Science Of Life

Author(s): U S Dugar
Publisher: U S Dugar

Page 78

are all necessary to sustain and perpetuate ourselves. Our material needs are the demands imposed on us by our sense organs that love and repeat the pleasant sensations and avoid painful sensations. Bodily pleasures need not be shunned. However, when we start getting attached to the bodily pleasures, devoid of equanimity, that these pleasures become a source of pain. When you seek something and you do not get, it causes misery.
Withdrawal is the fourth physical penance. It is withdrawal of senses from external matters or worldly pursuits and is essential for devoting the soul towards its own upliftment. Withdrawal means to be modest and to follow restrains with respect to material, space, time and feelings. It is the ability to limit or influence of our sensory input. It is a practice of turning the mind to introspection by voluntarily shutting out distractions provided by the senses.
To renounce tasty foods which one likes very much and avoid savoury food is withdrawal. Food is an important factor for the body. It is essential to keep the body going on. However, most of us suffer from food cravings as we have indulged in instant sensory gratification in the past, and now the senses crave the same gratification. If we start seeking pleasure in eating, we crave food and a saga of misery begins. Sometimes, this craving is so intense that we cannot avoid eating food that is harmful for us. Gratification trap us in a cycle of craving. They are all hard to give up because they are addictive, but they are all easy to give up once we understand what we are doing and why. The most people have a sweet tooth - a strong appetite for sweet food and finds it hard to resist. Sugar, whether added
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