Inner Senses – In Gita Verse 3.41 Therefore, O Arjuna, best of the Bhāratas, in the very beginning curb this great symbol of sin [lust] by regulating the senses, and slay this destroyer of knowledge and self-realization.
Krishna tells Arjuna that unless you start using your inner senses you cannot conquer the desire, the lust. Once you know how to use the inner senses you become self-realized. Also remember that with the use of your inner senses if you can conquer the desire then you will be able to Fight Without Enmity.
Having obtained the use of the inner senses, having conquered the desires of the outer senses, having conquered the desires of the individual soul, and having obtained knowledge, prepare now, to enter upon the way in reality. The path is found; make yourself ready to tread it.
Having obtained the use of the inner senses… We know about our outer senses, but each sense has a double dimension. For example, eyes: they can look out. This is only one dimension of their functioning. They can also look inward, that is their other function. Or, ears: you can hear what is happening outside. That is one function, one dimension. You can also hear what is happening within. That is another function, another dimension.
Every sense has two doors. One opens into the outer world, the other opens into the inner world. Each sense is both outer and inner, but we only use our senses in one way. We have become fixated, we have forgotten that those same senses can be used to reach within.
Having obtained the use of the inner senses… Having obtained the hidden dimension of the senses, many things can become possible because a new world opens before you. The inner is as vast as the outer, the inner is as great as the outer. You are standing just in between, you are standing just in between the inner and the outer – two universes.
The outer is vast. They say it is infinite, endless, beginningless: there is no boundary to it. The same is also true for the inner: no boundary – the inner space is, again, infinite. The outer is being searched by scientific methods and the inner can be searched through yogic methods.
Science has developed much, and has come to know much about the outer world. But the inner has become forgotten; it is no longer remembered. We are rich now as far as the outer world is concerned, outer experiences are concerned, and we have become absolutely poor, beggars, as far as the inner is concerned. But what is the use of gaining the whole world if, in gaining it, you lose yourself?
If the self is lost, what is gained? Even if you gain the whole world, nothing is gained. If you lose yourself then the very meaning of life, the very significance – the beauty, the truth, the good, everything – is lost. Man can accumulate things, can accumulate powers, at the cost of losing himself. Then the whole point is missed.
Science tries to magnify the outer senses. Now, through mechanical devices we can look far away into space, the eyes are magnified by scientific method. Now we can hear over long distances, scientific technology magnifies your ears.
The same is also possible for the inner senses. Through meditation, through Yoga, through Tantra – the inner technologies – your inner senses are magnified. And once they are magnified, many things are revealed to you.
Krishna tells Arjuna to use all his inner senses, instead of outer. Till the time he uses his only outer senses he will have desire, lust, but once he will use his inner senses, he will be able to regulate his senses, and become self-realized. Krishna did not want to advise Arjuna or guide Arjuna; he just wanted him to be, self-realize. As during the war the only thing which can help him to Fight Without Enmity is his own self-realization. No advice or guidance will be of any help to him.
Tags: Inner Senses
