SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
SlOkam – Original
bandhur AthmAthmanas thasya yEnAthmaivAthmanA jitha: |
anAthmanas thu SathruthvE varthEthAthmaiva Satruvath ||
word-by-word meaning
yEna – By whom
AthmA – his mind
Athmana Eva – by himself
jitha: – conquered (without getting attached to worldly pleasures)
thasya Athmana – for such person
AthmA – such mind
bandhu: – friend;
anAthmana: thu – for the person who has not conquered his mind
AthmA Eva – his mind itself
Sathruvath – like an enemy
SathruthvE – being a hurdle for the well-being
varthEtha – will engage
Simple Translation
For such person whose mind is conquered (without getting attached to worldly pleasures) by himself, such mind is his friend; for the person who has not conquered his mind, his mind itself, like an enemy, will engage in being a hurdle for the well-being.
Rendering based on ALkoNdavilli gOvindhAchArya swAmy’s English translation of gIthA bhAshyam
‘The mind is friend to him (ātma) who has himself conquered it. But to him who has not conquered mind, it assumes an inimical attitude.’
The mind is friendly to him who restrains it from flowing outward to (sense-)objects; but if one has not so subdued the mind, it militates against him as his enemy. The meaning is, that the unsubdued or ungoverned mind interposes obstacles in the way of attaining Supreme Bliss.
So declares Bhagavān Parāśara:—
‘To men, their mind alone is the cause of bondage as well as emancipation. The mind addicted to sense-objects, constitutes bondage, the mind when destitute thereof, constitutes freedom’[1. ‘Mana eva manushyāṇām kāra-ṇam bandha mokshayoḥ, etc.’ Vish: P. VI-7-28; also see Amṛita-bind-Upanishad, beginning; Manu, VIII-84; Bhāgavata, III-25-15 and XI-8-41., Mahābhārata, Sanat-sujātīya, 15. &c. &c.].
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