Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Radhanath Swami on Restraining Our Senses

Penance means the willingness to forego, to put aside, our egos & desire for selfish pleasure for the higher principle of pleasing God. Pleasing God in the beginning often means to deny ourselves what our mind and senses are expecting. Animals simply follow the dictations of their senses and the mind has no power to discriminate. The animals are slaves of their minds and senses without the power to question. Today people also are not taught how to control their mind and senses, in fact they are trained as how to surrender to their minds and senses. But human life is meant for self-realization. So we must try our best to restrain our senses from those things which are not favorable in our quest for self-realization; rather we should perform the austerity of engaging our senses in those activities which are favorable. We should regularly take association of saintly people and hear and chant the glories of the Lord. This is the supreme most function and responsibility of every human being. And if we are not doing it then we are nothing more than a sophisticated animal.

18 comments:

  1. Nice message from Radhanath Swami. Without controlling our senses from sense gratification and engaging them towards devotional service, one can't come to the platform of knowledge, which is the essential requirement for progressing in spiritual life.

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  2. Hare Krishna...Radhanath Swami Ki Jai

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  3. Hare Krishna...Radhanath Swami Ki Jai

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  4. Never heard before such definition of penance. To practice it is real penance :)

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  5. This principle always needs to be reminded again and again so that we do not become sophisticated animals

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  6. Arjun K RamachandraMarch 27, 2012 at 5:11 AM

    It's not just about restraining the senses from unfavorable activities but engaging them in the positive activities of devotional service that is called tapasya.

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  7. beautiful definition of penance

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  8. Amazing article. It rightly emphasizes that how we are misdirected in modern society. We have given ourselves aims which are not existing and even if they exist they are very temporary. We must focus on the real goal of life from very starting of the life. Thank you maharaj.

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  9. if we are not controlling our senses then we r nothing more than a sophisticated animal.thank u maharaj ...

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  10. Thank you for sharing this article about restraining our senses by Radhanath Swami.

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  11. Wonderful message from Radhanath Swami.

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  12. Many thanks to Swami Radhanath for these wonderful and practical tips on sense and mind control

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  13. A good thought-provoking article.....thanks swamiji

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  14. The essense of human form of life is nicely put forth in this blog by HH Radhanath Swami.

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  15. Wonderful message from Radhanath Swami.

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  16. Determination is what makes human being superior to animals. Thanks to Radhanath swami for this point.

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