Srimad-Bhagavatam: Canto 5 - Chapter 1 - Verse 9


Sanskrit:

एकादशासन्मनसो हि वृत्तयआकूतय: पञ्च धियोऽभिमान: ।मात्राणि कर्माणि पुरं च तासांवदन्ति हैकादश वीर भूमी: ॥ ९ ॥

ITRANS:

ekādaśāsan manaso hi vṛttayaākūtayaḥ pañca dhiyo ’bhimānaḥmātrāṇi karmāṇi puraṁ ca tāsāṁvadanti haikādaśa vīra bhūmīḥ

Translation:

There are five working senses and five knowledge-acquiring senses. There is also the false ego. In this way, there are eleven items for the mind’s functions. O hero, the objects of the senses [such as sound and touch], the organic activities [such as evacuation] and the different types of bodies, society, friendship and personality are considered by learned scholars the fields of activity for the functions of the mind.

Purport:

The mind is the controller of the five knowledge-acquiring senses and the five working senses. Each sense has its particular field of activity. In all cases, the mind is the controller or owner. By the false ego one thinks oneself the body and thinks in terms of “my body, my house, my family, my society, my nation” and so on. These false identifications are due to the expansions of the false ego. Thus one thinks that he is this or that. Thus the living entity becomes entangled in material existence.