HOW TO OVERCOME TEMPTATIONS – Part 7
Practical suggestion number seven.
What is it? I believe we all remember the adage which was taught to us in the school: “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.” If you wish to be free from temptations, keep yourself busy all the time. Our mothers were well aware of this truth, and they were specifically careful to see that their daughters were kept busy all the time. I know of a mother who, if she had no other work to give to her daughter, would mix a handful of dust with rice and tell the daughter to clean the rice. Today’s daughters spend their time in frivolous activities. They read dirty novels which poison their imagination and spoil their minds. They go to the cinema, houses of filth, they play rummy, they spend hours watching the video. Little wonder, if their minds become small factories of impurity. O ye who would wish to overcome temptation, keep yourself busy all the time.
A young man came to Beloved Dada and complained of being continually tempted. Dada prescribed certain disciplines, but the young man returned a few days later, saying that there was no improvement in his condition.
“Alright,” said Beloved Dada, “come back early tomorrow and spend the day with me.”
The next day, Dada said to the young man: “Take the books out of this cupboard, dust them properly, and keep on doing this until noon.”
The young man followed the instructions and met Beloved Dada that afternoon. His cloths were covered with dust, but looked happy. And Dada said to him: “Go and take lunch, and after lunch, you will do the same thing to the books in the other cupboard.”
The boy obeyed and when it was dark, he returned to Beloved Dada, exhausted. Dada asked him: “Tell me, my child, if you had any temptations today.”
“None whatsoever,” replied the young man. “I did not have the time.”
Dada said to him: “Try to work that way, everyday!”
Practical suggestion number eight:
Take care of your food. See that your food is satvic, pure, earned by honest means, without doing violence to anyone.
Practical suggestion number nine:
Take care of your breathing: breathing has a direct influence upon the mind. Let your breathing be deep and rhythmic. Some day, perhaps, I shall speak to you in detail concerning these two important factors of life, food and breathing.
Practical suggestion number ten:
Never succumb to temptation. Try to overcome it but, in spite of your best efforts, if you fail, you must not think any more about it. When a little child learns to walk, not unoften, he stumbles and falls. But immediately, the mother comes and lifts him up and asks him to walk again. When you fall, pay no attention to it, but immediately rise and move on, ever onward, forward, Godward!
Practical suggestion number eleven:
You can not overcome temptation by fighting it, in the ordinary sense of the term. The more you fight it, the more you direct your attention to it. The stream of life flows in the direction of attention. If you direct your attention to temptation, forces of life will tend to flow towards temptation, and will only strengthen it. This will increase your troubles.
To give an illustration, when the body suffers from pain, the more we think of pain, the greater it grows. But when we forget it by absorbing our attention in some other activity, such as painting, or music, pain completely vanishes,
It is the same with temptation. The less we think of it, the better for us. On the other hand, we must not thoughtlessly yield to temptation. We must be sinless. To be sinless, our lower self must be cleansed, washed, purified. The lower self must be transmuted into the Higher Self.
This leads us to practical suggestion number twelve:
(Author: J P Vaswani)
Practical suggestion number seven.
What is it? I believe we all remember the adage which was taught to us in the school: “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.” If you wish to be free from temptations, keep yourself busy all the time. Our mothers were well aware of this truth, and they were specifically careful to see that their daughters were kept busy all the time. I know of a mother who, if she had no other work to give to her daughter, would mix a handful of dust with rice and tell the daughter to clean the rice. Today’s daughters spend their time in frivolous activities. They read dirty novels which poison their imagination and spoil their minds. They go to the cinema, houses of filth, they play rummy, they spend hours watching the video. Little wonder, if their minds become small factories of impurity. O ye who would wish to overcome temptation, keep yourself busy all the time.
A young man came to Beloved Dada and complained of being continually tempted. Dada prescribed certain disciplines, but the young man returned a few days later, saying that there was no improvement in his condition.
“Alright,” said Beloved Dada, “come back early tomorrow and spend the day with me.”
The next day, Dada said to the young man: “Take the books out of this cupboard, dust them properly, and keep on doing this until noon.”
The young man followed the instructions and met Beloved Dada that afternoon. His cloths were covered with dust, but looked happy. And Dada said to him: “Go and take lunch, and after lunch, you will do the same thing to the books in the other cupboard.”
The boy obeyed and when it was dark, he returned to Beloved Dada, exhausted. Dada asked him: “Tell me, my child, if you had any temptations today.”
“None whatsoever,” replied the young man. “I did not have the time.”
Dada said to him: “Try to work that way, everyday!”
Practical suggestion number eight:
Take care of your food. See that your food is satvic, pure, earned by honest means, without doing violence to anyone.
Practical suggestion number nine:
Take care of your breathing: breathing has a direct influence upon the mind. Let your breathing be deep and rhythmic. Some day, perhaps, I shall speak to you in detail concerning these two important factors of life, food and breathing.
Practical suggestion number ten:
Never succumb to temptation. Try to overcome it but, in spite of your best efforts, if you fail, you must not think any more about it. When a little child learns to walk, not unoften, he stumbles and falls. But immediately, the mother comes and lifts him up and asks him to walk again. When you fall, pay no attention to it, but immediately rise and move on, ever onward, forward, Godward!
Practical suggestion number eleven:
You can not overcome temptation by fighting it, in the ordinary sense of the term. The more you fight it, the more you direct your attention to it. The stream of life flows in the direction of attention. If you direct your attention to temptation, forces of life will tend to flow towards temptation, and will only strengthen it. This will increase your troubles.
To give an illustration, when the body suffers from pain, the more we think of pain, the greater it grows. But when we forget it by absorbing our attention in some other activity, such as painting, or music, pain completely vanishes,
It is the same with temptation. The less we think of it, the better for us. On the other hand, we must not thoughtlessly yield to temptation. We must be sinless. To be sinless, our lower self must be cleansed, washed, purified. The lower self must be transmuted into the Higher Self.
This leads us to practical suggestion number twelve:
(Author: J P Vaswani)
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