Shama & Dama - Part 3 of 20

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The thing that comes next is ‘dama’.

It is control of the sense organs. In fact there is a lot more to say about ‘shama’. But mind-control and sense-control have both to go hand in hand.

So let us talk about some basics of ‘dama’ also now and then we can go more deeply about both together.

Sense organs are ten – five organs of action and five organs of perception. But the latter cannot ‘do’ anything themselves.

The organs of action do action themselves: actions done by hands – the names ‘kara’ (hand) and ‘kAryaM’ (action) are themselves indicative, the legs do action by walking, jumping and running, the mouth speaks or sings, and two remaining organs excrete waste or vIryaM from the human body.

On the other hand the organs of perception are those which cognize (or perceive) things in the outside world and ‘experience’ them.

The ear experiences sound, the skin experiences the smoothness or otherwise and the coldness or hotness of something outside, the eye perceives colour and form, the tongue experiences the taste like sourness, bitterness or sweetness and the nose knows the experience of smell.

When we do not keep these sense organs under control all the mischief happens. The JIva is bound to this mayic world through the experiences by these sense organs.

Only when we control these organs may we hope to enter the world of spirituality. Such control is called ‘dama’.

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