The uses of th

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

On Fri, 18 Jul 1997, Jonathan Bricklin wrote:

[..]

>
> >The visitor said: "One must satiate with the fulfilment of desires
> >before they are renounced.". Sri Bhagavan smiled and cut in: "Fire might
> >as well be put out by pouring spirit over the flames. (All laugh). The
> >more the desires are fulfilled, the deeper grows the samskara. They must
> >become weaker before they cease to assert themselves. That weakness is
> >brought about by restraining oneself and not by losing oneself in
> >desires."
>
>
> Well, perhaps the visitor was to polite to offer the obvious retort--that
> fire is not put out by a partial cover-up, but actually made to increase.
> "Restraining oneself" can lead to a most dangerous backdraft.
>

It was not Sri Ramana's intention to say that the fire should be partially
covered, allowing the possibility of backdraft. What he says is, don't
feed it with more fuel.

The basic idea is not to completely dam the desires, which can lead to a
dangerous accumulation. What is always taught is the regulation of desires
- don't torture yourself by restraining them artifically, but at the same
time, don't let them to roam unrestrained or overindulge them.

Vidyasankar