II: 61

Chapter 2, Verse 61

“Bringing the senses
Into the harmony of recollection,
They sit devotedly,
With their souls finding rest in me.
I call them illumined.”

Sri Aurobindo:

“By mastery of the senses the wise and calm intelligence becomes firmly established in its proper seat. This cannot be done perfectly by the act of the intelligence itself, by a merely mental self-discipline. It can only be done by Yoga with something which is higher than itself and in which calm and self-mastery are inherent. The liberator is within us, but it is not our mind, nor our intelligence, nor our personal will…they are only instruments. It is the Lord [the higher power within us and without us] in whom, as we are told in the end, we have utterly to take refuge. For that we must at first make the Lord the focus of our whole being. In this verse we receive this message in seed-form, the whole gist of the highest secret yet to be developed.”

Srila Prabhupada:

“Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana, a great scholar and Acharya remarks:

‘The senses can be completely controlled by the strength of devotional service to Krishna.’

Also, the example of fire is given:

‘As a blazing fire burns everything within a room, Lord Vishnu, situated in the heart of the Yogi, burns up all kinds of impurities.’”