The Steps Required to Return to the Perfect, Natural State - Conquest of the Senses

Sense-gratification prevents me from working in the region where spirituality is effective. The soul tumbles at the mercy of the senses, sense objects and sense experiences. Even in dreams, the senses and sense objects pervade. Those who are entirely preoccupied with the material world find difficulty in remembering God and developing spiritually. The mind has to be disconnected from the engines of the senses, and connected to the powerhouse of spiritual energy, God. The senses draw our mind towards the various flavours, colours, sounds and sensations. When we have satisfied one desire, we buzz like a bee from one flower to another searching to satisfy another. The memory of sensual pleasures takes us again and again to the objects of desire. Such desires cause many interfering thoughts in meditation.

The mind can only be truly concentrated on God when it is beyond the pull of the senses. Even in the last moments of life, the senses and their objects stand in the way of a quiet departure from the body. From birth to death, the soul labours under the illusion that the senses and their objects are the sources of happiness. It can only reach and realise the Supreme Soul by crossing the minefield of sense attraction and excitement.

In the same way that a rocket shoots beyond the earth's gravity, the soul realises that the beauty of things and people is illusory and is able to fly to the true source beauty, Shiv Baba. It is the soul that bestows life and beauty to the otherwise inanimate body. One who looks to physical beauty without seeing the spiritual beauty is like one who tries to taste a beautiful fruit which is only made of clay.