52. Automaticity of Indriyas
K rishna cautions Arjuna that indriyas (senses) are capable of forcibly carrying away the mind of even an aspiring wise person (2.60). This verse is about the automaticity of indriyas to stimuli. The best example is of a smoker who’s quite aware of the pitfalls of smoking but finds it extremely difficult to quit it. He laments that by the time he realises, the cigarette is already lit. Anyone who is involved in a road rage or a crime vouches that it happened in the heat of the moment but not consciously. The same is the case with someone who speaks harsh words at the workplace or in the family and keeps regretting them as they weren’t intended in the first place. These instances imply that indriyas take over us and bind us in karma bandhan (bondage of action). During our formative years, free neurons in the brain form neural connections called hardwiring. This takes care of automatic activities like walking as it saves a lot of energy for the brain. The same is the ca...