Bhagavad Gita 5.11

kāyena manasā buddhyā

kevalair indriyair api

yoginaḥ karma kurvanti

saṅgaṁ tyaktvātma-śuddhaye

 

“With body, mind, and intelligence committed,

With even the temptation-prone senses included,

Yogis engage in any necessary action,

Without attachment, seeking only purification.”

 

Bless me, my Lord, to remember that my body, mind, intelligence, and even my senses are ultimately arranged by you as resources for me to use in coming to you.

Though I have used those resources, especially my senses, for many things that now embarrass me, and even mortify me, my prolonged misuse of the senses—no matter how great—does not make them irreversibly contaminated.

Help me, my Lord, to see that if I dedicate my heart and soul to you, as much as is presently possible for me, then all the other resources I have—including my senses—can also be used for that same purpose of purification, leading to proximity to you and, ultimately, intimacy with you.

My Lord, my senses have a strong tendency to get enticed by sense objects and to thereafter entrap me. They are thus like snakes that can sting with poison at any moment. Nonetheless, you, my Lord, are powerful enough to defang my snake-like senses. Through your service and remembrance, you can offer them such a sublime, higher happiness that they lose their inclination to seek pleasure in things that contaminate and entangle me.

Grant me, my Lord, the conviction that engaging my senses in your service will bring about a transformation that is far more substantial and sustainable than merely refraining from using my senses out of fear of getting entangled.

***

05.11 The yogīs, abandoning attachment, act with body, mind, intelligence and even with the senses, only for the purpose of purification.