Temptation

According to Christian Theology, Man is born with original sin because he disobeyed God’s will. Yielding to the temptations of the Devil, he ate the fruits of the Tree of Knowledge. In our traditions too, greed, anger and lust are the great impediments in one’s spiritual progress.


Demons and at times even Devas too tempted steadfast Rishis to wean them away from meditations, by making the Apsaras to display their charm in the subtlest variety. Sage Viswamitra too yielded to the temptations and every one of us is familiar with the story. Temptations always promise instant gratification and we would realize later to our mortification that a momentary weakness has caused us perdition. Many an innocents have fallen victims to false promises like doubling investments within months or the offer of an unreasonably high discount. Fly by night Companies always tempt people to part with even their last farthing. Yudhishtra, a Prince of immaculate character, who exemplified virtue in his life, yielded to temptations and staked even his most valuable possession – his wife- with a false hope that he would win back whatever he had lost, when the dice would be cast next time. Thus, instilling in us a false sense of hope to recover back the lost ground is another strategy employed by those who want to tempt us. After all, ‘hope prolongs the happier hour’, as Thomas Gray puts it. Even animals are not free from this blemish. Panchathantra is abounded with stories where the strong animals tempt the weaker ones to come nearer. At the same time, clever ones mislead their tormentors and escape from their clutches. Mouse traps, camouflages to capture elephants, are all different types of temptations. One needs strong will power, to withstand temptations. Resisting temptations are our weakest moments. In fact, our strength of character is determined during our weaker moments. It sounds ironic indeed!

William Shakespeare in “Macbeth” explains, in his inimitable style, how temptations work upon us.

“The Instruments of Darkness often win us with honest trifles,
to betray us in deepest consequence”.

Macbeth is essentially a story of yielding to temptations and not mere ambition. The evil forces win us over by initially fulfilling their promises a little only to drop us down later, leaving us no chance of recovery. Many of us have seen how the invitation to some of the websites have taken away our vital personal details or cleansed our hard disks of their data base. Some of the shops that offer as much as 80 percent discount, disappear within days of collecting money from us.

To escape from temptations, what is important is not to be misled by the promise of initial pleasure, which may be momentary, but to look for the end, though initially one may have to tread a thorny path. Didn't Stephen Covey list 'to begin with end in mind' as one of the seven habits of highly effective people?

And finally, the Commandment, that ‘Thou shall not yield to temptations’, must reverberate in our mind in our every waking moment.

V.Mahadevan