20 THE PATH OF PERFECTION Mastering the Mind and Senses 21

to make it incapable of deviating from the Supreme. param manah. The material body consists of the senses, and con-
Sa vai manah krsna-padaravindayoh. One should fix his mind sequently the body’s activities are sensual activities. However,
on Krsna, just as Ambarisa Maharaja did when he had a fight with above the senses is the mind, and above the mind is the intelli-
a great asfanga-yogi named Durvasi Muni. Since Ambarisa gence, and above the intelligence is the spirit soul. If one is on the
Maharaja was a householder, he was a pounds-shillings man. This spiritual platform, his intelligence, mind, and senses are all spiri-
means that he had to take into account pounds, shillings, and six- tualized. The purpose of this Krsna consciousness process is to ac-
pence, or dollars and cents. Apart from being a householder, tualize the spiritualization of senses, mind, and intelligence. The
Maharaja Ambarisa was also a great king and devotee. Durvasa Spirit soul is superior to all, but because he is sleeping, he has
Muni was a great yogi who happened to be very envious of given power of attorney to the fickle mind. However, when the
Maharaja Ambarisa. Durvasa Muni was thinking, ‘‘I am a great soul is awakened, he is once again master, and the servile mind
yogi, and I can travel in space. This man is an ordinary king, and he cannot act improperly. Once we are awakened in Krsna conscious-
does not possess such yogic powers. Still, people pay him more ness, the intelligence, mind, and senses cannot act nonsensically.
honor. Why is this? I will teach him a good lesson.’ Durvasa They must act in accordance with the dictations of the spirit soul.
Muni then proceeded to pick a quarrel with Maharaja Ambarisa, That is spiritualization and purification. Hrsikena hrsikesa-
but because the king was always thinking of Krsna, he managed to sevanam bhaktir ucyate. We must serve the master of the senses
defeat this great yogi, Durvasa Muni was consequently directed by with the senses. The Supreme Lord is called Hrsikesa, which
Narayana to take shelter at the feet of Maharaja Ambarisa. Dur- / means that He is the original controller of the senses, just as a king
vasé Muni was sucha perfect yogithat within a year he could travel is the original controler of all the activities of a state, and the
throughout the material universe and also penetrate the spiritual citizens are secondary controllers.
universe. Indeed, he went directly to the abode of God, Bhakti means acting spiritually in accordance with the desires
Vaikuntha, and saw the Personality of Godhead Himself. Yet Dur- of HrsikeSa. How can we act? Since we must act with our senses,
vasé Muni was so weak that he had to return to earth and fall at the we must spiritualize our senses in order to act properly. As stated
feet of Maharaja Ambarisa. Maharaja Ambarisa was an ordinary before, sitting in silent meditation means stopping undesirable ac-
king, but his one great qualification was that he was always think- tivity, but acting in Krsna consciousness is transcendental. The
ing of Krsna. Thus his mind was always controlled, and he was cessation of nonsensical action is not in itself perfection. We must
situated at the highest perfectional level of yoga. We also can very act perfectly. Unless we train our senses to act in accordance with
easily control the mind by keeping it fixed on the lotus feet of HrsikeSa, the master of the senses, our senses will again engage in
Krsna within. Simply by thinking of Krsna, we become victorious undesirable activities, and we will fall down. Therefore we must
conquerors, topmost yogis. engage the senses in action for Krsna and in this way remain
Yoga indriya-samyamah. The yoga system is meant to control firmly fixed in Krsna consciousness.
the senses, and since the mind is above the senses, if we can con- In material existence one is subjected to the influence of the
trol the mind, our senses are automatically controlled. The tongue mind and the senses. In fact, the pure soul is entangled in the ma-
may want to eat something improper, but if the mind is strong, it terial world because of the mind’s ego, which desires to lord it
can say, ‘*‘No. You cannot eat this. You can only eat krsna- over material nature. Therefore the mind should be trained so that
prasada.”’ \n this way the tongue, as well as all the other senses, It will not be attracted by the glitter of material nature, and in this
can be controlled by the mind. Indriydni pardny dhur indriyebhyah way the conditioned soul may be saved. One should not degrade
