November 15, 2025
In The Bhagavad Gita it is said:
"When like the tortoise which withdraws on all
sides limbs, he withdraws his senses from
the sense-objects, then his wisdom becomes
steady." (II:58)
The tortoise is enjoying life, which means whatever happens is natural and inherent in life.
He's not running after something. You can see very well why the illustration is given.
The tortoise doesn't run after any pleasure. But no-one can say that the tortoise therefore does not enjoy at all. It enjoys as much pleasure staying there as running around.
That's why the example of the tortoise is given in The Bhagavad Gita.
Enjoy yourself, stick yourself out when there is some happiness, but when that happiness is threatened, pull the indriyas (the senses) back. For if thought or the mind suggests that 'That is the object of my pleasure and that is running away, and unless I pursue it and capture it, I'll be miserable', that is when you are looking for misery and unhappiness.
Pull yourself in!
"I was here before this; and I'll be here after that." Correct. Quite simple. You had a very happy experience so you stuck your neck out and enjoyed it; that is flowing and now it has passed. Don't pursue it, pull your neck in.
"I was before this experience arose, I am now and I'll continue to be after this experience has ceased." That's all. And there's absolutely no possibility of unhappiness there, there's no longing, there's no expectation, there's no craving either. The craving has been nipped in the bud.
I was before this experience arose, I am - and therefore this experience arose - and I will be after this experience has passed. If I am not, where could this happy experience have arisen at all? No. I am the source of that experience.
In the same way, this can be extended to cover all emotional upheavals - this way one learns to cancel out the upheavals even before they arise.