SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
cañcalaṁ hi manaḥ kṛṣṇa
pramāthi balavad dṛḍham
tasyāhaṁ nigrahaṁ manye
vāyor iva su-duṣkaram
‘Kṛishṇa[2. The 58th and 554th name of
God. Its etymology is ‘Krishir-bhū-vācakaś-śabdo ṇaścha nirvṛiti-vācha-kaḥ, Kṛishṇastad-bhāva-yogācca &c., (Bhārata, Ud. Parva. 69-5).]!, verily is the mind wavering, tumultuous, virulent and wayward. Restraining it, I deem, is as extremely hard as (catching) the wind.’
(Arjuna said):— I do not comprehend thoroughly the character of the Yoga (or the doctrine of meditation, or the spiritual mode by which one is able to view kosmos as full of soul and as full of God), that thou hast expounded; —the Yoga of Equality (or sameness, similarity, or resemblance=sāmya) of ātmas, viz., the equality of Jivātmas on the one hand viewed from the aspect of intelligence (jñāna or consciousness) being shared by them all as a common characteristic; and the equality of Jivātmas with Īśvara (God) on the other hand, viewed by the common attribute of exemption from work(-bondage=karma) which, emancipated souls share in common with Īśvara; such Yoga (or spiritual mode of seeing things) of ‘looking equally on all’ (sarvatra samadarśana-yoga), being in direct conflict with the immediate evidence presented, all the while, by our actual (phenomenal) experience of seeing differences (not equality) among the Jivātmas on the one hand, consisting in the existence of a variety of natures as represented by the divine, the human etc., natures; and again the actual evidence of seeing differences (not equality) between jīvas (individual souls) and Īśvara (Universal Soul=God).
Not to be able to realize the view of things that, the Yoga Thou hast taught would determine, can only be accounted for by the fugitive character of the mind failing to grasp it. So it is, indeed. For, even in matters of ordinary experience, the naturally fickle mind eludes the attempts of man to fix it on to a certain thing. The mind powerfully twists and tosses the man about, and irresistibly flies away whithersoever it pleases.
While such is the case in matters of ordinary experience, how much more difficult would it not be to govern the mind and bend it so as to dwell on ātma, —a matter of in-experience!? I believe that to control the mind is as difficult a work as that of attempting to oppose a (fragile) fan against the fierce blasts of wind blowing in the face.
Thou hast thus need to teach me the way how to control the mind.
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