Bhagavad Gita · 6.35 · Path of Meditation·35 of 47
श्री भगवानुवाच असंशयं महाबाहो मनो दुर्निग्रहं चलं।अभ्यासेन तु कौन्तेय वैराग्येण च गृह्यते ॥
śhrī bhagavān uvācha asanśhayaṁ mahā-bāho mano
durnigrahaṁ chalam abhyāsena tu kaunteya vairāgyeṇa cha gṛihyate
Sanskrit recitation
When the mind will not stay · 6.33–6.47 · Teaching
Translation
The Blessed Lord said, "Undoubtedly, O mighty-armed Arjuna, the mind is difficult to control and restless; but with practice and dispassion, it can be restrained."
Meaning
The constant or repeated effort to keep the wandering mind steady by constant meditation on the Lakshya (centre, ideal, goal or object of meditation) is Abhyasa or practice. The same idea or thought of the Self or God is constantly repeated. This constant repetition destroys Vikshepa or the vacillation of the mind and desires, and makes it steady and onepointed.Vairagya is dispassion or indifference to senseobjects in this world or in the other, here or hereafter, seen or unseen, heard or unheard, achieved through constantly looking into the evil in them (DoshaDrishti). You will have to train the mind by constant reflection on the immortal, allblissful Self. You must make the mind realise the transitory nature of the wordly enjoyments. You must suggest to the mind to look for its enjoyment not in the perishable and changing external objects but in the immortal, changeless Self within. Gradually the mind will be withdrawn from the external objects.
After Swami Sivananda
When the mind will not stay· 6.33–6.47→
Teachers usually read this idea across several verses together, one shared reflection covers the whole unit.
- 6.33Arjuna said, "O Krishna, I do not see how this Yoga of equanimity, which you have taught me, can be maintained steadily, due to the restlessness of the mind."
- 6.34The mind is indeed restless, turbulent, strong, and unyielding, O Krishna; I consider it as difficult to control as controlling the wind.
6.35The Blessed Lord said, "Undoubtedly, O mighty-armed Arjuna, the mind is difficult to control and restless; but with practice and dispassion, it can be restrained."
- 6.36I think Yoga is hard to be attained by one with an uncontrolled self, but the self-controlled and striving one can attain it by the appropriate means.
- 6.37Arjuna said, "He who is unable to control himself, even though he has faith, and whose mind wanders away from Yoga, what end does he meet, having failed to attain perfection in Yoga, O Krishna?"
- 6.38Fallen from both, does he not perish like a rent cloud, supportless, O mighty-armed one, deluded on the path of Brahman?
- 6.39O Krishna, please completely dispel this doubt of mine, for it is not possible for anyone but You to do so.
- 6.40The Blessed Lord said, "O Arjuna, neither in this world nor in the next will there be destruction for him; none, indeed, who does good, O my son, ever comes to grief."
- 6.41Having attained to the worlds of the righteous and having dwelt there for everlasting years, he who fell from Yoga is born in a house of the pure and wealthy.
- 6.42Or he is born in a family of even the wisest of yogis; verily, such a birth is very difficult to obtain in this world.
- 6.43Then he comes into contact with the knowledge acquired in his former body and strives even more for perfection, O Arjuna.
- 6.44By that same former practice, he is borne on in spite of himself. Even he who merely wishes to know Yoga goes beyond the Brahmanic word.
- 6.45But the Yogi who strives assiduously, purified of sins and perfected gradually over many births, reaches the highest goal.
- 6.46The yogi is thought to be superior to the ascetics, even superior to those who have knowledge obtained through the study of scriptures; he is also superior to men of action; therefore, be thou a yogi, O Arjuna.
- 6.47And among all the Yogis, he who, full of faith and with his inner self merged in Me, worships Me is deemed by Me to be the most devoted.
Word-by-word→
- tu
- but
- cha
- and
- chalam
- restless
- manaḥ
- the mind
- kaunteya
- Arjun, the son of Kunti
- abhyāsena
- by practice
- gṛihyate
- can be controlled
- asanśhayam
- undoubtedly
- durnigraham
- difficult to restrain
- mahā-bāho
- mighty-armed one
- vairāgyeṇa
- by detachment
- śhrī-bhagavān uvācha
- Lord Krishna said
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