The” Arishadvargas” are invincible! Egged on by the senses and the Indriyas man becomes a helpless victim to satisfy them! However great an individual may be morally and spiritually he is bound by the craving of his indriyas and has to abide by them! Even his knowledge and scholarship fails him in such circumstances! We have many examples of such failures in our Puranas. Was Sage Viswamitra an ordinary person? What about Ahalya and the great devotee of Siva, Ravana, king of Lanka? The Katha Upanishad proclaims: “ Know that the Self is like the lord of the chariot, and the body is his chariot. Know that the intellect is the charioteer and the mind the reins. The senses they say, are the horses, the objects of the senses their roads. When the Self is in union with the body, the senses and the mind the wise call Him the enjoyer.” The intellect has to instruct the mind to rein in the horses or the Indriyas lest they may go in an uncontrollable gallop and throw down the charioteer!
There was an acharya who was instructing the daughter of a king from her early years. He was seventy years of age. The king's daughter grew up and was now a beautiful young damsel of eighteen years. Seeing her stand before him with exceptional youth and bewitching beauty, he was bitten by the love bug and desired to marry her- a desire that he should not have entertained! In order to accomplish his desire he made out a plan. He met the court astrologer secretly and asked him to inform the king that if his daughter remained in the kingdom for a week more, his entire kingdom will be destroyed. The king would ask the astrologer for the remedy. Then the astrologer should tell the king that he should keep his daughter in a comfortable box and leave the box in the nearby river! The king, in implicit faith and obedience would act accordingly. The rest the acharya would look after! The astrologer, being a very good friend of the teacher, went to the king and informed the king about the impending disaster!
The king was in a dilemma. He loved his daughter very much. But he loved his kingdom and the people better. He did not want his subjects suffer on account of his selfishness and love for his daughter. He got a big comfortable box, made his daughter sit, locked the box and as directed by the astrologer left it to drift in the river! The teacher was a clever fellow. He had planned what he should do! He went to the seventh port on the river and waited there patiently. Man proposes but God disposes! The king of the neighboring state had come on a hunting spree and had rested at the fourth port on the river. The box with the king's daughter drifted along and came to the fourth port! The prince, spied the coming box with astonishment and ordered his men to bring the box! They went and brought the strange box. When they broke the lock, to their utter amazement and pleasant shock the prince saw a divinely beautiful young girl in her teens! There was love at first sight! The moment the king's daughter saw the prince, she liked him and both married as per the Gandharva wedding rituals by exchanging garlands! She narrated the treacherous plan of her teacher to the prince.The prince wanted to teach a lesson to the teacher. He put a live bear that he had captured during the hunt in the same box, locked it and allowed it move on the waters of the river!
The acharya was anxiously awaiting the arrival of the box with his dear student, the king’s daughter! The moment the box was seen it was brought to him and then taken to a dilapidated temple nearby. The teacher ordered his disciples to go away as he closed the door. He directed them not to open the door whatever sound or noise may be heard from inside! With expectation of amorous experience and trepidation, the teacher removed the lock and opened the box. No sooner did he open the box than the angry bear pounced upon and caught his throat in its terrible grip! He shrieked with fear but the sishyas did not react or open the door! Somehow he managed to pierce himself out of the door and escaped through the skin of his teeth! Fresh from this deadly experience he said that it should be a lesson to the entire world! He was humiliated because of his amorous advances towards the king’s daughter at his advanced age when such feelings should not have come!
This is how the Indriyas dump even the greatest of sages, scholars, kings and emperors! Our Indriyas and senses are our inveterate enemies and bend even the strongest person physically, mentally or spiritually! We are aghast at the heinous crimes being committed in our society today! There is not a single day when rapes, gang rapes and abductions are not reported in dailies! The worst thing is that minors and even small children are being raped! Old men of seventy years are involved in raping minors and children! This is a very dangerous situation and we do not know where this will lead us to! Man has become a slave of his emotions. Morality has taken a back seat! The Government, in spite of draconian laws is unable to control the menace! Until man controls his indriyas through spirituality, yoga and other practices, these propensities will not leave him!!
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