Five shortcomings of the worldly pleasures

We spend most of our time and energy in the pursuit of material wealth which can enable us to enjoy sensual pleasures, be it in the form of good food to satisfy the sense of taste, good music to pacify the sense of hearing or bodily sensual pleasures to soothe the sense of touch. It seems that the only objective of life for the contemporary man is to enjoy sensual pleasures, bodily comforts and momentary gratification. Such never-ending pursuit tarnishes our heart and prevents us from enjoying the inner peace, divine love and inner happiness.

The worldly pleasures are inflicted with five shortcomings. Firstly, such pleasures do not last very long and come to an end very quickly.

This can be explained logically. For enjoying sensual pleasures, you need all the three: object of enjoyment, enjoyer and interest of enjoyment. In this ever changing world, as soon as any one of these three participants dwindles down, the associated enjoyment also comes to an end quickly.

Secondly, the worldly pleasures do not remain available to you easily at all the time. You have to put in efforts to gather the objects of sensual enjoyment. Nature has provided us with the objects of human need readily, without any efforts. But, the objects of sensual enjoyment are not available easily. For example, water is our need and it is available readily, however wine is meant for sensual pleasure and is not available easily. Simple pleasures of life like enjoying the nature or playing with children or sitting alone in peace are available easily, but sophisticated pleasures have a significant price-tag associated with it.

Thirdly, the interest of enjoying such sensual pleasure wears off quickly. The first bite of sumptuous dinner gives you great pleasure and the same food becomes tasteless when you are stuffed. The pleasure of sharing the bed with your spouse only lasts a few minutes. When you listen to the same music again and again, you get tired of it very soon. It is human tendency to become tired of the sensual pleasures quickly and then look for the next one.

Fourthly, the enjoyer looses the energy and becomes tired. As per the mystics of India, it is only when the enjoyer dissipates his or her life energy, that he gets the enjoyment. With the dissipation of life energy, the enjoyer gets tired soon. God provided us with unlimited form of pleasures to pacify our five senses (the sense of seeing, hearing, touching, tasting and smelling), but at the same time nature ensures that you don’t stick to them or indulge in them for very long.

Lastly, such acts of enjoying sensual pleasures leaves undesirable impressions on your mind, fill you with desires and make you restless. Your desires for worldly pleasures make you anxious, worrisome and fearful. You also become prone to anger and loose the virtue of patience. Such a mind that is filled with cravings cannot remain calm, peaceful and cheerful.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not proposing that you should completely refrain from enjoying life and its wonderful pleasures. The seekers of inner happiness enjoy the simple pleasures of life cautiously and knowingly. They opt for pure food, vegetarian in nature, cook it properly, make it delicious and enjoy every bite of it, slowly. While eating they give consideration to health and refrain from over eating. They listen to music with closed eyes to calm the mind and to enjoy it wholeheartedly. They don’t stick ear plug to their ears whole day long or waste their evenings in the couch while watching TV. They never over indulge in any form of sensual pleasures and slowly work on giving up desires. They seek and know the art of enjoying simple pleasures of life.

To remain busy in the pursuit of sensual pleasures is ignorance and striving to become free of desires is wisdom. This body will come to an end, but the desires of worldly pleasures will never get pacified. Life is much more than simply indulging in sensual pleasures and bodily comforts. One, who enjoys worldly pleasure with proper discrimination, attains poise of mind, becomes serene, gain inner strength and becomes eligible for gaining inner happiness. Happy Baba hopes that you would realize the futility of sensual pleasures and become a true seeker of higher form of inner happiness.