Our spiritual acts entitle us to peace and bliss — the highest pleasure, says AJIT KUMAR BISHNOI
Before I take up the matter of what we do for our real selves, ie the soul, let me briefly describe what we do for our various senses, the mind and the intelligence, the extent we go to please them. Beginning with the 10 senses, the genital tops the list. Freud has described the sex pleasure as the biggest driving force. What is the general experienceIJ People go to any extent to get sensuous pleasures. Some of them are prepared to stake everything for the sake of such pleasures. For example, a man enters an extramarital relationship knowing full well that this will ruin his family life. He will lose the trust and love of his wife, children, mother, father, etc. But he is not deterred and carries on.
The tongue comes next in the order of priority we give to our various senses. The craving for tasty foods remains with us till the end of our lives, when our other senses become weak and we are unable to get much pleasure out of them like sex pleasure. Granted, it is not as harmful as illicit pleasure, but we risk our health for the love of eating tasty food. Are most of the diseases not attributable to wrong or excess eatingIJ
The eyes come next. People travel long distances spending a big part of their savings to go and see monuments like Taj Mahal. What occupies a majority of our free timeIJ It is the pleasure of seeing programmes on TV. Now cellphones and similar appliances have also come to the fore.
I have placed speech at the fourth place. Don’t we all, barring a few exceptions, love to talk and try to impress others. Some persons are unstoppable when they have receptive company. The fact that no one is paying attention when we are in a group does not deter us from speaking.
The skin occupies a very important position when we think of giving pleasure to ourselves. Do you have any idea how much is spent on airconditioning and heating worldwideIJ A not so insignificant percentage of our earning goes towards giving ourselves pleasure of the skin. Ears come next. Have you been to a rock festivalIJ People go crazy hearing the bands even though the music is ear-splitting.
As regards the nose I am surprised at the prices of some of the branded perfumes, but they have good sales. As far as legs are concerned, in India specially, older persons enjoy getting their legs massaged. Some cannot fall asleep without this pleasure. We play many kinds of games to give pleasure to our hands. And finally comes anus for which some persons seek pleasure too.
Now comes the mind, which is the leader or master of all the senses. Any pleasure derived through the senses pleases the mind. We give our minds other pleasures as well like winning something. lastly comes intelligence. If we calculate the percentage of total time available to us, intelligence occupies a very important position.
All the above pleasures are related to our material bodies, which leave us upon death. What do we do for the real usIJ Pretty little, if anything. WhyIJ Because we do not identify ourselves as souls. And there lies our great misfortune. When our bodies are taken away, we carry nothing for ourselves for the next birth unless we have done pious deeds and spiritual acts. These we need to do if we really love ourselves. They not only give us real pleasure in the present life but also help make our next lives pleasurable. Our spiritual acts entitle us to peace and bliss — the highest pleasure. I welcome your comments.
Bishnoi is a spiritual writer and can be reached at spiritual@ajitbishnoi.com