“Physical pleasure is a sensual experience no different from pure seeing or the pure sensation with which a fine fruit fills the tongue; it is a great unending experience, which is given us, a knowing of the world, the fullness and the glory of all knowing. And not our acceptance of it is bad; the bad thing is that most people misuse and squander this experience and apply it as a stimulant at the tired spots of their lives and as distraction instead of a rallying toward exalted moments.”
-Ranier Maria Rilke
Kabir – The couplet
माशी गूढ़ में गाड़ी रही, पंख रही लिपटाय ।
ताली पीते सीरी धुनै, मीठे बोई माई ॥
Transliterated:
Maashi Gudh Mein Gadi Rahi, Pankh Rahi Laptaay |
Taali Peetai Siri Dhunai, Meetha Boi Mai ||
Translation:
Attracted to the sweet jaggery, the fly sits on it and gets its wings stuck|
Similarly, men, giving in to sensual pleasures, waste their life away in distractedness ||
My understanding:
Just about every teacher of religion and philosophy seems to say that one needs to stay away from the pleasures of the senses, and practice discipline to avoid giving in to the weakness such pleasure induces.
However, there is a fine distinction to be made here. We have been gifted with the senses, and taught the art of discrimination. We need to teach ourselves to apply discrimination to sip slowly and in appropriate limited spaces from the cup of sensual pleasure – then, instead of becoming a prison, they become the gentle spice that elevates the drinking at the cup of life from mere slaking of a thirst to the relishing of divine grace. For the controlled and ever reverential enjoyment of sensual pleasure is the fragrant gentle wind that will correct the little course deviations suffered by the boat that ferries us through life, and will smoothly but surely deliver us to the proper next state at the end of this physical life.
Where we falter is that we get so lost in a small deviation that we fight the course connection and even ignore it’s dire warnings, only to find too late that we are caught in a whirlpool of uncontrolled emotional instability or a maelstrom of negativity that we cannot escape despite our greatest efforts. Even if we do successfully fight our way out of the difficulty, the energy spent is so great that we no longer have the ability to truly enjoy the constant flow of small graces that continually surround us, and limp through the rest of life listlessly.
So enjoy, but with grace and control, and find sustainable joy and bliss in every moment in life!