Stories and teachings on the dangers of sense objects.
To trap an elephant, people first lure it into a pit dug and camouflaged by them. Then, they tie it. The elephant continues to remain untamed. To tame and train it, they send a well-trained female to it. When the female comes into contact with the male, the latter feels delighted and becomes docile. Having rendered it docile, people train it and make it work for them. An elephant thus loses its freedom because of its yielding to the touch of a female.
An angler attaches a worm to the hook of his fishing line and tosses it into the water. A fish, attracted by the imagined taste of the worm, bites the hook and gets stuck. As a consequence, it loses its life.
When a lamp is lit, moths get attracted to the form of the flame. They rush into the flame and get burnt to death. Moths, thus suffer destruction because they are charmed by a form.
Each one of these creatures perished due to its being carried away by a particular sense-object. Man, on the other hand, is attracted by pleasing sounds, pleasant touch, beautiful forms, tasty dishes and fragrant odors. So, he should be very vigilant and should keep his senses under control. Else, he would be inviting trouble.
Bhartrihari has said, “Let a moth enter a flame by virtue of its unawareness of the power of fire to burn. Let a fish bite the baited hook because of its ignorance. We, however, refuse to part with objects of sensual enjoyment even though we know them to be the causes of much trouble. Alas! How inscrutable is the impact of delusion!”