Concepts
अभ्यासः
abhyāsaḥ
abhi 'toward' + √as 'to throw' — the repeated throwing of the mind toward one point; practice. Krishna's answer at 6.35 pairs it with vairāgya, dispassion.
चञ्चलं हि मनः कृष्ण प्रमाथि बलवद्दृढम्
तस्याहं निग्रहं मन्ये वायोरिव सुदुष्करम्
॥ ६.३४ ॥
For Krsna, the mind is very unsteady turbulent, tenacious and powerful therefore 323:333050 2:0203:3 STAM Sy Na WUE TDA 92022:;/7/ I consider it as difficult to control as the
Read in contextArjuna's complaint is every practitioner's: the mind is as hard to hold as the wind. Krishna neither denies it nor offers a trick — he names two disciplines, practice and dispassion, and every commentator takes the pair seriously as a real method, not a platitude.
Krishna's answer: practice and dispassion
श्री भगवानुवाच असंशयं
महाबाहो मनो दुर्निग्रहं चलं
Sri Bhagavan said: The mind is restless no doubt; and difficult to curb, Arjuna; but it e can be brought under control by repeated practice (of meditation) and by the…
wherever the mind wanders, bring it back
यतो यतो निश्चरति
मनश्चञ्चलमस्थिरम्
Drawing back the restless and fidgety mind k from all those objects after which it runs, he S should repeatedly fix it on God. (26) ~
practiced with resolve, without despair
तं विद्याद् दुःखसंयोगवियोगं
योगसंज्ञितम्
That state, called Yoga, which is free from the contact of sorrow (in the form of YO RIT 0 UT ee ON ee ANSMIPSYS OT SHoulIad 76 Known Nay,:; Ge Yoga should be resolutely…
Slowly, and by two things working together — that is Krishna's whole answer. Practice: bring the mind back to the same point, again and again, for a long time. Dispassion: stop feeding it the things it runs to. Arjuna's complaint that the mind is wind gets no argument from anyone — Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja and Jñāneśvar all grant it, and none offers a trick. Rāmānuja adds the most usable observation: the mind stays with what it loves, so give it something worth loving to return to.
Ādi Śaṅkarācārya · Advaita
Śaṅkara defines both terms with a technician's precision — repetition of one cognition, and thirstlessness toward every enjoyment here or hereafter.
अभ्यासो नाम चित्तभूमौ कस्याञ्चित् समानप्रत्ययावृत्तिः चित्तस्य । वैराग्यं नाम … वैतृष्ण्यम् — practice is the mind's returning again and again to the same cognition on one ground; dispassion is thirstlessness toward enjoyments seen and unseen.
Śaṅkara Bhāṣya on 6.35 (Sanskrit, GitaDeep corpus; working rendering under review)
Śrī Rāmānuja · Viśiṣṭādvaita
Rāmānuja's method is affection: the mind holds what it has learned to love, so give it the ātman's beauty to dwell on daily.
But the possibility of taming it depends upon generating in the mind a feeling of affection and attachment by accustoming the mind regularly reflect on the sublime, transcendental qualities of the ātma or soul and then meditating upon the ātma daily.
Gītā-bhāṣya on 6.35 — English translation (GitaDeep corpus)
Śrī Madhvācārya · Dvaita
Madhva reads the verse as flatly true in both directions — without the pair, steadiness is simply not possible.
Because of the restlessness of the mind and in the absence of practice and renunciation, the firmly established state of equanimity is surely not possible”, thus in Vyas Yoga.
Madhva Bhāṣya on 6.35 — English translation (GitaDeep corpus)
Śrī Jñāneśvar · Vārkarī
The Jñāneśvarī grants the mind its nature — fickleness — and still holds out steadiness as trainable.
The mind is certainly so. To be fickle is the very nature of the mind. But if it is given the strength of indifference to worldly life, and turned in the direction of the study of 'Yoga' discipline, then it could be steadied after some time.
Jñāneśvarī on 6.35, tr. R. K. Bhagwat (GitaDeep corpus)
Where the traditions differ, we show the difference.
