CONTROLLING YOUR SENSE ORGANS

Editor's note: Spiritual adepts often talk about a world mired by the senses and consequently a need to control the senses for spiritual development. Why can the senses not be trusted? How do we approach our senses in a detached manner? Here is one key to begin to clear the fog. 

Where do we get the power to feel the world through our senses? Is this power inherent in the sense organs which God has made a part of our body? Or is there something deeper?

In His book, Man’s Eternal Quest, Guruji writes:

We can hear, smell, taste, touch, and see in the dream world through the power that is in the five senses. And in the astral world, even without physical organs of the ears, eyes, nose, tongue, and skin, we still have with us the power of all five sense perceptions.

One might have a nose and not be able to smell, or have eyes but not see, or in other words, have the sense organs but not be able to sense.

Or, looking at it another way, while sleeping, one is able to see, hear, even touch or taste things, much like during waking. True, these sensations are much different from what they are in the “waking” state, but they are nevertheless. One is, though, not using the sense organs for feeling any of these sensations.

And this is the essence of what Guruji has written. Behind the physical organs is the astral power of these senses, and it is this power that animates these physical senses. Similarly, it is the astral being who enlivens the physical body. So, we are essentially astral beings having a physical experience.

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This post, originally entitled "Sense Power" was excerpted out of the blog "The Legacy of Paramhansa Yogananda". It is maintained by Ananda Singapore.. 
Paramhansa Yogananda was an Indian yogi and guru who introduced millions of westerners to the teachings of meditation and Kriya Yoga through his book, Autobiography of a Yogi.