Purified senses engaged in Krishna's service—not their suppression—constitute true spiritual life and bhakti.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Prabhupāda: We restrict the tongue, practicing. Anything can be done by practice. So if we take kṛṣṇa-prasādam, the tongue is restricted, locked to some limited... Then our all other senses become controlled.
And spiritual life means sense control. We are not going to kill the senses. The yogīs, they artificially want to stop the activities of the senses, but that is not possible. Senses are there.
Life means senses. Aprākṛta. Prākṛta, and when senses are engaged in Kṛṣṇa's service, that is aprākṛta, transcendental. That is described, sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam [Cc Madhya 19.170]. Our senses are now upādhi—"I am Indian," "I am American," "I am this," "I am that." Senses are there, everywhere, but it is designated.
So we have to free the senses from this material designation. And when the designations are washed away, at..., with that senses, hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate. Purified senses without any designation, when we engage in the service of Kṛṣṇa, that is called bhakti. brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati... samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām [Bg 18.54] So senses without designation engaged in the service of Kṛṣṇa is called bhakti, or transcendental activity. Is that clear?
Prabhupāda: You have given little oil? Eh?
Bhakti-caru: Yes, [Transl. I give you] Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: No, no, not so... [break] [Transl. What kind of oil is this?]