Satsanga with Sri Swami Viditatmananda Saraswati
Based on Vedāntasāra lectures. Transcribed and edited by Malini, KrishnaKumar (KK) S. Davey and Jayshree Ramakrishnan.
Dama is the restraining of the external organs from all objects except that.
Whereas śama is the restraining of the mind, dama is restraining of the sense organs. The sense organs, e.g., the eyes, ears, nose, the faculty of touch, and the tongue, habitually have a craving in themselves. The tongue has a craving for a certain taste, for example, a craving for sweets. If you don’t get the sweets, you miss them; your mind craves them and your tongue craves their taste. Sometimes, the faculty of touch craves a certain touch. The ears crave a certain sound. This habitual craving of the sense organs makes them engage or indulge in the sense pleasures or the experience of the senses, again and again. Dama is nivartanam, the bringing back of the sense organs from their cravings and focusing them on śravaṇam, mananam, and nidhidhyāsanam.
Restraining the mind and the sense organs is essential for the pursuit of self-knowledge
Here we are talking about a person who is either committed to or wants to be committed to knowledge. Ideally, the only activity such a student should have is śravaṇam, mananam, and nidhidhyāsanam. However, to be able to listen and reflect on the scriptures for a certain length of time requires certain preparations in the mind. Our commitment should be to prepare the mind. Lord Krishna discusses many values and qualities that prepare the mind and are a part of the spiritual pursuit. Some of these qualifications are amānitvam, humility, adaṃbhitvam, unpretentiousness, ahiṃsā, non-violence, ksāntih, forbearance or forgiveness, and ārjavam, straight forwardness or honesty [Bhagavad Gita, 13-8]. Thus, a commitment to knowledge means a commitment to the study of the scriptures, which also means acquiring a certain frame of mind that can commit itself to the study. Developing that frame of mind requires one to develop values like amānitvam and adaṃbhitvam. This preparation is necessary for the mind, sense organs, and body to be available for the pursuit of study. This is the reason for prayers such as:
Very often, we find that our own minds and sense organs are obstacles to what we want to do. I want that my ears should be with me but they go to listen to a sound elsewhere. I want my eyes to be with me, but they want to see something else. When the eyes see something, the mind automatically goes there. When the ears listen to something, the mind automatically follows. My tongue, again, demands that it wants to taste something else.
The faculty of touch makes a demand that it wants to touch something. All of these are distractions. This habitual craving in the sense organs often becomes so powerful that it pulls the mind away from its focus and takes the mind to the sense objects. When you are studying in college or working in the office, you want your mind to be focused there at that time and not distracted by something else. Similarly, we want the mind to be focused when we are studying the scriptures. In the Bhagavad Gita [2-67], Lord Krishna compares sense objects to a powerful wind that distracts a sailboat away from its path, vāyurnāvamivāmbhasi. Like a powerful wind, the sense organs distract the mind away from its focus and drag it into the sense objects. Therefore, there is a need to have mastery over our minds and over our sense organs.
God has given us the organs of perception to experience the sense objects and the organs of action so that we may perform action. Vedanta does not say that we should not experience the sense objects or that we should avoid things. All it says is that we should be focused on what we want to do.
Only if we find that our sense organs are obstacles to our focus does the issue of restraint come in. Restraining the sense organs doesn’t mean depriving, starving, suppressing, or repressing them.
Begin the practice of dama one sense organ at a time
We can begin the practice of dama with one sense organ; say, the tongue. The tongue performs two functions: speech and tasting. We can start by exercising self-control at the level of speech. Dama here means discipline of speech or austerity of speech. In the Bhagavad Gita [17-15], Lord Krishna defines austerity of speech as being:
Speech, which does not cause agitation, which is true, pleasing, and beneficial, and the daily repetition of one’s own Veda are (collectively) called discipline of speech.
Lord Krishna gives us three criteria for speech. The first criterion is that my words do not perturb or hurt anybody. Secondly, whatever I speak must be truthful. Further, my speech should be pleasant and useful. When we exercise dama or control at the level of speech, we can bring about austerity in our speech. Since many things that we say are not useful, we have to limit our speech. When we speak too much, very often, we hurt people. We also say things that are not right or true. Thus, austerity of speech will automatically limit our speaking. What do we do with our speech? The Lord says may we engage our speech in the repetition of the scriptures, mantras or the Vedas. Speech should be engaged in repeating the glories of the Lord.
The tongue has another function, namely, taste. Dama is a sense of proportion with reference to food. It means that I eat, but not out of force of habit or to please the palate. Very often, we eat because something is nice to eat. We enjoy eating whether the stomach requires it or not. It requires discipline to eat only that which is required and in the quantity that it is required.
Ultimately, one needs to be disciplined with reference to all activities
Dama implies that a person is disciplined with reference to all activities. Lord Krishna talks about an alert or self-disciplined person in the Gita [6-17]:
An alert person is described as having a sense of proportion in eating and movement; he neither consumes too much or too little food, nor walks or moves too much or too little. He has a sense of proportion with respect to how long he sleeps; he sleeps neither too much nor too little. Similarly, he keeps awake neither too much nor too little. There is an alertness or awareness about every action that is performed. This self-awareness brings about discipline. Such a person is an organized person, who does not waste his movements or his faculties. He puts his faculties to proper use.
Dama is discipline at the level of all our activities and movement. We find that we don’t have that discipline. We have not been alert while performing various movements and activities. We have not had the discipline while thinking or applying our minds to various pursuits. Discipline does not mean restraint or suppression; it is a value that calls for us to be organized and focused. When we find that the sense organs are distracted in their various sense pursuits, we should rein them in and apply them to śravaṇam, mananam, and nidhidhyāsanam.
Śama and dama help us in whatever we want to do. Even when we sit down to meditate, we find that if our sense organs are disciplined, our body is also disciplined; our hands, legs, eyes, and ears remain quiet, otherwise they themselves become a distraction. A disciplined mind also helps us in meditation or in whatever we want to do.
