Purifying the Real Senses through Service
The quest for pleasure is a fundamental drive of the living entity, but attempting to satisfy this drive through the physical body is an exercise in futility. By studying the science of the soul, we learn from Śrīla Prabhupāda that our actual perceptive faculties are purely spiritual and remain dormant under material contamination. Only by purifying our consciousness and directing our service to the Supreme Lord do we awaken our true capacity for transcendental enjoyment.
The Illusion of the Material Covering
Our current physical bodies are equipped with faculties that we mistakenly identify as our own. It is clarified by Śrīla Prabhupāda that these material elements simply mask the eternal spirit soul, much like a garment covers a person. Trying to find happiness through these artificial coverings is compared to trying to taste a sweet through a piece of cloth.
- Actually our material senses are not our real senses. They are covered, just as the body is covered by clothes. Our real body is within the material body. Dehino 'smin yatha dehe - BG 2.13.
- Every one of us is a spiritual being (aham brahmasmi), and every one of us is an individual person. Our senses are now covered by material elements, and because of ignorance we consider the material senses that cover us to be our real senses.
- Suppose I cover your tongue with some cloth and then I give you one rasagulla. Can you taste it? What you'll taste? There are so many things. If you cover the senses, the real senses, and try to enjoy with that covering, what you'll enjoy?
- They think, "I have got this material body, I have got some senses, let me enjoy the senses to the best possibility." But you cannot do it, because it is false, it is not real. Real senses, unless you feel sensation.
Awaking the Spiritual Senses
The true perceptive power of the living entity belongs to the spirit soul, not the dead material body. In his numerous lectures, Śrīla Prabhupāda gives the example of a dead body possessing ears that can no longer hear, proving that the actual source of the senses is the soul. To experience genuine happiness, we must awaken our original spiritual consciousness.
- The spiritual senses, that is real sense. Do you follow what I say? You have got ear, but when the spirit soul is out of your body, in spite of possessing this physical ear, you cannot hear.
- The real senses, are within the material covering. Dehino'smin yatha dehe: (BG 2.13) within the covering of the material elements are the spiritual senses.
- By sense enjoyment, nobody can become happy. Because we are in the material existence. And our senses are false senses. Real senses - spiritual senses. So we have to awaken our spiritual consciousness. Then by spiritual senses we can enjoy.
- You are manufacturing different bodies, but our real sense is covered. So that transcendental sense can be discovered when we give up this material sense gratificatory process by creating different kinds of bodies.
Real Enjoyment Through Service to Kṛṣṇa
The process of bhakti-yoga is not an artificial suppression of the senses, but their ultimate purification. As taught by Śrīla Prabhupāda, when we engage our faculties in the service of Kṛṣṇa, the master of the senses, we achieve complete satisfaction. Serving Govinda brings out the true, blissful nature of our constitutional position.
- Here is the person, Supreme Personality of Godhead. If you serve Krsna, then your senses become satisfied. Therefore His name is Govinda. Actually, we want to serve our senses, but the real senses, the transcendental senses, is Krsna, Govinda.
- Real sense is within. Hrsikena hrsikesa-sevanam (CC Madhya 19.170). We have to serve Krsna, Hrsikesa... Krsna is real, and we have to come to that position of reality. Then we can serve Krsna.
- So Krsna, our relationship with Krsna, our service with Krsna, that is pleasure. Govinda. That is real sense pleasure. By seeing Krsna, by tasting Krsna, by smelling Krsna, by touching Krsna - everything, that is sense pleasure.
- There are many instances. Even great yogis they have failed. This is artificial way of controlling the senses. The real sense control is that you purify your sense in the activities of Krsna consciousness.
Conclusion
The difference between material illusion and spiritual reality lies in how we utilize our faculties. It has been brilliantly exposed by Śrīla Prabhupāda that our attempts to exploit the world lead only to frustration because we are using false coverings. By purifying our consciousness and dedicating our actions to the Supreme Lord, we awaken our original, joyful spiritual senses.
Dive Deeper into Śrīla Prabhupāda's Vani
Śrīla Prabhupāda lives within his instructions. This article is a summary of the profound truths found in the Vaniquotes category Real Senses. We invite you to visit this link to study the complete compilation and experience Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings in their direct, verbatim form.