Detachment, Devotion and Sense-Control

This sense-control is something like the wick in the lamp of your heart. Merely having the wick of sense-control is not enough. You must also have oil, which is the fuel for the lamp; that is your devotion. And there must be a container which holds this oil, and that is your detachment. If you have the container, the oil and the wick, you will be able to light the lamp easily. Still, someone has to come and light it. That someone is God. Once you have detachment, devotion and sense-control, then the divinity will come and light the lamp in your heart. In the case of Arjuna, it was Krishna who performed this sacred act of lighting the lamp and revealing the splendor of the atma in Arjuna's heart.

Suppose you have some flowers, a needle and some thread, will these automatically turn into a garland? No. There has to be someone to string the garland together. You may have gold and precious stones, but without a goldsmith to create it, you will not be able to obtain a beautiful jewel made out of these articles. You may have a high intelligence, you may have books containing the highest knowledge and you may have keen eyes to see them, but without someone to teach you to read, they will all be meaningless and useless to you.

The atma is always present it never changes, it never comes and goes. The spiritual teachings will also be ever-present; they will be there waiting for you when you are ready to receive them. And, inwardly, you may have an intense yearning for illumination. All these may be there for you, but unless the true guru, the spiritual teacher, comes and transmits the immortal knowledge to you, you cannot become enlightened. If you are ready to realize the underlying reality of all the objects of the world and to discover the divine principle within you, then you need the true teacher, the highest source of knowledge to come and instruct you. To gain the sacred knowledge of the self, that teacher is the universal teacher. It is God himself who comes to guide you to your goal. He may take on different forms. In the case of Arjuna, the divine teacher was Krishna, the avatar of that age, and he started by teaching Arjuna sense-control.

You must take some time to reflect on the deeper significance of all these teachings on sense-control, which were given by Krishna to Arjuna, not in an ashram setting, but on the battlefield, at the eve of a great battle fought to preserve righteousness and to counter the forces of injustice and untruth that had become rampant.