The mind uncontrolled, is one's worst enemy causing great sorrow and
bondage. So, one must control one's mind.
indriyAnAm hi charatAm yat manah anuwidhiyate
tat asya harati prajnAm wAyuh nAwam iwa ambhasi ||2.67||
"For the mind, which follows in the wake of the wandering
senses, carries away his discrimination as the wind carries away a boat on
the waters."
As a ship with sails up and its helmsman dead would be completely at
the mercy of the fitful storms and reckless waves, and cannot reach any
definite harbour, but would get destroyed by the very tossings of the
waves, so too, life gets capsized and the individual drowned by the
uncertain buffets of passionate sense-storms. Therefore, the senses are to
be controlled if man is to live a better and more purposeful life,
designed and planned for enduring success. ||4.1||
By practice and by renunciation.
asamshayam mahAbAho manah durnigraham chalam
abhyAsena tu kaunteya wairAgyena cha grhyate ||6.35||
"Undoubtedly, O mighty-armed, the mind is difficult to control and is
restless; but, by practice, O Son of Kunti, and by dispassion it is
restrained."
Krishna admits that the mind is turbulent, strong, unyielding, and
restless and that it is very difficult to control, and therefore, the goal
of perfect and enduring tranquillity cannot be EASILY achieved. In the
second line of this stanza, again, the eternal missionary in Krishna very
carefully weighs his words and uses the most appropriate terms to soothe
the mind of Arjuna. 'O SON OF KUNTI, IT CAN BE BROUGHT UNDER
CONTROL', is an assertion which comes only as the last word in the entire
stanza. Through practice and renunciation the mind can be brought under
reins in the beginning, and ultimately to a perfect halt-- this is the
confident, reassuring declaration of the Lord in the Geeta.
Renunciation has been already described earlier in the Geeta as
SANNYASA, which was defined as renunciation of (a) all clinging attachments
to the objects of the world, and (b) lingering expectations of the fruits
of action. These two are the main causes for the agitation of thoughts
which again thickens the flood of the thoughtflow and makes the mind
uncontrollable. As Sankara describes it, 'practice' (ABHYASA) is
'constant' repetition of the same idea regarding one and the same
objectof-thought. This consistency of thought during steady meditation
generally gets diverted and dissipated because of the frequent explosive
eruptions of desires. Whipped by new desires that are rising at every
moment, the thoughts wander into dissimilar channels of activities,
upsetting the inner equilibrium and thereby shattering the true vitality
of the inner personality.
Thus viewed, practice (ABHYASA) strengthens renunciation, and
detachment (VAIRAGYA)
deepens meditation. Hand in hand, each strengthening the other, the
progress is maintained. In spiritual textbooks the arrangement of words is
to be carefully noted, for, in all cases, the words are arranged in a
descending order of importance. To every seeker the question comes at one
time or the ther: whether he should wait for the spirit of detachment to
voluntarily arrive in his mind, or he should start his practice. The
majority wait in vain for the accidental moment of VAIRAGYA before
they start their ABHYASA. The Geeta, in this stanza, clearly
declares that such an expectation is as ridiculous as waiting for the
harvest of crops for which we never sowed the seeds!
Let us analyse life, question its experiences, argue with ourselves,
and note carefully how much we put into life and how much we gain from
life as a return. When we become aware of the deficit balance each time,
we, of necessity, shall start inquiring how our life can be more
profitably reorganised so that our entire coffers of joy and happiness can
be replenished to their brim. Soon, the study of the Sastras
will follow, which will give us an inkling into the wonders of the moral
life, the wisdom of the ethical values, the joys of self-control, the
thrills of growth, and the suffocation of the egocentric little-life.
From the moment we are trying to become aware of our own lives, we are
in the realm of 'practice' (ABHYASA). As a result of this, the
detachment that comes to us automatically is the true and the enduring
'detachment' (VAIRAGYA). All else is a sham show of stupid
self-denial which cramps a human soul and distorts and perverts his
intelligence into an ugly figure riddled with its own hysterical ravings
and bleeding with its own psychological ulcers. VAIRAGYA born out
of abhyasa alone is the charter for free spiritual growth: of your
own accord never renounce anything. Let your attachments
with things, of their own accord, drop off as a result of your
intellectual growth into the higher planes of better understanding and
truer estimation of things and beings, happenings and behaviours,
occurrences and incidents around you in life. When, through right
'practice', enduring 'detachment' has come rushing in full gush into our
inner lives, then the mind comes under our control because it has no more
any world of pluralistic objects to roam in, and the only world where it
has a free access is the world of equanimity and same-ness. ||4.2||
One can gain single pointedness by dropping all one's
agitation-causing desires and then, with an extra strength in one's mind,
withdraw one's attention to the Self.
shanaih shanaih uparamet buddhyA dhrtigrheetayA
Atmasamstham manah krtwA na kinchit api chintayet ||6.25||
"Abandoning without reserve all desires born of SANKALPA,
and completely restraining the whole group of senses by the mind from all
sides, Little by little, let him attain quietude by his intellect, held
firm; having made the mind established in the self, let him not think of
anything."
In these two brilliant stanzas the subtle art of meditation has been
explained. The sacred secret as to how to bring the mind to a
singlepointedness and, thereafter, what we should do with that mind in
concentration and how we should approach the Truth and ultimately realise
It in an act of deliberate and conscious becoming--are all exhaustively
indicated in these two significant stanzas.
Renouncing 'all' (SARVAN) desires 'fully' (ASESHATAH) by
the mind, control all the sense-organs from their entire world of
sense-objects. Herein every word demands commentary since every phrase
leaves a hint which is so important in ultimately assuring for the seeker
a complete success. It is not only sufficient that all desires are
renounced, but each desire must be TOTALLY eradicated. By these two terms
(SARVAN AND ASESHATAH), no trace of doubt is left in the minds of
the seekers as to the condition of their mental equipoise during the
moments of their higher meditation. The term ASESHATAH means that
even the desire for this perfection in YOGA is to
be in the end totally renounced.
'RENUNCIATION OF DESIRES' is advised here with a very necessary and
important qualification; but, unfortunately, the un-intelligent had been
ignoring in Hinduism this significant qualification, and had thus
perverted our sacred religion to act and behave as though it recommended a
life of indolence with neither any ambition to achieve nor any desire to
accomplish. The term 'BORN OF SANKALPA'
is a very significant term, qualifying the desires that are to be
renounced totally and fully. The term 'SANKALPA' had been already
explained earlier with reference to which we can easily understand that it
is the renunciation of such agitation-breeding desires that is meant here.
When once this renunciation of the disturbing desires has been
accomplished, the individual's mind gains strength and stamina to assert
itself, at first to make the wild horses of the sense-organs more tame and
work under greater control, and, soon, it comes to restrain all the
sense-organs from all the sense-objects, from all sides.
It is scientifically very true that our mind is not able to control our
sense-organs, for it has been rendered weak and thoroughly impotent due to
the permanent agitations caused by its own false desires. Once the mind
gets strong as a result of its conquest over the desires, it discovers in
itself all the strength and capacity to control the INDRIYAS from
all sides. This process of quietening the mind can never be accomplished
in a hasty action, or by any imagination, or by any strange and mysterious
method. It is clearly indicated by the very insistence that the Geeta
makes in this stanza that the seeker should 'ATTAIN QUIETITUDE AS A RESULT
OF HIS WITHDRAWAL FROM THE WORLD OF SENSE-OBJECTS BY DEGREES'. Slowly and
slowly (SANAIH-SANIAH) the mind gains more and more quietude.
No doubt, when the sense-organs have stopped their mad onrush among
their respective objects, a certain amount of mental quietude is gained.
The methods of intensifying this inner peace have been indicated in this
stanza.
'PATIENTLY, WITH THE INTELLECT, THE MIND IS TO BE CONTROLLED AND RESTED
IN THE CONTEMPLATION OF THE SELF'. This advice is extremely important to
every seeker, and it gives the next item of the programme for a meditator
when he has accomplished, through the exertion of the mind, a total
withdrawal of himself from the sense-world during his meditation.
The mind that is thus brought to a relative quietude is next to be
controlled by the subtler personality layer in the meditator, which is his
intellect. Just as the sense-organs were controlled and restrained by the
mind, the mind is now treated by the discriminating intellect and brought
under complete restraint. Mind cannot be restrained except by fixing it to
the exclusive contemplation of one idea. Mind, we have noticed, is but 'A
THOUGHT FLOW' and, as such, the constant thought of the Nature of the Self
is the exercise by which the mind is restrained by the intellect. A mind
that has merged in the steady contemplation of the Self becomes, as it
were, still, and a divine quietude comes to pervade its very substance.
This is, as it were, the last lap of the journey to which deliberate and
conscious action (PURUSHARTHA) can take any seeker.
Krishna's exhaustive theory, which can be practised by any sincere
devotee concludes in these two stanzas with a warning as to what the
seeker should avoid at this moment of inward silence and peace. The Lord
here does not instruct the seeker on what he should positively do. The
Divine Flute-player says: 'LET HIM NOT THINK OF ANYTHING', when he has
reached this state of inward inner peace.
After the 'halt-moment' there is nothing more for the seeker to act and
achieve. All that he has to do is to avoid starting any new line of
imagination. 'UNDISTURBED BY ANY NEW THOUGHT WAVE, LET HIM MAINTAIN THE
INNER SILENCE AND COME TO LIVE IT MORE AND MORE DEEPLY', is all the
instruction that the technique of meditation gives to the meditator.
'Knock, and thou shalt enter', is the promise: the 'knocking' is done, and
to the Supreme Presence thou shalt enter..ere long (ACIRAT).
No two simple-looking stanzas any where in the spiritual literature of
the world, including the books in Hinduism, can claim to have given such
an exhaustive amount of useful instructions to a seeker as these two
stanzas in the Geeta. Even in the entire bulk of Divine Song itself, there
is no other similar couple of stanzas which can stand a favourable
comparison with this perfect pair. ||4.3||
Start now and strengthen it by practice.
yatah yatah nishcharati manah chanchalam asthiram
tatah tatah niyamya etat Atmani ewa washam nayet ||6.26||
"From whatever cause the restless and the unsteady mind wanders
away, from that let him restrain it, and bring it back to be under the
control of the Self alone."
The wanderings of the mind may be due to many reasons: the memory of
the past, the near presence of some tempting objects, the association of
ideas, some attachment or aversion or, may be, even the very spiritual
aspiration of the seeker. Lord Krishna's instruction here is very
categorical and all-embracing. He says: 'WHATEVER BE THE REASON BECAUSE OF
WHICH THE RESTLESS AND THE UNSTEADY MIND WANDERS AWAY', the seeker is not
to despair, but should understand that it is the nature of the mind to
wander and the very process of meditation is only a technique to stop this
wandering.
'LET HIM BRING IT BACK': The seeker is advised to bring back the mind
that has, as it were, rushed out into its own self-appointed dissimilar
channels of thinking. ||4.4||
To rest in knowledge of Brahman.
iha ewa taih jitah sargah yeshAm sAmye sthitam manah
nirdosham hi samam brahma tasmAt brahmani taih sthitAh ||5.19||
"Even here (in this world) birth (everything) is overcome by those
whose minds rest in equality. Brahman is spotless indeed, and
equal, therefore they are established in Brahman."
The relative existence as a limited ego-centre can be ended and the
imperfect individual can realise himself to be the Infinite Godhead. This
goal is not a post-mortem stage, but in this very same life, here in this
very body, among these very same worldly objects, one can live in the
consciousness of God, evolving oneself from the immaturities of one's own
deluded ego-sense. One 'WHOSE MIND RESTS IN EVENNESS' gains the divine
tranquillity of a God-man. Where the thought-flow, which creates unequal
and spasmodic mental fluctuations, is arrested, there the mind ends. Where
the mind ends, it being the equipment through which life expresses as a
limited ego, this sense of separative existence also ends. When the ego
has ended, the egocentric thraldom of SAMSAR also ends. The ego,
thus undressed of its SAMSARIC sorrows, rediscovers itself to be
nothing other than the Self itself. Unless one comes to this mental
equipoise, one is not capable of experiencing the SAMATVAM of the
SAMADARSIN described in the above stanza.
'Such an individual, who has conquered his mind and has come to live in
perfect equanimity in all conditions of life and in all relationships',
Krishna vehemently asserts, 'HE INDEED RESTS IN BRAHMAN'.
||4.5||
Why should
one control one's mind?