The vagaries of the mind have been the same since time immemorial, as have its remedies. In the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna teaches us to still the mind and bring it inward. However, more than being just a mechanical practice, the path of meditation requires deep understanding and discriminative wisdom.
Truly speaking, this knowledge is not for those whose minds are stuck in attachment to the body of flesh and bones. Why talk to someone about liberation (moksha) if they are not pained by ignorance? This is why mahatmas would not expound the Gita to householders in earlier times. Instead, they would say, “Go and enjoy the world.” Later, they adjusted and allowed them to hear their discourses on the Gita, but not the Upanishads, which were meant only for sannyasis.
Gyana is not for fools, just as Shakespeare is not for a 10-year-old, and Einstein’s theories are not for a third-grader! The child must grow up, and it is only in the master’s degree that subjects like quantum physics are taught, not in kindergarten. The Bhagavad Gita is at the level of quantum theory, no less. It is very intriguing, profound and scientific.
Krishna’s Perennial Science
Well, what is science? Science is observation, evaluation, and conclusion after considering many factors. Krishna does the same, expounding the mechanics of nature, mind and body. Modern psychiatrists are quite childish in comparison. If someone has anxiety or insomnia and visits a psychiatrist, they will diagnose the condition and prescribe expensive medication that inhibits the brain. The list of side effects for some sleeping pills includes “can cause sleeping problems”! Your mind is stuck in attachments that are the reason for worry, depression and anxiety attacks – nothing else. The husband fears his wife will leave him; the wife fears the same about her husband. Parents worry their children will abandon them, and families fret about running out of money. But neither the family, wealth, house or business cause sleepless nights – it is your attachment to them.
Krishna has given us the science of the mind. If your mind is in pain, it is because you have not understood your mind and its disorders. In Chapter Six of the Gita (Dhyana Yoga), He explains the science of meditation to eradicate these self-inflicted miseries.
“yadā viniyataṁ chittam ātmanyevāvatiṣhṭhate |
niḥspṛihaḥ sarva-kāmebhyo yukta ityuchyate tadā || 18 ||”
“When the totally controlled subconscious mind, devoid of material desires, rests in the pure Self, such a person is said to be yoga-yuktah (established in yoga).”
One established in the Self, with the mind under control and indifferent to sense objects, is called a yogi. The first requisite is to gain control over the mind. In this context, Sri Krishna mentions "nispṛihaḥ", meaning unattached or dispassionate. It is not about renouncing objects; they are still there, but you are not bound to them. One who has thus mastered the mind, and overcome the source of misery viz. attachment and desires, is called a yogi. Without becoming a yogi, there can be no true well-being in life, remember that. Only sorrow will result from remaining a bhogi (pleasure seeker).
The Body and Its Relationships Are Transient
Sri Krishna says to find out who you are in reality. The real “Me” is called atman in Sanskrit. Atman is not some object different from you that you can know; it is you. The shrutis declare, “I am not this body, these senses, mind and intellect. The body is my outer garb but cannot be my identity.“
Kabir says, “Jal ki bheetar bhavan ka thambar raktboond ka gaara,
jinka dil samjha bin, woh sab kutil maya saara.”
What is the body? It is formed by the joining of semen and the mother’s egg, consists of over 60% water, and is pervaded by air and blood from head to toe. You are living in this cage of body, having forgotten your real Self. In this forgetfulness, you believe you are the mind. That has to be corrected. Distance yourself from what you are not, and know who you are.
All relationships are of the body, but you are not the body! So, are these relations yours? In Chapter Two (Sankhya Yoga), Sri Krishna says:
“na jāyate mriyate vā kadāchinnāyaṃbhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ |
ajo nityaḥ śāśvatoay’ṃ purāṇona hanyate hanyamāne śarīre || 20 ||”
"The pure Self is neither born nor does it die. Nor having once existed, does the Self ever cease to be. The Self is unborn, eternal, changeless and ageless. The Self is not destroyed when the body is destroyed.”
When someone in your house dies, it is only the body that dies. You will then encase the corpse and put it in the funeral pit or on the pyre. When the body dies no relationships will be saved; they die with it. After a while, people forget the person who was once everybody’s darling. You have taken countless births before in innumerable families, but do you remember them? Just as you have forgotten them, you will also forget this one.
You may say, “I cannot live without my son or daughter”, but that is untrue. You forget everyone in deep sleep, missing no one. When you are dead tired, even if a loved one comes and demands your attention, you say, “Please go away, I need to sleep!” You forget the body, where it lies, and what is happening around it. In dreamless sleep, you are free from the body, mind, thoughts, emotions and memories, and closest to your true Self. See how difficult it is for people to wake up! Sleep is most endeared because there is no one but you. But as soon as sleep breaks, your bliss (ananda) is forgotten, and you conjoin with the mind once again – becoming subject to desires, afflictions, “mine and thine”, quarrels and deceit.
Resting in The Self
Your desires for sense pleasures are your biggest enemies, and thinking “I am this body” is the deepest ignorance. To come out of this agyana (ignorance), learn the art of truly being with yourself. Bhagwan tells us how to do this in the following verse:
“yathā dīpo nivāta-stho neṅgate sopamā smṛitā |
yogino yata-chittasya yuñjato yogam ātmanaḥ || 19 ||”
“A flame does not flicker when placed in a breeze-less place; similarly, a yogi, who always remains steadfastly absorbed in divine remembrance, his mind remains still without the quiver of even a single thought.”
Krishna uses the analogy of a burning lamp. When there is air movement, the flame dances with the wind. But when kept in a windless place, the flame does not flicker and remains still. In the same way, through yoga abhyasa (consistent, systematic practice), you cultivate your chitta to become like that unmoving flame that never flickers. Practise yoga, so that your mind becomes like that lamp.
Now, what moves the mind? Iccha (desire), vasana (latent tendencies), and smrti (memories). You may fancifully imagine that there are no desires or latent tendencies in your mind, but if that is the case, why does your mind move? The mind shakes because of desires; therefore, one needs to empty the mind of desires first. This is accomplished by understanding that “I am not the body” – end of the story! With this realisation, the stilled chitta becomes utterly transparent.
“yatroparamate chittaṁ niruddhaṁ yoga-sevayā |
yatra chaivātmanātmānaṁ paśhyann ātmani tuṣhyati || 20 ||”
“When, through the practice of yoga, the subconscious mind has been stilled and abides in complete repose, when one experiences the supreme divinity through the refined intellect which has been purified through remembrance of the Lord – thus seeing the Self by the Self, the yogi is contented in his own Self.”
Ordinarily, people think, “When our son gets married, we will be happy.” “When we become grandparents, we will be happy.” After that, sorrow returns because the mind quickly invents yet another desire. However, total satisfaction does not come from any outside source, but only from abiding in the Self (atman).
Krishna instructs us to give the mind such stability and peace as the unflickering flame of a lamp. When the mind ceases its movement and dissolves (niruddh), you rest in the fullness of the Self. This leads to “ātmanātmānaṁ” – beholding the Self by yourself, being content in yourself.
