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by Jayaram V
The senses are ten in number, the five organs of action and the five organs of
perception. The mind is the eleventh. Apart from
these, we can also mention, the five subtle sensory experiences
(tanmatras), which are responsible for our feelings of
attraction and aversion to the things we perceive. They are the
experiences of hearing, touching, seeing, tasting and smelling.
The ten sense organs together with the mind and the subtle
senses are the main instruments through which Nature deludes the
beings by subjecting them to the desire for sense objects and
the attachment arising from them. According to the Bhagavadgita,
out of desire comes attachment and out of attachment a person
becomes deluded by seeking things in order to satisfy his or her
craving.
Even from our daily experiences, we know that the senses are not
reliable instruments of truth. The world is not what it appears
to be. The truths hidden beneath the surface of things provide a
different picture of the world in which we live. Things appear
differently when we view them from different perspectives and
consider them as aggregate of things. The Bhagavadgita therefore
urges people to look beyond the appearance of things into the
essential reality that pervades them and envelops them as their
source and support. The same power manifests differently in
different things. We have to understand That which has this
power and experience it within ourselves to become free from the
world of illusion and duality. That manifesting power is God,
the Supreme Lord of the universe. His manifestation is what we
perceive with our senses and mistakenly consider it as the sum
total of all. This is the delusion, which we need to overcome.
When we shift our attention from His manifestation to Himself
and from the projections and modifications of own minds to our
essential nature, we become aware of the transcendental truths
that exist beyond our senses.
Note: This is an excerpt from the
forthcoming book "Essays on the Bhagavadgita" by Jayaram V
Suggested Further Reading
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