Giving into our passions every time without a fight is a great
slip in the spiritual path.
Many sincere sadhakas on the spiritual path recognize their deviations
from the ideal but fail to pull themselves up due to weakness.
A person who has power over himself, experiences passions that
conflict with his rational choice; but he overcomes the conflict and acts in
accordance with reason.
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| A sculpture at Hampi in Karnataka |
A person who suffers from lack of mastery over himself, goes
against his own rational choice as a result of some emotion or feeling. The lack
of mastery is of two kinds —weakness of will and impetuosity.
A person with a weak will, in fact deliberates before making
a choice of action but then instead of acting in accordance with his reason, he
simply surrenders to the influence of passion. In other words, he easily
revises his resolutions in the face of opposition. An impetuous person has a
lapse of reasoning or deliberation and just acts under the influence of a
passion.
Source - Vedanta Kesari September 2017