BG 06.26 yato yato niscalati... cited

Expressions researched:
"From wherever the mind wanders due to its flickering and unsteady nature" |"atmany eva vasam nayet" |"manas cancalam asthiram" |"one must certainly withdraw it and bring it back under the control of the self" |"tatas tato niyamyaitad" |"yato yato niscalati"

Notes from the compiler: VedaBase query: "6.26"or "From wherever the mind wanders due to its flickering and unsteady nature" or "atmany eva vasam nayet" or "manas cancalam asthiram" or "one must certainly withdraw it and bring it back under the control of the self" or "tatas tato niyamyaitad" or "yato yato niscalati"

BG Chapters 1 - 6

BG 6.26, Translation and Purport:

From wherever the mind wanders due to its flickering and unsteady nature, one must certainly withdraw it and bring it back under the control of the self.

The nature of the mind is flickering and unsteady. But a self-realized yogī has to control the mind; the mind should not control him. One who controls the mind (and therefore the senses as well) is called gosvāmī, or svāmī, and one who is controlled by the mind is called go-dāsa, or the servant of the senses. A gosvāmī knows the standard of sense happiness. In transcendental sense happiness, the senses are engaged in the service of Hṛṣīkeśa, or the supreme owner of the senses—Kṛṣṇa. Serving Kṛṣṇa with purified senses is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is the way of bringing the senses under full control. What is more, that is the highest perfection of yoga practice.

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 6.21-27 -- New York, September 9, 1966:

There is a very nice verse in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

samāśritā ye pada-pallava-plavaṁ

mahat-padaṁ puṇya-yaśo murāreḥ

bhavāmbudhir vatsa-padaṁ paraṁ padaṁ

padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadāṁ na teṣām

(SB 10.14.58)

Samāśritā ye pada-pallava-plavam. Now, this material world is compared with a great ocean, and actually it is. Those who have traveled on the sea, now they have seen Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean. This is only a spot. This earth is only a spot in this material universe. So we have got these two big oceans, Atlantic and Pacific Ocean. Just imagine that within this universe, millions and millions of planets are floating. How many Atlantic and Pacific Oceans are there you can just imagine. So this is actually a great ocean of misery, bhavāmbudhiḥ. The śāstra says it is a great ocean of birth and death. So bhavāmbudhiḥ. Samāśritā ye pada... Now in order to cross the ocean, you require a very nice boat, strong boat. Then you can cross over. So we have to cross over this ocean of nescience, material. And what is that boat? That is lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa. You take shelter of the boat which is Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet. Samāśritā. Take with great faith, that "I am now accepting this boat as my life, lifeboat." Then what is the result? Now, mahat-padam. Mahat-padam. Don't think that "Oh, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa's boat, or feet, is so small." No. It is mahat-padam. Mahat-padam means the whole material creation is resting on His leg. Mahat-padaṁ puṇya-yaśo murāreḥ.

So one who has taken shelter there, for him this great ocean of nescience is just like the water containing on the impression of calf leg. Of course, you have no experience. In India I have got experience because these calves and cows, they go on the pasturing ground, and in rainy season their hoofs makes holes, and in that hole there are some water. So that water... This great ocean is compared like that water. So nobody has any difficulty to cross over it. So bhavāmbudhir vatsa-padaṁ paraṁ padam: "And for them, those who have taken shelter of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, for them is waiting paraṁ padam, the supreme abode." Padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadāṁ na teṣām: (SB 10.14.58) "This place, wherein every step there is danger, this place is unfit for them." Padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadāṁ na teṣām. It is very nice. So yasmin sthito na duḥkhena guruṇāpi vicālyate (Bg. 6.20-23). If we are actually situated in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, under the shelter of Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet, then guruṇāpi duḥkhena, very heaviest type of danger may be before me—I shall not be disturbed. Or anyone who has taken the shelter like that, he will never be disturbed. He will never be disturbed.

taṁ vidyād duḥkha-saṁyoga-

viyogaṁ yoga-saṁjñitam

sa niścayena yoktavyo

yogo 'nirviṇṇa-cetasā

Taṁ vidyā. Taṁ vidyād duḥkha-saṁyoga-viyogaṁ yoga-saṁjñitam. Now, this understanding of miseries or happiness can be appreciated by the yoga process. Therefore yoga process is so important.

sa niścayena yoktavyo

yogo 'nirviṇṇa-cetasā

saṅkalpa-prabhavān kāmāṁs

tyaktvā sarvān aśeṣataḥ

manasaivendriya-grāmaṁ

viniyamya samantataḥ

(BG 6.24)

So this yoga process is... Because we are being entangled in this material world due to these uncontrolled senses. So the whole process of yoga indriya-saṁyama—we have to control the senses and turn our face toward that actual spiritual happiness. Then our life will be successful. Manasaivendriya-grāmaṁ viniyamya. Mind and the indriya-grāmam, and the whole range of the senses, that has to be controlled. Then we can gradually, if we practice, gradually we shall understand what is the real happiness and how to attain it.

śanaiḥ śanair uparamed

buddhyā dhṛti-gṛhītayā

ātma-saṁsthaṁ manaḥ kṛtvā

na kiñcid api cintayet

(BG 6.25)

Śanaiḥ śanair uparamed buddhyā dhṛti-gṛhītayā. Intelligence, and thinking, feeling, willing, by all these assistants, whatever I have got, śanaiḥ śanaiḥ, always we have to think of controlling the senses. Ātma-saṁsthaṁ manaḥ kṛtvā. And just mind being fixed up in the ātmā, in the Supersoul. Na kiñcid api cintayet. Then you do not think anything more. Just like this evening we were studying that Kṛṣṇa says that yuddhyasva mām anusmara: (BG 8.7) "You go on fighting; at the same time, be Kṛṣṇa conscious."

yato yato niścalati

manaś cañcalam asthiram

tatas tato niyamyaitad

ātmany eva vaśaṁ nayet

(BG 6.26)

Now, the practical practice of yoga is that mind is always disturbed. It is going sometimes this way, sometimes that way. So we have to drag the mind only to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is yoga practice, real practice. Mind is going from here, from Kṛṣṇa consciousness, to so many. Because that has been my practice since time immemorial. So many lives I have passed in that way. Now I have taken a new line of my life. So in the beginning there will be difficulties, but that difficulties can be overcome. Here it is, the suggestion, yato yato niścalati manaś cañcalam asthiram. Because mind is very much agitating, cañcalam, and asthiram, not fixed up, therefore it goes from one kind of thought to another kind of thought.

Sometimes you might have experienced that you are doing some work. All of a sudden you remember. Some forty years before or thirty years before, some years before, some incident took place, and you at once remember. Although there is no cause, but it comes. There is... A subconscious state is there, and we are getting. That means the mind is always being agitated. Due to agitation the things which are stored in the subconscious state, they come out. Just like if you agitate a lake or a pond, all the mud from within, it comes. But we have to settle down. Then the mud will settle down.

So this yoga process is a process of settling down the mind.

yato yato niścalati

manaś cañcalam asthiram

tatas tato niyamyaitad

ātmany eva vaśaṁ nayet

(BG 6.26)

Therefore there are so many rules and regulations, practically. If you follow the rules and regulations, then this agitated mind will gradually be under my control. Therefore rules and regulations are required to be followed. "Don't do this. Don't touch your mouth. Don't touch it in that way. Don't do it." There are so many "don'ts" and so many "do's." So we have to follow that. Following that regularly, the mind will be under your control. These are the process.

praśānta-manasaṁ hy enaṁ

yoginaṁ sukham uttamam

upaiti śānta-rajasaṁ

brahma-bhūtam akalmaṣam

(BG 6.27)

Praśānta-manasaṁ hy enam. When mind will be praśānta... Praśānta means not being dragged to think anything more than Kṛṣṇa. That is called praśānta.

Lecture on BG 6.25-29 -- Los Angeles, February 18, 1969:

Viṣṇujana: Verse twenty-six: "From whatever and wherever the mind wanders due to its flickering and unsteady nature, one must certainly withdraw it and bring it back under the control of the Self (BG 6.26)."

Prabhupāda: This is the process. This is yoga system. Suppose you are trying to concentrate your mind on Kṛṣṇa, and your mind is diverted, going somewhere, in some cinema house. So you should withdraw, "Not there, please, here." This is practice of yoga. Not to allow the mind to go away from Kṛṣṇa. If you can practice this simply. Don't allow the mind to go away from Kṛṣṇa and because we cannot fix up our mind sitting in one place in Kṛṣṇa, that requires very high training. To sit down in a place and always fix up in Kṛṣṇa the mind, that is not very easy job. One who is not practiced to it, if he simply imitates, then he will be confused. We have to engage ourself always in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Everything we do must be dovetailed in Kṛṣṇa. Our usual activities should be molded that it has to do everything for Kṛṣṇa. Then your mind will be fixed up in Kṛṣṇa. Artificially when you are not advanced if you try to fix up your mind in Kṛṣṇa, that yoga practice as it is recommended here, that you have to sit down in this way, straight, you have to concentrate your eyesight on the tip of the nose in a secluded sacred place. But where are these chances? At the present moment, where is the chance of all these facilities?

Therefore this is the only method. That you chant loudly and hear. Hare Kṛṣṇa. If your mind is in other things it will be forced to concentrate on the sound vibration "Kṛṣṇa." You haven't got to withdraw your mind from other, automatically it will be withdrawn because the sound is there. (sound of car going by) Just like the motor car sound is going on. Automatically your attention is diverted there. Similarly if we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, so automatically my mind will be fixed up. Otherwise I'm accustomed to fix up my mind in so many things. So yoga practice means to withdraw the mind and again fix up in Kṛṣṇa. So this vibration of chanting automatically helps us in that yoga practice. Go on.