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Credit: DH Illustration
The word ‘Sanyasi’ is well known in India, used to address a man of God, an ascetic. Revered Swami Chinmayananda in his discourse on the fifth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita explains that ‘Sanyasa’ is not merely wearing ochre robes or turning one’s back from the world and undertaking penances and fasts and so on. Sanyasa is a state of mind, where the individual is able to control his senses, has reduced or nullified his ego and extricated himself from the grip of material desires.
The Gita proceeds further and speaks of the lure of the senses on man, where the fulfilment of one desire fuels further desires, this cycle repeating itself incessantly in whose inextricable web man is caught. All actions that man does are propelled by the expectations of the gains that he expects to obtain at the end.
The ego is bolstered by this apparent gain and the seeds of the next desire are already sown. If the anticipated fruits are not obtained, or are not as per expectations, anger, frustration and disappointment follow. Thus, man’s own thoughts turn into his enemies, leading him into the abyss of mental turmoil.
As Swami Chinmayananda says, “a medicine, if taken in the proper dosage, is beneficial to the patient. The same medicine, when taken unregulated, can prove disastrous, even fatal”. Same with our thoughts. Constructive and useful when controlled, dangerous when uncontrolled. Taking this argument further, the Gita says a true Yogi is able to live in this world, carry out his ordained duties amidst all the worldly pulls but yet remain unaffected and maintain his inner poise and serenity, because he has controlled his ego and senses and is free from the sense of doer-ship-‘I am the doer’.
The Gita says that the external sense stimulations act upon the body through the nine orifices-the mouth, the two eyes, the two nostrils, the two ears, the reproductory and excretory openings. Achieving control over these organs is the key to a life of mental steadfastness and discipline. Desires, ego, sense of ‘I’ are natural, says the Gita. It is not as if the Lord has created them.
“You have to understand that these three mental enemies need to be reined in and should consciously strive towards that. With the light of this knowledge illuminate your inner being where true divinity resides and thus empower yourself” says the Gita.