senses born of the Ether principle . They help each other in the economy of Nature.

In a bungalow you will find two gates, one for entrance, another for exit. Our body is also a nice bungalow for the Lord. Eyes and ears are entrance gates for the reception of forms and sounds. These are avenues of sense-knowledge (sight and hearing). Organ of reproduction and organ of excretion are exit gates.

Tongue, The Most Difficult To Control

The most mischievous and troublesome sense is the generative organ. Then comes the tongue. Then comes speech. Then comes the ear. Then comes eye. Control of the organ of taste is far more difficult than control of the genitals, because you have been enjoying delicious articles of food even from your very birth. Lust manifests itself just before eighteen. You indulge in sexual pleasure only for a short period in every birth. But, you have to take food even in advanced senility. Control of tongue means control of all Senses.

Music, cinema, sight-seeing are enjoyed in human births only. Ants and rats do not enjoy cinema-show. The sense of sight is not so powerful as the tongue. The organ of sight serves as a loving comrade to the organ of taste. The mind is at once tickled at the sight of a yellow color of the mango. The eyes see a beautiful mango and the different dishes that are served on the table. At once, the gloss o-pharyngeal nerves are stimulated. You get good appetite and relish. The food is rendered more palatable. A blind man may not have as good a relish as a man with sharp sight has.

Object of Meditation - To Prevent Externalization

The three organs of eye, ear and tongue externalize the mind and make a man altogether worldly. Eyes and ears are the avenues of sense-knowledge. Close the eyes. Shut the ears either with balls of cotton or with the two thumbs. Now you have destroyed two-fifths of the world. Do not allow anything to enter the mind through these two doors of sense-knowledge.

The object of meditation is to internalize the mind by introspection and to realize the Truth within yourself. Control the three organs of eye, ear and tongue. Then you can bring the mind under discipline and prevent the mental energy from flowing externally. These organs are the main causes of making the mind restive. Control over them helps the purpose of concentrating the energy internally.

He is a real Warrior who wages internal war with the mind, who fights with the senses, the moral, through Viveka and will-force and obtains absolute mastery over the mind. He is a real Warrior who fights with the host of evil Impressions and evil thoughts, the Passionate and Impure, by awakening and increasing the Pure Nature. He is a real Warrior whose protection is Will, and weapon is Viveka, whose battle-field is within, whose band is chanting of Pranava (OM) and whose coat-of-arms is the three qualifications, viz., Viveka, Vairagya and intense yearning for liberation .

Reference

Mind – Its Mysteries and Control by Sri Swami Sivananda