(Continued)...Maybe everything will then have to start all over again according to the maxim *punarapi jananaM*. And we do not know whether we will get a human birth in that ‘punarapi jananaM’.
At least now we talk of the Atman and we have occasion to talk of ‘SAdhanA’ to reach that Atman.
Our new birth may not be anywhere near the availability of these opportunities. In short, we have to see to it that the indriyas do their necessary work but do not get out of their limited sphere of action.
The *sthApanaM* (fixation, establishment) of the senses in their spheres of action is not a stoppage of the senses, but is a fixing of them in their own path.
Recall that all this applies to both jnAnendriyas (senses of perception ) and karmendriyas (senses of action).
Usually the five senses of perception and the five of action are counted along with the mind as eleven indriyas. The eleven rudra forms of Lord Shiva are the adhi-devatas, the deities pertaining to these senses. When we fast on the Ekadasi day (the eleventh day of the lunar cycle) it is for starving these eleven indriyas.
Manu has said:
ekAdashaM mano jneyaM svaguNeno-bhayAtmakaM /
yasmin jite jitAvetau bhavataH panchakau gaNau // (Manusmriti II – 92)
meaning, “Know the mind as the eleventh indriya, that has an interactive relationship with the pair of five indriyas each ; Just by vanquishing that one, we would have conquered the other ten”.
(Continued)...
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