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 difficulty, but the 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 regulation, practically. If you follow the rules and regulation, then this agitated mind will gradually, under my control. Therefore rules and regulation 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. There is a nice verse in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. A devotee is aspiring, bhavantam evānucaran nirantaraḥ praśānta-niḥśeṣa-mano-rathāntaraḥ (CC Madhya 1.206).
Bhavantam eva. The devotee is praying to the Lord, "My dear Lord, when I shall be cent percent, twenty-four hours engaged in Your service?" Bhavantam eva. "Only Yours, and nothing more." Bhavantam evānucaran nirantaraḥ. Nirantara means "Without cessation, I shall always be engaged in Your service." And how? Praśānta-niḥśeṣa mano-rathāntaram. Because my mind is agitating, therefore I create so many mental concoction. I think, "This will make me happy. This will make me happy. This will make . . ." So many things I create. They are called mano-rathāntaram.
Just like a man on the motorcar goes anywhere, everywhere, similarly, the mind is taking us everywhere and anywhere—sometimes here, sometimes there, sometimes here. So that shall be stopped. As soon as I engage my mind in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then my mind will be naturally stopped for loitering hither and thither . . . (indistinct)
So he is praying that bhavantam evānucaran nirantaraḥ. "When simply by being engaged twenty-four hours in Your service, my mind will be stopped carrying me from here and there." Bhavantam evānucaran nirantaraḥ praśānta-niḥśeṣa-mano-rathāntaraṁ kadāham aikāntika-nitya-kiṅkaraḥ: "When I shall be Your eternal servitor?" Kadāham aikāntika-nitya-kiṅkaraḥ praharṣayiṣyāmi sa-nātha-jīvitam.
Sa-nātha-jīvitam. Sa-nātha-jīvitam means one who has got a person behind him, his patron. A patron is there. Whenever there is some difficulty, the patron supports. Now we have no patron. Forgetting our relationship with the Supreme Lord, we have no patron. We are thinking of this patron, that patron, but real patron is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānām (BG 5.29).
He is the real friend of every living entity. So we have to revive our friendship, or revive our actual relationship, just like Arjuna is doing. Then these questions will be . . .
- praśānta-manasaṁ hy enaṁ
- yoginaṁ sukham uttamam
- upaiti śānta-rajasaṁ
- brahma-bhūtam akalmaṣam
- (BG 6.27)
Now, by attainment of that perfect stage of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then the upaiti śānta-rajasam. We are agitated due to the passion, modes of passion. Now, by practice of this yoga, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness, this passionate hankering will be stopped. Passionate hankering . . . śānta-rajasaṁ brahma-bhūtam akalmaṣam. Then you become ahaṁ brahmāsmi: "I am the soul. I am not this body." Akalmaṣam. Without any deviation, without any mistakes, we shall be firmly situated in our transcendental position.