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Man is indulged in the sensuous pleasures provided to him by all the five senses day and night; therefore, he also cannot defend himself from the cruel clutches of death. The sensuous pleasures look extremely charming; but the life of a living being that is dependent on these transitory enjoyments is ultimately ruined. Those, who are drenched in lust, and engrossed in sensual pleasures blindly, will, for want of self-control be deluded. Therefore, the scriptures give us a wise counsel: "The five senses and the four passions - anger, pride, deception and greed, are all difficult to conquer; equally difficult it is to conquer one's own self. But one, who has conquered his self, has conquered everything else in the world."
In fact, the creeper, which takes support of the poison tree, makes a man unconscious in spite of itself being sweet in taste.
In 'Moolardhana' the two - restraint on senses, restraint in conduct towards animate beings have been described thus:
Panchras panchvanr dogandhai athphas satsara Manrsa chaudasjiva indriyapanra ye sanjmo nraio
In this infinite universe with unknown beginning a living being has suffered sorrow and misery times without number mainly due to his tongue and the spell of the five senses. Therefore, now it is high time to subdue all of them. Even if you fail to put a check on the other sense organs, at least put reins to your tongue; because an unbridled tongue causes great sorrow or when you give a long rope to your tongue, you suffer the most.
Once a controversy arose between the tongue and the teeth. The tongue boasted saying, "O teeth! Accept my subordination; otherwise I shall vanquish you and bring all of you under my control by waging a war against you." Being highly enraged at the challenging words of the lone tongue all the thirty-two teeth spoke unitedly, "First, you are very tender; and secondly you are lone. Can you defeat us by fighting under these circumstances? It is quite impossible." The tongue at once retorted, "Nay! Today I shall give you a tough fight all alone." Ultimately a fight started between the tongue and teeth. The tongue uttered a reproachful word to a pedestrian passing by. At this the pedestrian struck such a blow of stick in the face of the ill-spoken tongued person that all his teeth cracked and fell to the ground. Therefore, if we put the tongue alone under restraint, all other senses will remain safe. During conversation we should speak with utmost restraint and care. It is good to be cautious while we speak. It is a well-known saying - Think before you speak'.
The acharyas have compared mind with an unharnessed horse; because for want of proper training in self-restraint, an unbridled horse is killed in the battlefield along with its master. The main reason of its death is lack of self-restraint. Likewise, if we do not train the mind in self-restraint, it will lead us to the dark well of sensual pleasures and drop us there. Then it will be very difficult for us to come out of the well. Those who want to get rid of this situation should constantly reflect on the twelve religious topics (anuprakshain) to restrain their mind. They should remain engaged in self-study and invariably keep away
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