All pleasures and pains arise from the contact of the senses with pleasure giving or pain producing objects, thus causing us to desire one and hate the other. But if we feel neither attraction nor repulsion for sense objects, and allow them to come as a matter of course, they cannot produce pleasant or painful sensations. (MBI, p. 153)

 

There are five kinds of senses in man: hearing, touch, sight, taste and smell. These five senses are based on the five elements: Akasha (ether), Vayu (air), Agni (fire), Apa (water), and Prithvi (earth).

 

The earth is the grossest of the elements; water is subtler and more pervasive than earth. Fire is subtler and more pervasive than water. Air is even more subtler than fire and is extremely pervasive. Ether is the subtlest and pervades everything. In this ascending order of subtlety, each element exhibits a wider pervasiveness than the preceding element. With increasing subtlety, pervasiveness also expands. In the reverse process, when subtlety diminishes, the density increases and the pervasiveness contracts. Thus air is less subtle and grosser than ether; fire is grosser and less pervasive than air. Earth is the grossest and least pervasive.

 

It may by seen from this that ether is the basis of all the other elements. Akasha (ether or space) is the basis from which the other elements have emerged. Akasha may be compared to an infinite pot. All the other four elements are evolved from it. From the Gatha (movement) of ether, air came into existence. Out of air, fire emerged in course of time. Without air, there could be no fire. Out of the heat generated by fire, water was formed. For instance, in the human body, after a bout of fever, there is sweating. When we move in the hot sun, we perspire. This shows how water results from heat. From water all multifarious forms in Nature are evolved. The relationship between grossness and pervasiveness can be illustrated by an example. Suppose, for instance, a jasmine flower is placed on a table in a room. The flower, which is gross, is small in size. But its fragrance, which is subtle, pervades the whole room. Likewise, steam, which is generated from water, occupies much larger space than the volume of water from which it is produced.

 

The mind of man, because of its extreme subtlety, is capable of immense expansion. But because of the senses, the mind has attraction for a variety of objects and persons. When these objects fill the mind, its expansiveness gets reduced. It is only when the attraction from these objects is reduced that the mind can achieve expansion.

 

If today man is filled with worries and has no peace of mind, it is because his mind is filled with innumerable desires. The world cannot be blamed for man’s mental state. Nor can samsara (family life) be held responsible for man’s bondage. You bind yourself to Nature and the family, by your attachments and desires. To withdraw yourselves from these attachments and to reduce your subjection to the external world, you have to practise control over your eyes, ears and tongue.

 

In this context you have to consider three factors: the gross, the subtle and the causal. Taking the examples of the tamarind fruit, you find that it has the outer rind, the fruit inside it and the seed within the fruit. All these are associated with one another. Our body is like the outer rind of the tamarind fruit. Our mind can be compared to the fruit within. Our causal body is comparable to the seed in the fruit. The human entity is the combination of these three. And in this entity, there are five Koshas (sheaths) – the Annamaya (the food sheath), the Pranamaya (the vital air sheath), the Manomaya (the mental), Vijnanamaya (the intelligence) and the Anandamaya (the Blissful) Koshas. (SSS Vol.21, pp. 66-68)

 

When man is able to master the senses and direct them along more beneficent channels, the eye seeing God’s footprints in stars and rose petals, the ear hearing God’s voice in the throats of birds and peals of thunder, the tongue tasting God’s sweetness in all that appeals to it, the nose discovering fragrance in everything that recalls the glory of God, the sense of touch content to clasp the hand of the forlorn and distressed as the beloved children of God – then, he can visualize the God installed in the cavity of the his heart.

 

Everything created is a manifestation of Divine Energy. Only your concentration and devotion is needed to convert it into Manifest Divinity and enable to derive Divine Guidance and Grace from Divinity in each of them (living or nonliving). (NNSG Vol.9, pp. 63-64)

 

The senses exist and function in relation to the objective world. They produce desires, impulses, feelings, emotions, etc. which go collectively to form the mind. Based on the desires and impulses, the mind builds an image or picture of oneself which forms the ego. Thus the mind and the ego depend upon the senses for their existence. They feed continuously on the sensations produced by the senses.

 

Every sense runs after external objects, one after the other, one supporting the other, restless and miserable. One must bring under control the mind, the reasoning faculty, and the senses that roam aimlessly behind objective pleasures. One must train them to take on the task of concentrating all attention on the glory and majesty of God to follow one systematic course of one-pointed discipline. When the inner consciousness has been rendered pure and unsullied, God will reside therein. Finally, you will experience the vision of the Lord Himself within you. (WLMG, p. 105)

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