Lessons animals teach us

Learning how to control our inert desires

Snakes have a strong drive to attack. It is an instinctual drive which is necessary for their survival. In the jungle, it is usually survival of the fittest and they must have this inert desire for them to be able to survive. Although this inert drive is very strong, snakes do not unnecessarily kill. They only attack their prey and only when they want to feed. In many situations they are able to restrain this internal drive until the opportune time. No wonder their strikes are usually very precise and effective.

Young people are blessed with many inert desires and several of them are important to their survival. One of the desires is that of having sexual intercourse. This internal drive when grated its wishes without reason, values, rules and morals it can yield very detrimental results.  The wisdom of the snakes advise us to restrain the inert desires until the opportune time, when it is right (as per our values, rules and morals) to satisfy the desire. When that is done, the end result is usually very satisfactory. What is the opportune time to satisfy this desire? For snakes, it’s only when they want to feed. For us young people, it is when we are married. When the time is not yet appropriate, snakes can even watch their prey pass by. Can we reach that level of enlightenment when boys and girls can be together, respect each other and value one another metaphorically letting the desire pass by until marriage? If snakes can exercise that profound level of control on their inert drives, surely as young people we can do better.  

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