Bg. 2.61 · Bhagavad-gita As It Is

Devanagari

तानि सर्वाणि संयम्य युक्त आसीत मत्परः । वशे हि यस्येन्द्रियाणि तस्य प्रज्ञा प्रतिष्ठिता ॥ ६१ ॥

Verse text

tāni sarvāṇi saṁyamya yukta āsīta mat-paraḥ vaśe hi yasyendriyāṇi tasya prajṣā pratiṣṭhitā

Synonyms

tāni — those senses ; sarvāṇi — all ; saṁyamya — keeping under control ; yuktaḥ — engaged ; āsīta — should be situated ; mat-paraḥ — in relationship with Me ; vaśe — in full subjugation ; hi — certainly ; yasya — one whose ; indriyāṇi — senses ; tasya — his ; prajṣā — consciousness ; pratiṣṭhitā — fixed.

Translation

One who restrains his senses, keeping them under full control, and fixes his consciousness upon Me, is known as a man of steady intelligence.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

61. The yogī who is devoted to Me, after restraining all the senses, will remain seated, unresponsive to sense objects. He whose senses have thus been brought under control is sthita-prajṣa.

Translation (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)

61. The yogi who is devoted to Me, after restraining all the senses, will remain seated, realizing ātmā. He whose senses have thus been brought under control is sthita prajṣa.

Purport

That the highest conception of yoga perfection is Kṛṣṇa consciousness is clearly explained in this verse. And unless one is Kṛṣṇa conscious it is not at all possible to control the senses. As cited above, the great sage Durvāsā Muni picked a quarrel with Mahārāja Ambarīṣa, and Durvāsā Muni unnecessarily became angry out of pride and therefore could not check his senses. On the other hand, the king, although not as powerful a yogī as the sage, but a devotee of the Lord, silently tolerated all the sage’s injustices and thereby emerged victorious. The king was able to control his senses because of the following qualifications, as mentioned in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (9.4.18–20) : sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayor vacāṁsi vaikuṇṭha-guṇānuvarṇane karau harer mandira-mārjanādiṣu śrutiṁ cakārācyuta-sat-kathodaye mukunda-liṅgālaya-darśane dṛśau tad-bhṛtya-gātra-sparśe ’ṅga-saṅgamam ghrāṇaṁ ca tat-pāda-saroja-saurabhe śrīmat-tulasyā rasanāṁ tad-arpite pādau hareḥ kṣetra-padānusarpaṇe śiro hṛṣīkeśa-padābhivandane kāmaṁ ca dāsye na tu kāma-kāmyayā yathottama-śloka-janāśrayā ratiḥ “King Ambarīṣa fixed his mind on the lotus feet of Lord Kṛṣṇa, engaged his words in describing the abode of the Lord, his hands in cleansing the temple of the Lord, his ears in hearing the pastimes of the Lord, his eyes in seeing the form of the Lord, his body in touching the body of the devotee, his nostrils in smelling the flavor of the flowers offered to the lotus feet of the Lord, his tongue in tasting the tulasī leaves offered to Him, his legs in traveling to the holy place where His temple is situated, his head in offering obeisances unto the Lord, and his desires in fulfilling the desires of the Lord … and all these qualifications made him fit to become a mat-para devotee of the Lord.” The word mat-para is most significant in this connection. How one can become mat-para is described in the life of Mahārāja Ambarīṣa. Śrīla Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa, a great scholar and ācārya in the line of the mat-para, remarks, mad-bhakti-prabhāvena sarvendriya-vijaya-pūrvikā svātma-dṛṣṭiḥ su-labheti bhāvaḥ. “The senses can be completely controlled only by the strength of devotional service to Kṛṣṇa.” Also, the example of fire is sometimes given: “As a blazing fire burns everything within a room, Lord Viṣṇu, situated in the heart of the yogī, burns up all kinds of impurities.” The Yoga-sūtra also prescribes meditation on Viṣṇu, and not meditation on the void. The so-called yogīs who meditate on something other than the Viṣṇu form simply waste their time in a vain search after some phantasmagoria. We have to be Kṛṣṇa conscious – devoted to the Personality of Godhead. This is the aim of the real yoga.

Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Mat-paraḥ means My devotee. Without devotion to Me, one cannot conquer the senses. This will be seen everywhere in later verses of the Gītā. Uddhava has also said: prāyaśaḥ puṇḍarīkākṣa yuṣjanto yogino manaḥ viṣīdanty asamādhānān mano-nigraha-karśitāḥ athāta ānanda-dughaṁ padāmbujaṁ haṁsāḥ śrayeran O lotus-eyed Lord, generally those yogīs who try to steady the mind experience frustration because of their inability to perfect the state of trance. Thus they weary in their attempt to bring the mind under control. Therefore, O lotus-eyed Lord of the universe, swanlike men happily take shelter of Your lotus feet, the source of all transcendental ecstasy. SB 11.29.2-3 The person whose senses have been brought under control (vase hi) is the sthita-prajṣa. This distinguishes him from the sādhaka, the person attempting to do so.

Purport (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)

“Even for those who have conquered the senses, realization of ātmā is not known. What is the method for realizing the ātmā?” Having completely controlled all the senses, fixed in devotion to Me (mat paraḥ), he will remain situated (āsīta) with full samādhi directed to ātmā (yuktaḥ). In other words, by the power of devotion to Me, while maintaining control of the senses, the person will very easily attain a vision of his ātmā. Thus the smṛti says: yathāgnir uddhata-śikhaḥ kakṣaṁ dahati sānilaḥ tathā citta-sthito viṣṇur yogināṁ sarva-kilbiṣam Just as fire with upraised flames, assisted by the wind, burns dry wood, Viṣṇu situated in the heart, burns up all the sins of the yogīs. Viṣnu Purāṇa 6.7.74 The last line of the verse clarifies. This is the situation of the sthita prajṣa with control of the senses. This answers the question “How does the sthita prajṣa remain situated with sense control (kim āsīta)?”

Surrender Unto Me

All the senses has to be engaged in Krsna's service and that is Bhakti. This is far superior to the path of negation or jnana. This verse has two parts: 1) the first part of half of the verse is about a sadhaka, one who is practicing and 2) the second half is about someone who is in perfection ‑ a siddha. The first part says how one has to control the senses by engaging them in relationship with Krsna and the second part explains when the senses are in full subjugation his consciousness is fixed. The question could be asked: "What happens if a sadhaka, one who is practicing does not fix his consciousness fully on Krsna but by chance or by mistake fixes his senses on the objects of the senses? What happens to such a person?