ஐம்புலன்கள் The Five Senses...

 **The Five Senses....**

**Animals also have five senses.**

**However, only humans develop intelligence through the consumption of the five senses.**

**For this, the philosophy of speech (word) helps him.**

**But no matter how much intelligence he develops, humans often commit actions that harm themselves or others.**

**What could be the reason for this? When we investigate, it becomes clear that the cause is the three qualities (Gunas). That is, humans possess five external instruments: body, speech, eyes, nose, and ears.**

**Through these, the five senses of taste, sight, touch, sound, and smell arise. These senses bring pleasure when they encounter pleasurable objects and pain when they encounter painful objects.**

**These five instruments function and help the senses arise through four internal instruments: mind, intellect (buddhi), heart (chitta), and ego (munaippu).**

**The mind thinks about an object. The intellect decides what that object is. The heart investigates the object. The ego (munaippu) takes initiative, asserting knowledge of the object.**

**Even after understanding and investigating, if one still makes mistakes, the reason lies in the three fundamental qualities: passion (rajas), ignorance (tamas), and purity (sattva).**

**Since the external body houses the five external instruments—body, speech, eyes, nose, ears—they are called external instruments. The internal instruments—initiative, mind, thought, intellect—operate inside the body and are called internal instruments. The three fundamental qualities hidden in the soul—initiative, ignorance, purity—are called Gunas.**

**For example, suppose a person wants to eat a sweet. First, the mind must think about the sweet, the internal instrument called initiative must arise with the desire to eat it.**

**Then, thought must analyze whether it is indeed a sweet. The intellect must confirm that it is suitable to eat. Only then can the external instrument, the tongue, taste the sweet and the sense of pleasure be experienced. All four internal instruments operate momentarily to help taste the sweet.**

**Above all, to taste and enjoy the sweet, the quality of ignorance (tamas) must not be present among the three Gunas. The quality of purity (sattva) is necessary.**

**Similarly, to experience the pleasure of music, the ear, thought, and passion are needed. To experience visual pleasure, the eye, thought, and passion are needed. To experience tactile pleasure, the body, thought, and passion are needed. To experience the pleasure of smell, the nose, thought, and passion are needed.**

**For the good pleasures obtained through the sixth instrument, intellect, thought, passion, and purity are necessary. Therefore, when a person desires pleasure and focuses the mind on one object at a time, the internal instrument and quality corresponding to that object must be singular.**

**A person who wants to eat a sweet must focus his intellect on the tongue, taste, and purity. If, while tasting the sweet, he listens to music with his ears and harbors feelings of ignorance, he cannot experience the pleasure of the sweet.**

**A person who wants to worship God in a temple, when seeing the divine idol with his eyes, if he does not focus on it, looks at other sights, does not think about God's grace, and is weakened by ignorance, he will not develop devotion.**

**For a yogi immersed in meditation, the five senses do not function. Among the four internal instruments, the mind, intellect, and ego do not function. Only thought remains immersed in the bliss of the supreme reality.**

**Among the three Gunas, ignorance and passion are suppressed. Only purity remains in their nature.**

**In that state, immersed in the flood of bliss called the supreme reality, the yogi attains uninterrupted, continuous great bliss**

**Just as the power increases when electricity flowing through many wires is conducted through a single wire, when all the energies that have spread through many instruments are brought and conducted through thought, the pleasure attained by the yogi is unmatched.**