Acharya Prashant explains the classic concepts of 'Dam' (suppression) and 'Sham' (pacification). He defines 'Dam' as not encouraging the inner tendencies to take hold of you or consume you further once they have arisen. It is about preventing the fire from being initiated at all. 'Sham', on the other hand, comes into the picture only if 'Dam' has not succeeded. Using the metaphor of a fire, he explains that once the thing has caught fire, 'Sham' is the act of not supporting the fire, not feeding it fuel, but rather dousing it. This inner fire can be of fear, lust, anger, jealousy, possessiveness, or attachment. The speaker points out that often, the inner fire and temperature become quite pleasurable, and people like things 'hot'. In the moment of passion, one does not see that these hot things will eventually reduce one to ashes. He urges the listener to outsmart time; instead of waiting 20 years for time to show the destructive outcome, one should see it today. He suggests visualizing one's own body and all 'hot things' at the crematorium to understand their transient and destructive nature. Before the external fire of the pyre consumes the body, most people are already internally charred and destroyed by the inner fire of their passions. 'Sham' is about dealing with this inner fire properly. The scriptures say that if you have put out the inner fire, you become immortal, irrespective of what happens to your body. Your body will indeed burn, but you will be immortal. Conversely, you are already dead if there is a fire raging within. Therefore, 'Sham' is about putting out the inner fire and is adjacent to dispassion.
