The tortoise may be slow but what it lacks in speed, it makes up for in defence. This creature has a very hard outer shell and is able to retract its entire head and limbs into the shelter of the shell at any time. This has allowed what looks like a prehistoric reptile to survive for perhaps millions of years. Sometimes defence is enough and attack is unnecessary.
This analogy of the tortoise and its ability to defend so well by withdrawing its senses, is found in the Bhagavad Gita, the classic Sanskrit yoga text spoken by Krishna to Arjuna at the Battle of Kurukshetra in North India, around 5000 years ago. The defensive art of the tortoise is precisely the technique recommended by Krishna if one wants to master the yoga discipline.
The yogi is one who is on the path of liberation from the temporary shackles of matter. They aspire for liberation from the cycle of birth and death, and by practicing a lifetime of yoga, they are able to spend long periods of time in meditation. And while in meditation they are able to liberate the consciousness from the body or aspire to that level of transcendence where the mind no longer remains caged within the body but is able to ascend to higher realms on the astral highway or ultimately to leave the body for good and return to the eternal spiritual world, which for some is empty and for others full.
One of the tricks of a yogi, is the art of the tortoise. This is where the meditating yogi closes off the five senses from the outside world, and focuses inwardly, upon the pineal gland in the middle of the brain for example, or upon the region of the heart where the Supersoul or Paramatma is said to reside. It is the senses that can be restless and outward seeking for stimulus, and they drag the mind along with them.
By withdrawing the senses from the sense objects, the yogi can more easily focus the mind and attention upon the goal, namely union with or marriage with the divinity, yoga meaning union. This is the symptom of a successful yogi. They are in control of the senses and are able to withdraw them whenever they choose for periods of meditation or as a lifestyle choice. For example the yogi abstains from eating meat, fish or eggs, from intoxicants, from illicit sex and from gambling or speculating. That is the lifestyle choice of a yogi who aims to be in sattva guna or the mode of goodness, which is the platform from which to launch one’s approach to transcendence or liberation.
Age weakens the senses to some degree and they become easier to subdue, if that is your intention. However, if you have fed them voraciously throughout your lifetime, they will be unaccustomed to fasting or diet, and may actually be harder to subdue out of habit which becomes more hard-wired with age, making change harder.
Thus the wise person begins from a young age already to pursue the path of yoga and liberation of consciousness, knowing what the ultimate goal of life is from early on already. Even though years of householder activity may take up the bulk of the middle years of life, still if the youth was well spent practising at least some aspects of yoga, then in old age those early attempts and habits may resurface more easily, like old muscle memories, or memory muscles.
So remember the teaching of the tortoise, that may be slow in showing outer progress but who is conversely able to withdraw the senses from the outer world altogether for a higher purpose. In one sense all the fruits of our labors as a yogi are internal, and not shown on the bank balance or even in the face. Such is the path of the one truly situated in knowledge, according to Bhagavad Gita.
Bhagavad Gita ch2:58
यदा संहरते चायं कूर्मोऽङ्गानीव सर्वशः ।
इन्द्रियाणीन्द्रियार्थेभ्यस्तस्य प्रज्ञा प्रतिष्ठिता ॥ ५८ ॥
yadā saṁharate cāyaṁ
kūrmo 'ṅgānīva sarvaśaḥ
indriyāṇīndriyārthebhyas
tasya prajnā pratiṣṭhitā
yadā—when; saṁharate—winds up; ca—also; ayam—all these; kūrmaḥ—tortoise; aṅgāni—limbs; iva—like; sarvaśaḥ—altogether; indriyāni—senses; indriya-arthebhyaḥ—from the sense objects; tasya—his; prajnā—consciousness; pratiṣṭhitā—fixed up
TRANSLATION
One who is able to withdraw his senses from sense objects, as the tortoise draws his limbs within the shell, is to be understood as truly situated in knowledge.
COMMENTARY
The test of a yogī, devotee, or self-realized soul is that he is able to control the senses according to his plan. Most people, however, are servants of the senses and are thus directed by the dictation of the senses. That is the answer to the question as to how the yogī is situated. The senses are compared to venomous serpents. They want to act very loosely and without restriction. The yogī, or the devotee, must be very strong to control the serpents—like a snake charmer. He never allows them to act independantly. There are many injunctions in the revealed scriptures; some of them are do-not's, and some of them are do's. Unless one is able to follow the do's and the do-not's, restricting oneself from sense enjoyment, it is not possible to be firmly fixed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The best example, set herein, is the tortoise. The tortoise can at any moment wind up his senses and exhibit them again at any time for particular purposes. Similarly, the senses of the Kṛṣṇa conscious persons are used only for some particular purpose in the service of the Lord and are withdrawn otherwise. Keeping the senses always in the service of the Lord is the example set by the analogy of the tortoise, who keeps the senses within.
Reference: Bhagavad Gita As It Is, translation and commentary by Swami A. C. Bhaktivedanta, original 1972 Macmillan edition (www.prabhupadabooks.com)
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