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Bhagavad-gītā 2.61
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A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
TEXT 61
- तानि सर्वाणि संयम्य युक्त आसीत मत्परः ।
- वशे हि यस्येन्द्रियाणि तस्य प्रज्ञा प्रतिष्ठिता ॥६१॥
- tāni sarvāṇi saṁyamya
- yukta āsīta mat-paraḥ
- vaśe hi yasyendriyāṇi
- tasya prajñā pratiṣṭhitā
tānithose senses — those senses; sarvāṇiall — all; saṁyamyakeeping under control — keeping under control; yuktaḥengaged — engaged; āsītashould be situated — should be situated; matin relationship with Me-paraḥin relationship with Me — in relationship with Me; vaśein full subjugation — in full subjugation; hicertainly — certainly; yasyaone whose — one whose; indriyāṇisenses — senses; tasyahis — his; prajñāconsciousness — consciousness; pratiṣṭhitāfixed — fixed.
One who restrains his senses, keeping them under full control, and fixes his consciousness upon Me, is known as a man of steady intelligence.
That the highest conception of yoga perfection is Kṛṣṇa consciousness is clearly explained in this verse. And unless one is Kṛṣṇa conscious it is not at all possible to control the senses. As cited above, the great sage Durvāsā Muni picked a quarrel with Mahārāja Ambarīṣa, and Durvāsā Muni unnecessarily became angry out of pride and therefore could not check his senses. On the other hand, the king, although not as powerful a yogī as the sage, but a devotee of the Lord, silently tolerated all the sage's injustices and thereby emerged victorious. The king was able to control his senses because of the following qualifications, as mentioned in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (SB 9.4.18-20, Not yet available in the library. Try the live source.):
- sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayor
- vacāṁsi vaikuṇṭha-guṇānuvarṇane
- karau harer mandira-mārjanādiṣu
- śrutiṁ cakārācyuta-sat-kathodaye
- mukunda-liṅgālaya-darśane dṛśau
- tad-bhṛtya-gātra-sparśe 'ṅga-saṅgamam
- ghrāṇaṁ ca tat-pāda-saroja-saurabhe
- śrīmat-tulasyā rasanāṁ tad-arpite
- pādau hareḥ kṣetra-padānusarpaṇe
- śiro hṛṣīkeśa-padābhivandane
- kāmaṁ ca dāsye na tu kāma-kāmyayā
- yathottama-śloka-janāśrayā ratiḥ
"King Ambarīṣa fixed his mind on the lotus feet of Lord Kṛṣṇa, engaged his words in describing the abode of the Lord, his hands in cleansing the temple of the Lord, his ears in hearing the pastimes of the Lord, his eyes in seeing the form of the Lord, his body in touching the body of the devotee, his nostrils in smelling the flavor of the flowers offered to the lotus feet of the Lord, his tongue in tasting the tulasī leaves offered to Him, his legs in traveling to the holy place where His temple is situated, his head in offering obeisances unto the Lord, and his desires in fulfilling the desires of the Lord... and all these qualifications made him fit to become a mat-para devotee of the Lord."
The word mat-para is most significant in this connection. How one can become mat-para is described in the life of Mahārāja Ambarīṣa. Śrīla Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa, a great scholar and ācārya in the line of the mat-para, remarks, mad-bhakti-prabhāvena sarvendriya-vijaya-pūrvikā svātma-dṛṣṭiḥ sulabheti bhāvaḥ. "The senses can be completely controlled only by the strength of devotional service to Kṛṣṇa." Also, the example of fire is sometimes given: "As a blazing fire burns everything within a room, Lord Viṣṇu, situated in the heart of the yogī, burns up all kinds of impurities." The Yoga-sūtra also prescribes meditation on Viṣṇu, and not meditation on the void. The so-called yogīs who meditate on something other than the Viṣṇu form simply waste their time in a vain search after some phantasmagoria.
We have to be Kṛṣṇa conscious—devoted to the Personality of Godhead. This is the aim of the real yoga.