Temptations and bad karma.
You can neither keep your mind nor your body in control unless you are able to avoid and ignore the temptations that come your way all the time. Those which tempt you to indulge into are generally your enemy in disguise and shall betray you later. Temptations in life are the root cause of all the troubles that befall us, it does not show its morbidity immediately; this is the true characteristic of all the temptations that shows up in our lives always. It starts to show up one by one and grip our lives mostly never to let go of us. Take alcohol, for instance, it is a good mood maker; a casual drink turns most people into alcoholic in a few years. This definitely weakens their immunity and gives them fatty liver too. In course of time, the body shows symptoms of illnesses. As people age they acquire multiple diseases, there is no point of return from this misfortune that one creates for oneself.
Temptations are bound to influence you since the time you are able to use your sense organs and use your limbs to hold something, even though you may not be able to express yourself by the words of mouth. As a child, you are tempted with red and green LED flashing toys. You are tempted with all things that fascinate you. Gradually when you grow up and step into the world as an independent person, there is no one to stop you from doing all what you want to do. There is no mother or father or that bad uncle to tell you “don’t do it Joe”. This is when you begin to play the temptation game. Friends and money in your pocket, you find it easy to play the temptation game. Friends, booze, smoke, and easy life style all seem so pleasant and worthwhile after hard days of slogging. It is ok if you enjoyed this for a moment and occasionally, but it does not happen that way. This temptation is like a virus in your computer; it hides itself somewhere never to be found and slowly slows you down. It keeps you wanting those good moments repeatedly, day after day, and year after year, until morbid signs of abuse begin to show up all over you, internally and externally. This is when you awake to the misuse and abuse to your body, yet unknowing the causes that led you into it and unrepentant of course.
With a strong mind you should always be able to control your desires for all those temptations that may seem so glamorous, overpowering your mind and body. This is the only way to keep bad karma at bay and lead a happy and peaceful life all along. Yes, there is also another way for weak-minded people to dissuade themselves of bad karma, it is by reporting home all the time their daily activities and by requesting their loved ones to check them all the time. It is first necessary to self-realize our weakness of mind, and then only can we seek the help of others. How many of us will ever accept the fact that our minds are weak? This is the reason why most of us are so unfortunate. Only self-realization will allow us to estimate the power of our minds. Getting oneself to be checked by another is also difficult and against the nature of most of us, this is why we can never rid ourselves of diseases and misery.