Devanagari
नियच्छेद्विषयेभ्योऽक्षान्मनसा बुद्धिसारथि: ।
मन: कर्मभिराक्षिप्तं शुभार्थे धारयेद्धिया ॥ १८ ॥
Verse text
niyacched viṣayebhyo ’kṣān
manasā buddhi-sārathiḥ
manaḥ karmabhir ākṣiptaṁ
śubhārthe dhārayed dhiyā
Synonyms
niyacchet
—
withdraw
;
viṣayebhyaḥ
—
from sense engagements
;
akṣān
—
the senses
;
manasā
—
by dint of the mind
;
buddhi
—
intelligence
;
sārathiḥ
—
driver
;
manaḥ
—
the mind
;
karmabhiḥ
—
by the fruitive work
;
ākṣiptam
—
being absorbed in
;
śubha
—
arthe — for the sake of the Lord
;
dhārayet
—
hold up
;
dhiyā
—
in full consciousness .
Translation
Gradually, as the mind becomes progressively spiritualized, withdraw it from sense activities, and by intelligence the senses will be controlled. The mind too absorbed in material activities can be engaged in the service of the Personality of Godhead and become fixed in full transcendental consciousness.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
One should restrain the senses such as the eye from the sense objects by the mind whose assistant is the intelligence and concentrate with intelligence on the Lord. The mind is always agitated by previous karmas.
Purport
The first process of spiritualizing the mind by mechanical chanting of the
praṇava
(
oṁkāra
) and by control of the breathing system is technically called the mystic or yogic process of
prāṇāyāma,
or fully controlling the breathing air. The ultimate state of this
prāṇāyāma
system is to be fixed in trance, technically called
samādhi.
But experience has proven that even the
samādhi
stage also fails to control the materially absorbed mind. For example, the great mystic Viśvāmitra Muni, even in the stage of
samādhi,
became a victim of the senses and cohabited with Menakā. History has already recorded this. The mind, although ceasing to think of sensual activities at present, remembers past sensual activities from the subconscious status and thus disturbs one from cent-percent engagement in self-realization. Therefore, Śukadeva Gosvāmī recommends the next step of assured policy, namely to fix one’s mind in the service of the Personality of Godhead. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, also recommends this direct process in the
Bhagavad-gītā
(6.47)
. Thus, the mind being spiritually cleansed, one should at once engage himself in the transcendental loving service of the Lord by the different devotional activities of hearing, chanting, etc. If performed under proper guidance, that is the surest path of progress, even for the disturbed mind.
Commentary (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
By the controlled mind one should withdraw the senses such as eye and ear from the sense objects such as sound. This is the fifth stage, pratyāhāra. The mind, whose assistant is the intelligence which discriminates, should then concentrate with intelligence on the form of the Lord (śubhārthe). This is the sixth stage of dhāraṇā. The mind is described as that which is impossible to make motionless by prāṇāyāma and other processes because of the extreme strength of previous karmas.