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14. O Kunti's son, contacts of the senses and their objects give rise to the feelings of heat and cold, pleasure and pain etc. They are transitory and fleeting. Therefore, Bharata
(Arjuna) endure them.
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When you throw a stone into the placid waters of a lake, it creates ripples on the surface and leaves the lake disturbed. It remains disturbed till the impact of the stone weakens and disappears. But imagine what would happen if stones are thrown continuously into the lake by some external force. Imagine the extent of disturbance if different types of stones are thrown with different velocities and from a number of directions simultaneously. The lake cannot but remain in a state of perpetual agitation
The mind or the consciousness is in some aspects like the lake, the hands that throw the stones are the senses and the stones that are thrown are the impressions that enter the mind through the activities of the senses. Since the senses continuously bring in a variety of informations into the environs of the mind, the mind remains continuously disturbed. The weaker the mind in terms of constitution and will power the greater the intensity of disturbance. The disturbance continues as the old sensations are replaced by new perceptions continuously.
It is important to note here that the mind by itself is not the cause of all mental agitation although it is the playground where all the emotional drama is enacted. There are three constituent parts of the human personality: the body, the mind and the central principle of the awareness, the "I" Ness, the ego. It is the ego's reaction to the incoming information, which causes the ripples and keeps the consciousness disturbed. Unlike in case of lake, the mind is tormented by two agents: the incoming information as well as the internal ego which furiously and ambitiously tries to deal with this information in its own ignorant and vain ways.
The ego interferes with the incoming information and adds its own footnote to each impression as desirable or undesirable, classifies it into some meaningful category after careful comparison with existing pattern of information as it is stored into memory. Some times it even resists or distorts the information which it cannot fully comprehend or accept as valid. It is this tendency of the ego to interfere with the purity of information, to compare and contrast and classify information, to look at the apparent reality in terms of parts and fragments, or desirability and undesirability, opposites and separation instead one big whole which actually gives rise to the feelings of opposites. It renders the mind a home to its ignorant generals -
the myriad instincts, impulses, desires, feelings, hopes, passions and emotions who erect in layers of consciousness monumental ruins of its ancient past, reminding us of its blind origins, its destructive tendencies and unholy creativity.
The objective of spiritual life is to understand these movements of the senses, the working of the mind and the nature and activities of the ego so that we become aware of their movements, accept them for what they are and achieve freedom from their tyranny and monotony.
Commentary by Jayaram V
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