The five senses are the essential requirements for perception to begin functioning. These senses are the means by which the Atma begins to experience its own transient "existence". In other words, the senses enable (or trap) the eternal Atman into experiencing this world of continous change. The Atma becomes enamoured of the world that seems to offer pleasure which creates a sense of happiness.   Between the Atma (which is pure perception) and the senses, is located the Mind, which translates the sensory perception into "pleasure" and "pain".

But what is the external world that the five senses are observing.  When Lord Krishna yawns in the arms of His Mother Yashoda,  she is able to observe the entire universe within it. This is the Paramathma's way of communicating through Srimad Bhagavatham to us, that the perceived external world is only a reflection of our own inner self!

So what we observe is a mirror image of our own inner self through the senses. In other words, we are experiening our own Karma through the five senses. 

The Atma's experiences through the mind, sets in motion its evolutionary process. It develops the power to discriminate between the opposite forces and develops intelligence to manipulate the environment to extract only what it considers to be "good" for it and attempts to eliminate the "bad".

The  power of discrimination and the ability to experience change are the requirements for the mind to enable the five senses to work the way that they do.   The following essentials are  equired for the senses to function;

1. The abilityof the Mind to discriminate between objects and people (spatial discrimination).

2. The ability of the mind to distinguish between the past, present and future (the "before" and the "after")

When our thoughts are born, the initial impetus is provided by the five senses.  The information that is received by the mind from the senses, is processed by thoughts. However, these thoughts will not have any meaningful outcome,  unless the information that flows in can be "understood" in terms of being "Good" or "Bad",  "Harmful" or "Beneficial" etc.

As a first step, the thought identifies the five senses as itself (the I).  Whatever is perceived to flow in is perceived as the "TRUTH" and is accepted (believed) without questioning. 

Whatever flows in through the senses is accepted as the absolute REALITY.  What the thought process does not accept is the existence of ones own inner self, the Atma, which actually is the source of all the energy which causes the interplay between itself, the Mind and the senses. 

In other words the PERCEIVED becomes the reality and the PERCEIVER becomes the illusion. THIS IS THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF WHAT THE PARAMATHMA REPEATEDLY SAYS RIGHT THROUGH THE PURANAS.

As the mind repeatedly experiences alternating bouts of "pleasure" and "pain",  it begins to seperate the source of these signals from "the self".  This is the birth of the illusory "I".  The "I" takes upon itself the responsibility to "protect" itself by minimizing the pain (which is perceived as "failure" of the "I" ) and maximize pleasure (which is perceived as "success" of the "I"). 

"I" begins as the discriminator of the signals from the sense organs,  expands to the rest of the body ("My" Hands, "My" Feet etc.), then slowly begins its journey into the material world ("My" House, "My" Land etc.) into forming relations with the near and dear ("My" Parents, "My" Wife, "My" children etc.).  It extends ownership and influence as much as it can and all "intellectual" development that takes place is only directed towards this expansion of the "I".

The illusory identity becomes completely involved with the world of objects that it perceives through the senses.  This involvement with the illusory world becomes intricate and inextricable over time. 

It is further enhanced by the inability of the mind and its identity to perceive the true inner self through these sense organs. 

The inner self, the Atma, is completely invisible to the senses.  In other words the Atma cannot perceive itself through the senses that it created. 

The grip of MAYA (which is the ever changing "external world") over the MIND becomes inextricable. 

The PARAMATHMA says that the only way to extricate the ATMA from the grip of MAYA is to drop the ILLUSORY IDENTITY "I".

This is the path, which our Maharishis have treaded.  Once we begin on the journey of shedding the "I", all other objectives in life take a back seat, and if we are dedicated in our mission, all the problems of this physical world will fall by the way side.