SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
bandhur ātmātmanas tasya
yenātmaivātmanā jitaḥ
anātmanas tu śatrutve
vartetātmaiva śatru-vat
‘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.].
The preliminary competency to be acquired before commencing yoga (meditation) is now stated:—
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