Just because we don’t see that we are being attacked does not mean that we are not under attack. The inner war is invisible, but the results are visible—and scandalously so.
Nowadays, we live in a world of high-tech warfare. Though we may still have old-fashioned wars in the form of aggressors charging across borders and releasing murderous slogans, we also face subtle cyber-attacks. These can be just as, if not more, devastating than physical attacks, as cyber-attacks can immobilize and paralyze an entire country, not just those on the invaded borders.
Similarly, though we may not visibly be under attack, we may still face severe, invisible threats. If we compare our consciousness to a country, it is also subject to constant attacks.
Visible attacks occur when tempting sense objects, especially those we have resolved to abstain from due to duty, intrude into our consciousness, triggering sensual desires. Knowing we may be dragged into wrongdoings, we must get into battle mode, trying to drive these sense objects, or at least their thoughts, out of our consciousness, and if possible, keep them at a distance from our sensory pathways.
A subtle attack occurs when, even without sense objects entering through the sensory pathways, desires arise within us without any external stimulus. Just as we might not notice a hack if our computer systems are under enemy control, we may also fail to recognize when desires subtly take over our consciousness, driving us to pursue temptations against our values, degrading us morally and spiritually.
Just as expert cybersecurity professionals constantly check for attacks, we too need vigilance. One way to detect if our system has been hacked is by seeing whether it performs according to our intentions. Similarly, we need to first have our intentions clear, planning activities throughout the day that fill our consciousness with purpose. By doing so, we notice more quickly when immoral or anti-devotional desires rise in our consciousness, obstructing our purposeful actions. This vigilance is underscored in 6.26, which exhorts us to detect and reject every single disruptive or destructive desire without reservation.
By realizing the gravity of our vulnerability and putting consistent effort into inner vigilance, we become better equipped to win our inner wars.
Summary:
- Just as a country can be attacked visibly at its borders by intruding armies and invisibly through cyber-attacks that hack and sabotage technological systems, our consciousness can also be attacked visibly through tempting sense objects and invisibly by dormant inner impressions triggering similar desires without external stimuli.
- An invisible attack on our consciousness can be more devastating because we may not even realize we are under attack until desires impair us and lead to indulgence in immoral actions.
- Constant monitoring to see if our technological systems function as expected helps detect and repel cyber-attacks. Similarly, we need to fill our day with meaningful actions and our consciousness with purposeful intentions, allowing us to observe whether disruptive desires are hacking our consciousness from within.
Think It Over:
- How may our consciousness be attacked externally?
- How may our consciousness be attacked internally or invisibly?
- How can we defend our consciousness from invisible internal attacks?
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06.24 One should engage oneself in the practice of yoga with determination and faith and not be deviated from the path. One should abandon, without exception, all material desires born of mental speculation and thus control all the senses on all sides by the mind.
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