The Power of Sense Stimulants

How many times we have met people who arrested our attention quite magically with just their fine attire or their speech. And even more may be the times when our presence did not get acknowledged just because we didnt stimulate the other person's sense organs, i.e. through fine speech, a smile, or not being dressed for the occassion.

In my life i have encountered enough number of people, who didnt get closer to me on the first meeting. But when i kept meeting them over a period of time, they thought iam not that bad afterall. The reason is i just didnt attract any attention towards me. A Person's attention span gets wider when his sense organs are titillated, to put it another way.

The Kathopanishad says that the nature of the sense-organs is to proceed outward, to enjoy sense-objects, such as sound, etc. They are therefore not capable of knowing the indwelling Self. When knowing about self itself becomes such a hard battle, there is no surprise when people dont treat you on ur merits in the initial days.

I have had the privilege (if i could say that) to be associated with people from the lowest strata of society. They still form a part of my socialising network, though not as much as earlier. In my association with my lesser privileged friends, i have always endeavoured to be one among them. I never showed one upmanship or acted smart. As far as i believe, i blended almost seemlessly with these friends.

Seeing their hardships, i have helped them countless times with little amounts of money. There have been occasions when they have lied to me about some hardship to get some cash and then gone and spent it in the liquor shop. I could have easily put a stop to this, but i know their hardships will continue and they may need my help. That always pushed me to forgive them, and not let them know that their bluff has been caught. Over a period of time, they stopped lying to me, because they came to know that i had seen through their lies but still acted as if i didnt know about their bluffing. Thats the point they stopped lying to me. It took some years, but i kept getting punished without ever complaining, but atleast iam happy that they are better human beings now.

(Countless times i have had the opportunity to help my lesser privileged friends by paying their house rent, electricity bills, hospital bills etc. Many a time i have pulled them out of starvation by providing them ration for the entire month. Some of my friends are gainfully employed now and dont need anymore help. That gives me enough satisfaction.)