रसवर्जं रसोऽप्यस्य परं दृष्ट्वा निवर्तते ॥ ५९ ॥
viṣayā vinivartante nirāhārasya dehinaḥ .
rasavarjaṃ raso’pyasya paraṃ dṛṣṭvā nivartate .. 59 ..
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The senses,—‘vishayah,’ meaning literally sense-objects, here stands for the senses,—it is true, withdraw from objects even in the case of an ignorant person who, practising extremest austerity, abstains from all sensuous objects; but the taste or inclination (rasa) for those objects ceases not. (Rasa is used in the sense of taste or inclination in such expressions as ‘svarasena pravrittah,’ ‘rasikah,’ and ‘rasa-jnah.’) Even that taste, that subtle attachment, vanishes in the case of the devotee who, having seen the Supreme Reality, the Brahman, thinks ‘I am myself That’; that is to say, his perception of sensuous objects becomes seedless (nir-bīja), has lost all germ of evil. The meaning is this: In the absence of right knowledge, there can be no annihilation * of taste for sensuous objects; wherefore, steadiness of right knowledge (prajnā) should be acquired.
It is no fallacy of mutual dependance (anyonyâsraya) to say that knowledge arises on the killing of desires and that desires vanish when knowledge arises. For, desire in its grossest form disappears at the first dawn of knowledge, and as knowledge is steadied and perfected, even he subtlest desires are killed out.
Unrestrained senses work mischief.
He who would acquire steadiness of right knowledge (prajnā) should first bring the senses under control. For, if not controlled, they will do harm. So, the Lord says :