Category:Engaging Our Senses in Devotional Service to God
Theme Analysis
The struggle to control the senses is often misdiagnosed as a need for total cessation of activity. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that because the senses are inherently active, they cannot be stopped; they must be purified through proper engagement. This process of purifying the instrument involves shifting from the material designation of sense gratification to the spiritual platform of Hṛṣīkeśa-sevanam—serving the master of the senses with our own senses. This analysis explores how bhakti is defined not by sentimentalism but by the practical redirection of every faculty toward Kṛṣṇa. By following the examples of great souls like Emperor Ambarīṣa and Prince Priyavrata, the practitioner transcends material nature and enters a state of imperceptible liberation, where the Lord reveals Himself to the devotee through their favorably engaged senses.
- The Scientific Definition of Bhakti: Devotional service is the stage after liberation where the purified senses are engaged for the satisfaction of their original proprietor, Kṛṣṇa.
- Redirection vs. Repression: Artificial control of the senses often leads to a fall; however, by providing the senses with a superior engagement in the Lord's service, material desires naturally diminish.
- The Path of Purification: Bhakti-yoga involves the transition from material designations to the original spiritual body (siddha-deha), where the senses are applied without deviation to the service of the Divine.
- Guaranteed Success: The conclusive Vedic process states that success is guaranteed for any devotee who fully engages even a single sense in the mode of devotional service, as it pours water on the root of the universal tree.
- Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: Purifying the Instrument – Engaging Our Senses in Devotional Service to God.
Subcategories
This category has the following 3 subcategories, out of 3 total.
Pages in category "Engaging Our Senses in Devotional Service to God"
The following 44 pages are in this category, out of 44 total.
A
- Actually, devotional service means engaging the senses in the service of the Lord. At the present moment our senses are not purified; therefore our senses are engaged in the service of society, friendship, love, politics, sociology and so on
- All the time, Lord Rsabhadeva has been stressing devotional service, and now He is concluding by saying that all the senses should be engaged in the Lord's service
- An enlightened devotee no longer has any material activities, nor has he any interest in being materially engaged. This process of purifying the senses and engaging them in the service of the Lord is known as bhakti, or devotional service
- Any devotee who enters the kingdom of God by transcendental engagement of his senses in devotional service & who associates with the liberated souls & the Personality of God there, will never be attracted to the limited surroundings of the material world
B
- Because of his development of transcendental attachment for the Supreme Lord, a surrendered soul feels the presence of his beloved everywhere, and all his senses are engaged in the loving service of the Lord
- Bhakti does not mean stop your work. Bhakti does not mean sentimental fanaticism. That is not bhakti. Bhakti means to engage all your senses for the satisfaction of the proprietor of the senses. That is called bhakti
- Bhakti is the stage after liberation. Unless one is liberated one cannot engage the senses in the service of the Lord
- Bhakti means engaging all the senses in the service of the master of the senses, Hrsikesa
- Bhakti means to engage all your senses for the satisfaction of the proprietor of the senses. That is called bhakti
- Bhakti means when we engage our senses, in the service of the proprietor of the senses, that is our perfect life. but as soon as we desire to use our senses for the gratification of the senses, that is called karma. That is called material life
- Bhakti means when you engage your senses for the service of the master of the senses, Hrsikesa. That is called is bhakti. Bhakti is not sentiment
- Bhakti, or devotional service, means engaging all our senses in the service of the Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the master of all the senses. When the spirit soul renders service unto the Supreme, there are two side effects
- By the grace and help of Lord Vasudeva, who is all-pervading, one can engage his senses in devotional service without deviation, just as the Lord acts without deviation
I
- If our minds, senses, speech, money & energies are thus engaged in the service of Krsna, we cannot be considered to be existing in material nature. By virtue of spiritual consciousness, or Krsna consciousness, we transcend the platform of material nature
- In the Bhagavad-gita it is said that the senses can be controlled only by better engagements. Devotional service necessitates purifying the senses or engaging them in the activities of devotional service
O
- One may externally control the senses by some artificial process, but unless the senses are engaged in the transcendental service of the Lord, there is every chance of a fall. BG 1972 purports
- Our first concern should be to control the senses, and since the senses cannot be controlled unless engaged in the devotional service of the Lord, our most important duty is to engage the senses in devotional service
P
S
- Sevonmukhe hi jihvadau svayam eva sphuraty adah: when a devotee engages his senses favorably in devotional service, the Lord, through His causeless mercy, reveals Himself to the devotee. This is the conclusive Vedic process
- Simply by fixing oneself in Krsna consciousness, engaging the senses in the service of the Lord, one is imperceptibly liberated. This is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gita
- Some of the senses are meant for acquiring knowledge, and some are meant for executing the conclusions of our thinking, feeling and willing. So practice means employing both the mind and the senses in practical devotional service
- Spiritual body is called siddha-deha, the body by which one can render transcendental service unto Radha and Krsna. The process is that of engaging the transcendental senses in loving devotional service
- Srimad-Bhagavatam (SB 11.2.36) states that one should submit everything - his fruitive activities, body, speech, mind, senses, intelligence, soul and modes of nature - to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Narayana
- Success is guaranteed for a devotee who fully engages any one of his senses in the mode of devotional service
T
- The activities of the senses can be stopped if they are given superior engagements. The supreme engagement is engagement of the senses in the service of the Lord. That is the purpose of all yoga
- The astanga-yogis try to control the senses. The devotees, however, try to engage the senses in the service of the Lord. Therefore it appears that the activities of the bhaktas, devotees, are better than those of the jnanis and yogis
- The desire to satisfy the material senses will automatically diminish, and the senses will become so purified that they will be able to engage in bhakti - devotional service to the Lord
- The devotee should see his identity as an eternal servant of Krsna. In this way one can engage his senses in the service of the Lord. Such engagement is called pure devotional service
- The easiest and most direct process is to engage the senses in the service of the Lord
- The human form of life is a chance for one to understand his position. Therefore the most intelligent person takes to devotional service just to engage his mind, senses and body in the service of the Lord without deviation
- The personified Vedas continued, "In other words, You are the root of the whole creation. Therefore those who engage in Your devotional service without deviation, who always worship You, actually pour water on the root of the universal tree"
- The senses cannot be controlled unless one is engaged in the service of the Lord; therefore the bona fide spiritual master, who has full control over his senses, engages twenty-four hours a day in the Lord’s service
- The sixty-four items of devotional service should include all of our activities of body, mind and speech. The regulative principle of devotional service enjoins that all of our senses must be employed in the service of the Lord
- To clarify, in the previous chapters, the symptoms of devotional service were explained along with instructions as to how they can be executed with our present senses, gradually rising to the platform of ecstasy of spontaneous love
W
- We require to undergo some sort of penances. That penance is that engage our senses not in the process of sense gratification but in the process of serving the Supreme Lord, dovetailing, dovetailing our independence
- When our senses are purified by constantly being engaged in the devotional service of the Lord, we can understand Krsna's activities, names, forms, qualities, pastimes and entourage
- When the mind and senses are engaged in devotional service, the living entity naturally becomes Krsna conscious
- When transcendental devotional service, by which love for Krsna is attained, is executed by the senses, it is called sadhana-bhakti, or the regulative discharge of devotional service. Such devotion eternally exists within the heart of every living entity
- When we become free from the designation of this material body and we come to the pure stage of original, spiritual senses, that senses when applied to the service of the supreme master of senses, God, that is called bhakti
Categories:
- Engage
- Engagement
- Senses
- Engaging in Devotional Service to God
- Devotional Service to God
- Categories With Theme Analysis
- In Devotional Service to God - Umbrella Category
- Nurturing Devotional Service to God - Umbrella Category
- Devotional Service and Krsna Consciousness - Umbrella Category
- Devotional Service to God - Umbrella Category
- Engagement - Umbrella Category
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