Suppose someone adopts a poisonous snake as a pet. Even if that snake appears friendly, it can still bite venomously at any moment. Snake-owners need to be always cautious. 

Spiritual traditions sometimes compare our senses to snakes. Just as snakes can inject poison into our body, our senses can inject into our consciousness the poison of wanton cravings. If that wantonness is allowed to spread, it can kill our spiritual knowledge and spiritual interest (Bhagavad-gita 03.41). And as we are essentially spiritual beings, when our spiritual awareness dies, we lose our real life. Being thus lost, we sentence ourselves to repeated birth and death in this distressful material world.  

How can we protect ourselves? By staying alert while working with our snake-like senses. And because our senses are always with us, we need to be constantly cautious, even if they sometimes act decent and docile. Pertinently, the Gita (02.60) warns that our senses are so fickle and forceful as to delude and degrade us at any moment.

Does this mean that we have to live always in fear of our senses? No, provided we focus on something bigger than the worldly pleasures promised by the senses. The biggest such reality is Krishna, the all-attractive whole whose parts we are eternal. When we fix our consciousness on him and engage in his service, that divine contact grants us sublime satisfaction and purification (02.61). When our senses are thus purged of their wantonness, they become like fangless snakes. 

Still, we can’t easily ascertain if and when our senses have become defanged. So, it’s best to be sensually cautious while focusing our energy on becoming spiritually conscious. Being thus vigilant and diligent, we stay safely on the path to purification and higher satisfaction. 

 

Think it over:

  • How are our senses like snakes?
  • Do we have to live always in fear of our senses? 
  • How can we stay safely on the path to purification?

 

***

02.60 The senses are so strong and impetuous, O Arjuna, that they forcibly carry away the mind even of a man of discrimination who is endeavoring to control them.


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