Some time ago this item came out from the Associated Press:
A man in California was driving to his wedding when suddenly his hat blew off onto the highway. Tucked into the brim of the hat was a one-hundred-dollar bill. So in the middle of traffic the man tried to brake his car and jump out to retrieve his hat.
But cruising behind him was a Highway Patrol car, and the officer inside blared to him over the loudspeaker to stay in his car and keep moving.
The man obeyed, but at the next exit he turned off to a roadside motel. There he dashed out of his car, climbed a fence, tore across the highway, braving four lanes of traffic, and plucked up his hat. Mission accomplished, he dodged the next oncoming car, only to be hit by another one and killed.
Devotees of Krsna will be quick to see an analogy.
In human life we're meant to move straight on the road back home, back to Krsna. But Maya, illusion, is so strong that she diverts us. She grabs us by our senses and pulls. "Come on," she says. "It's all yours. Go after it, hold onto it, and enjoy."
Maya's trick is fairly simple: Get you thinking about something passing till you're stuck on it, then reel you in.
Once the eyes or the tongue or the ears or any of the senses gets fixated on something, that sense starts lugging at the mind, absorbing it in whatever Maya's offering at the moment. Then she can carry away our intelligence, and once our intelligence is towed away, that's it we're lost.
Back to Godhead, therefore, is meant to help us strengthen our intelligence and use it to keep the mind steadily focused beyond the lures dangled by Maya. With mind and intellect strengthened by spiritual realization, we can control our senses, master our senses, and keep moving steadily toward the perfection of life.
Jayadvaita Swami