A man was highly infatuated with a prostitute. He would spend hardly an hour at his own house even to take the delicious food prepared by his devoted wife. He never even looked at his wife, and in course of time almost forgot he had a wife, except during meal-time.
He had a very good friend and well-wisher who, realising that the man was heading towards great misery, took him aside one day and said: "Friend, you know how much I love you. Therefore, I request you to desist from visiting the prostitute."
"Why? She is so nice to me and so beautiful. She is my very life. I can think of no enjoyment without her, and no life without her enjoyment."
The friend said again: "I have a very good reason for asking you to give her up. You closely examine her body in the manner which I tell you. You will discover that she has got a disease. Contact with her will only make you succumb to this disease. Therefore, give her up."
The man at once ran to the prostitute and examined her as instructed by the friend. He found out that the friend was correct. At that very moment great disgust for the prostitute entered his mind. He ran away from her house never even to pass by the street in which she lived.
His wife was waiting for him in his house. She gave him untainted joy throughout his life-time. Later, even if, due to the force of previous habit, the man happened to pass by the street in which the prostitute lived, she herself would bolt the door and run inside, lest he should, in his anger towards her, abuse her and make it known to her other customers that she has the fell disease.
The man, thereafter, constantly enjoyed the edifying company of his wife and enjoyed pure happiness.
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Similar is the case of man's transformation. There is infinite bliss in his own heart. But he does not even care to look at this Self; he does not even know that It is there! All the time he is devoted to maya, the objects of sense-enjoyments. Just for a little while-during deep sleep-he returns to his inner Self and there enjoys peace and happiness; but even then he does not even look at the Self, he does not realise that It is there. His eyes are blinded by ignorance.
Now a Self-realised sage comes to him as his dearest friend and benefactor. He says: "O man, give up this maya; abandon these sense-pleasures. Lo, behold! There is Supreme Bliss within the chambers of your heart. Go there and enjoy Infinite Bliss."
But the man retorts: "What foolishness is this! How can there be happiness except in the objects of the senses? I derive the maximum pleasure in the sense-objects. I do not even believe there is any happiness outside these objects. I cannot live without them at all. How can I give them up?"
But the sage pleads with the ignorant man: "Friend, look, I have a very good reason for asking you to abandon these sense-objects. They have a great taint. They are perishable and they are tainted with the character of bringing endless misery. Think of disease, think of old age, think of death, these are the qualities of the sense objects. When you waste your life over them, you get disease, old age and death. Give them up and enjoy immortality and eternal bliss."
The man at once sits in a calm place and reflects over the sage's words. He realises the Truth. He banishes sense-objects from his mind. He runs back to his own home-the Seat of the Self-and there enjoys perennial peace and eternal bliss. Sometimes, on account of the force of previous Samskaras, he might even go very near the same old sense-objects.
But, maya runs away from him now, lest he should, when tempted by her, expose her nature to others, too, and prevent them from becoming her victims. Thus enjoying the Bliss of the Self throughout his life, he is eventually liberated.
