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Devotional Service or Mental Service

 Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,
Please accept my humble obeisances! All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev!

Lord Krishna is often referred to as Hrishikesha because He is the owner of all our senses. It is a very important point to reflect and meditate upon. In one of the classes here in Abu dhabi, HG Devakinandan prabhuji shared a very valuable insight in this regard. If someone owns something, then that cannot be the property of any other person. This is the implication of Krishna being the owner of all our senses. If He is the owner of all our senses, it means we are not the owners of our senses and yet everyday as we live, we always think that we are the owner of our senses and because of this, the problem is we start behaving in a way where we think that the senses should be under our control. We may think we have control over our senses, but the truth of the matter Srimad Bhagavatam tells us is that our senses control us and the master of the senses is actually the mind. If our senses see something, the translation of what we have seen is actually done by what we call the sixth sense, the mind. It is the mind that actually gives life to whatever the senses see. That is why when we speak of the senses, Srimad Bhagavatam insists that we must include the mind and not just say it is five senses only. The five senses have no existence, frankly speaking, without the capacity of the mind to manipulate our senses. Two people can see the same thing but why they can have two different reactions is because their minds are different. Not the eyes. Everybody's eyes have the same cornea, retina etc., They see the same thing but why do they process it differently? Because of the mind. When we speak of Krishna being the owner of our senses, we must not only submit our senses at the lotus feet of Krishna, but we must also submit the mind. That is why when the mind is not with Krishna, then wherever it goes, it carries and drags the senses with it also. A good example Maharaj gave is a very famous story from the scriptures.

There were two brahmacari boys from the Gurukula and they were coming back after collecting firewood. As they were coming back to the ashrama, they came across a river and there was a young girl seated there and she was crying. So one of the boys goes up to the girl and asks, "My dear sister, why are you crying? What has happened?" And the girl said, "In the morning, I came to take certain things from the forest. At that time, the river was low tide. I just crossed over. But now the waters are high and I am getting late. My parents must be very much worried about me. I do not know how to swim." The first brahmacari says, "I will just carry you over the river and put you to the other side." The fellow brahmacari pulls him aside and says, "This is a girl and you are a brahmacari. If you carry her, you are not brahmacari any more. You are in trouble." But the first boy said, "We cannot leave her here also. It is dark and there is no one. We have to help her." So against the wishes of his fellow brahmacari, he carries the girl across and puts her on the other side and starts to walk to the ashram. Behind him the other boy is following and he is saying, "You carried her. you carried her. I told you not to carry. You should not have done that. I am going to tell Guru Maharaj." At the end when they reached the ashram, Guru Maharaj was seated there and he asked, "How was your day?" Immediately the second boy said, "I have a complaint to make. This friend of mine, he carried a girl and put her on the other side of the river. He has transgressed all the laws and he should not have done that. This is how he carried her and this is how fast he walked and after he put her down, I told him all the way that he should not have carried the girl but he never listened. So what are you going to do, dear Master?" The Master looked at both of them and he very calmly said to the first boy who carried. "You carried the girl across the river and you left her there." He looked at the other boy and said, "You carried the girl from the river all the way to the ashram and you never left her back. Why?"

Because while we think we are the masters of our minds, frankly speaking, the mind is our master and when the mind decides that it is going to fix itself on an object, no matter what you say, without the presence of Krishna and the power of devotional service, the mind will not let the object go. That is why Srimad Bhagavatam 5.11.17, gives us the way to accept Hrshikesha into our lives.

bhraatrvyam enam tad adabhra-veeryam
upekshayaadhyedhitam apramattah
guror hares caranopaasanaastro
jahi vyalikam svayam aatma-mosham

"This uncontrolled mind is the greatest enemy of the living entity. If one neglects it or gives it a chance, it will grow more and more powerful and will become victorious. Although it is not factual, it is very strong. It covers the constitutional position of the soul. O King, please try to conquer this mind by the weapon of service to the lotus feet of the spiritual master and of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Do this with great care."

If we can perform devotional service at the lotus feet of our spiritual master and if we can perform devotional service by accepting Krishna as Hrishikesha, the owner of our mind and senses, then our devotional service will begin. Otherwise it is mental service. We think that we are performing devotional service, but we are moving according to the dictates of the mind. Today I feel like chanting, I chant; tomorrow I don't feel like chanting and I do not chant. Sometimes I feel so much for Krishna and I become a devotee of Krishna. Next day I do not have feeling for Krishna and I forget about it. One Mataji asked Maharaj, "Some days I really feel like cooking for Krishna and some days I do not. So what do I do?" Maharaj said, "When you see your children, do you go according this idea? Today I feel like cooking, so children you will eat. Tomorrow I do not feel like cooking, children you starve. Will you do that for your children? No mother will do it and yet we do that for Krishna. We live our lives according to what we should live and we expect Krishna to follow our senses. So the dictates of our senses we put on Hrishikesa forgetting that He is the owner of our senses because He created our senses. He has first right over us and nobody including us have this right over our senses."

Srila Prabhupada very emphatically writes in his purport to SB 2.4.11, "The senses of the individual being are not his own; the devotee knows that such senses belong to the Supreme Lord and that they can be properly used when they are employed for the service of the Lord. The senses are instruments, and elements are ingredients, all endowed by the Lord; therefore whatever an individual can do, speak, see, etc., is under the direction of the Lord only. The Bhagavad-gita (15.15) confirms this: sarvasya caaham hrdi sannivishto mattah smrtir jnaanam apohanam ca. No one is free to act freely and independently, and as such, one should always seek the permission of the Lord to act or eat or speak, and by the blessing of the Lord everything done by a devotee is beyond the principles of the four defects typical of the conditioned soul."

Thank you very much,
Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev,
Vaijayanti mala devi dasi,
Abu Dhabi.