VERSE NUMBER 67 OF SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER TWO

SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

VERSE NUMBER 67

Text in Transliteration:

indriyaanaam hi charataam yan mano ‘nuvidhtyate

tad asya harati prajnaam vaayur naavam ivaa ‘mbhasi

Text in English:

   Just as a gale pushes away a ship on the waters, the mind that yields to the roving senses carries away his discrimination.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

   A ship without a rudder is at the mercy of a strong wind. Nothing can be predicted as to where it will be shoved. Senses are involuntarily drawn to the sense-objects. Mind that follows in the wake of the senses is naturally led astray by them. As a rudderless ship does not reach its destination, so the misdirected mind does not contact Atman. The wick that contacts a flame gets lit; similarly the mind that communes with Atman gets illumined.    

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

    Sense-pleasures are like itching eczema. There is pleasure in violently scratching it; but the disease gets aggravated thereby. By yielding to sense-pleasues min gets more entangled in them.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

   The mind which constantly dwells on the sensual objects and moves in company with the senses destroys altogether the discrimination of the man. Just as the wind carries away a boat from its course, so also the mind carries away the aspirant from his spiritual path and turns him towards the objects of the senses.

Comments by the blogger:

The mind should not constantly dwell on the sensual objects and moves in company with the senses; in which case it will destroy the discrimination of the man.

But the mind is not an enemy. The same wind that carries the ship away, helps the same ship controlled by the rudder, pushes and carries the huge ship towards its destination. So the wind is not an enemy. In what way we use the mind determines whether it is our enemy or dearest friend. If the mind is directed toward the glorification of the Lord most of the time, even an ordinary unlettered man can attain moksha by gradation. Whatever yoga we follow and leave off when death occurs, we should come back to pick up the threads and start off once more on the same yoga! The fire that lights a lamp can destroy the house, too! That way, if the mind is constantly lead by senses and dwells in sensual pleasures it destroys the man. The same mind can illuminate the inner understanding. That is why, apart from Raja Yoga and Jnana Yoga, Hinduism, why, the Gita itself recommends the yoga of devotion and the yoga of action!