Bondage and Freedom

Author(s): Chitrabhanu
Publisher: Divine Knowledge Society

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eye may wish to see objects or the ear may wish to hear tales that are not healthy for our morals; the tongue may want to gossip about people, the palate may crave for food and drink that glut you;. in short the whole body may cry for comforts and pleasures. The gratification of these demands may become the sole purpose of your life, so that you have no time, energy or inclination left to follow higher and nobler pursuits, to think of others, to deny yourself something that your body craves, so that you may be able to spare something for others. You have. become a slave to yourself, to your body. There is no outside control that can be exerted over your senses. It is upto you to train them. Every time your senses make an unreasonable demand on you, make an effort to deny it. It is only thus that you will succeed in training them, so that they will not succeed in making you do things that ultimately lead to your destruction. Remember, it is self-indulgence that paves the way to self-destruction. Cure yourself of this weakness of self-indulgence and you will be healthy and strong, physically and mentally.
In a way, a jail is like a clinic-a mental clinic. A man who eats and drinks immoderately, damages his digestion and has to be treated in a clinic for some time. In the same way a man who has indulged his senses and succumbed to his temptation to do wrong deeds, needs to be kept in a prison—a mental clinicwhere he will perforce have to do what he is told to do, and where he can regain his mental health. When
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