Krishna in the Gita, has warned Arjuna: Yatato hripi kaunteya, purushasya vipaschit, indriyani prathini haranti prasambha manah — If not conscious, O Arjuna, these senses are so turbulent that they can lead astray the mind of even a vigilant human being. Ancient scriptures have argued that we do not need to destroy the senses, but create a balance by redirecting them towards the inner world that would take one’s self beyond the senses.

Sant Kabir explains this phenomenon through his doha, couplet: Jo dekhe, so kahai nahi, sune so samjhavai naahi, rasna drug shruit kaahi. Scientists will agree with Kabir that eyes will only see but won’t speak; the tongue will speak but it cannot see; the ears can hear but cannot explain. Nose smells the flowers, hand touches — it means that all these senses and experiences originating from them are meeting somewhere. There is a confluence and each experience is being controlled by a centre within us which we generally ignore.

We must know that all the senses are equally important and, in fact, Zen masters have described them as five flavours. Besides these five flavours, there exists a sixth flavour or sense popularly known as intuition. It works around the spirit, rather than reality. But, it will be wrong to say that intuition is unreal. In fact, it is another side of the reality, but due to our social conditioning, we often ignore it. However, it is important to be aware of all our senses and, moreover, not to cling to experiences of the senses, not to be enslaved by them.

But, in reality, we are running after each and every experience of our senses, forgetting the centre, the master, our soul. Once the soul is gone from the body, these senses will remain as they are but it will not be able to experience anything because the master, the centre, is gone.

Osho says our whole life is spent in discussing the various ways of penetrating the inner world.One of these techniques is closing the seven openings of the head with your hands. One just has to close all the openings of the head — eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. The moment all the openings — senses or organs of the head — are closed, consciousness, which is usually flowing out, will be stopped. Kabir has indicated in his dohas that there exists a launch-pad, a springboard to catapult oneself into the inner world. And that one should use it now, before it is too late.