How Senses Work

How Senses Work

The sense organs move along the direction of the sense objects. The sense objects are not connected with the sense organs directly, rather they are connected in some mysterious ways. The path along which the chariot moves cannot be regarded as a hindrance and hence, the sense objects become a kind of help to us rather than a hindrance.

The sense objects become hindrance only if the sense organs wish to indulge in it. Hence they become aspects of support and guiding factors only when they are regarded as a manifestation of a hierarchy of guiding forces through whose assistance alone is it possible to ascend higher and higher.

The sense objects are the lowest support, the lowest rung of the ladder from which we have to rise gradually higher and higher. Objects become obstacles only when become things for indulgence. Objects are the lowest manifestation in the form of matter of the very same substance that constitutes the final universe. So the objects are the roads that take us higher and higher and enable us to drive the chariot along them.

The world is a bondage as well as a liberating principle, depending on how we approach the world. Similarly, the sense objects can be friend or foe. They are not considered as hindrances. They are the manifestations of the lowest level of the descent of the Absolute in creation.

The horses of the senses become uncontrolled or non-cooperative if a person is unintelligent. By not having a controlled mind, for such a person the senses become restless and uncontrolled. But if the horses are good and well trained, and the charioteer has understanding, then the reins are never let off, and the movement of the chariot is proper in its course.

When the senses move among objects as their road, they do not know which course to pursue. So without proper intelligence, the goal is never reached and the chariot is falls into the ditch.

The objects are many, though the elements which constitute them are only five. When intellect fails, the senses get terribly excited when they see the colorful world of objects presented to them. So the jiva starts to see through the senses rather through the intellect and since the senses are diversified, the jiva is presented a diversified world from which jiva does not know what to choose. Thus, without intelligence there is restless activity.