Outgrow Them One by One

Did you ever suck your thumb as a child? It was cute, wasn't it? It's a natural behavior when you see a little child doing it. But what if you see an adult doing it? It would be weird, right? Didn’t they learn that this habit is meant to be done only as a baby and not a moment longer? Once you grow up, it isn't cute anymore.

The same principle applies to the gratification of our senses. We are constantly evolving in our pursuit of sensory pleasures—anything we touch, taste, smell, look at, or listen to—the desires that drive us to experience life's immediate sensations.

As Yogi Ramacharaka wisely stated, “the things we enjoyed yesterday seem crude and gross to us today, and so it will always be, as we pass onward and upward in the scale of life." 

The pleasures of the senses do have their place in life, but you must be cautious not to become overly attached to them. Just as you wouldn't indulge in thumb-sucking as an adult, you shouldn't indulge in sense gratification beyond its natural course.

Instead, you should study, learn from, measure, and test everything you feel through your senses. Because by doing so, you can see them for what they truly are and gradually let go of the desire to feel them.

These sensations come from your instinctive mind, the lower region of the subconscious mind. They are not inherently bad, but you must outgrow them. One by one.

View these sensations as you would that instinctive desire to suck your thumb—once natural but now unnatural and undesirable. You didn't know any better back then, but now you do. You must understand their nature, their history, and their meaning. By experience and by learning from other people farther down the road. Make space for the higher pleasures that await you by letting go of the baggage of immediate gratification.

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