The Spiritual Import of the Mahabharata and the Bhagavadgita : Ch-13-2

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Chapter 13: Centring the Mind in the Heart-2.


The methodology of sense restraint is described in various places in the Bhagavadgita, in different contexts.

The control of the senses is not easy, if we are to confine ourselves merely to the area or the field of sense activity.

We have to apply a higher power in order to restrain a lower urge, and unless we resort to a higher resource that is within us, we will not be able to draw enough strength in order to handle these impetuous sense organs.

If we were to think of the senses and then merely by the power of thought attempt to control them, we would not be entirely successful because the lower mind, which is the sense mind, is in collaboration with the senses, and it is the mind that approves the requirements or demands of the sense organs.


Thus, the lower mind is not going to be of help.

The higher mind, which is the superior reason within us, has to be employed in order to harness a greater power for dealing with the senses, which move of their own accord towards the objects.

For that, a prescription is given in this very verse—mano hrdi-nirudhya ca. T

he mind has to be centred in the heart, and this instruction follows the other, whereby we are told that the gates of the senses have to be closed—sarva-dvarani samyamya mano hrdi-nirudhya ca.

Swami Krishnananda
To be continued  ..




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