Senses
| Ice Cube | Fire |
Teacher: Can anyone hold a piece of ice for a long time?
Komal: I can hold it, but not for a long time because my fingers will get cold.
Teacher: O.K. Is there anyone here who can hold their hands over a fire for a while?
Bharati: No way! The fire is too hot, and we can get burned!
Teacher: Right! Now can anyone tell me that how much a football or a tennis ball weigh?
Mohan: (Holding out both balls), I can not tell you the exact weight but a football ball is heavier than a tennis ball.
Teacher: Good. Has anyone ever slept on a bench before?
Dinesh: I have! It is difficult to sleep on it for very long.
Teacher: I agree with you. Can anyone tell me how we know that how cold the ice is, how hot the fire is, how heavy a baseball is, and how hard a bench is?
Ravi: I do. We can feel ice, fire, a baseball, and a bench with our hands.
Teacher: Children remember that this ability to feel is also called a sense. We can feel cold, hot, heavy, dry, wet, smooth, hard, etc., by touching so we call it the touch sense. Through our skin, we can feel different things. The touch is our first sense.
Has anyone here ever tasted ice-cream?
Jateen: Sir, I am sure all of us have. It tastes sweet. I love ice-cream!
Teacher: Can someone tell me what orange juice tastes like.
Rakesh: Orange juice is tangy.
Teacher: And how did you get that idea?
Rakesh: I’ve tasted orange juice with my tongue, and it tasted that way.
Teacher: Children, with taste sense, we can tell if things are sweet, sour, bitter, or spicy, etc. So the taste sense is our second sense. The tongue can taste different things.
Mina, can you tell us how you decide which perfume to buy?
Mina: It is easy. I smell them and the fragrance I like, I buy.
Teacher: Listen children, due to smelling sense we can tell whether a smell is pleasant or unpleasant. Our nose helps us decide this. Smell is our third sense.
Teacher: Koyal, what is the color of the sky?
Koyal: Sir, it is blue.
Teacher: Bharati, what is the color of your chain and ring?
Bharati: Sir, the chain is golden and the ring is silver.
Teacher: Neela, can you tell me how people know the colors of these things?
Neela: We can see colors with our eyes.
Teacher: You are right. Remember due to our visual sense we can see various colors and shapes. So sight is our fourth sense and eyes help us to decide that.
(There is a lot of noise outside the window)
Ravi: Sir, can we take a break?
Teacher: Why?
Ravi: All the noise from outside makes it hard to hear you.
Teacher: What kind of noises do you hear?
Ravi: They are noises from the band, screaming children, and cars.
Teacher: How can you tell what that these different noises are?
Ravi: Sir, with my ears I can make out different noises.
Teacher: Right, Ravi. Remember that because of our ears, we can hear different noises and can tell where they come from. Hearing is our fifth and last sense.
Thus, there are five senses in all.
Now you know we feel with our skin, taste with our
tongues, smell with our noses, see with our eyes, and hear with our ears. We all have five senses.
So human beings are the five-sensed living beings.
Komal: Sir, do all living beings in the world have all the five senses like us?
Teacher: Can anyone answer that?
(Silence in the class)
Teacher: No. Some living beings have five senses like us, while others might have four, three, two, or one senses. Just like us, animals and birds have five senses. Insects may have four, three, or two senses and plants have only one sense.
We are very lucky that we have all five senses. So we should be very careful how we use them.
Questions:
1) What does a sense mean?
2) How many senses are there?
3) Can you name all the senses?
4) What is the least number of senses a Jiva can have?
5) What is greatest numbers of senses a Jiva can have?
6) How many senses do Ajiva have?
Match the followings:
| Ekendriya | Three senses |
| Beindriya | Five senses |
| Teindriyas | One sense |
| Chaurindriya | Four senses |
| Panchendriya | Two senses |