Gita 06.26 – Expect and correct the mind’s restlessness

Bhagavad gita 6.26 yato yato nishchalati manas chanchalam asthiram yato yato wherever whenever nishchalati means the mind wanders yato yato nishchalati manas chanchalam asthiram the mind which is chanchala which is asthiram so what does one do with that tathastato niyam yaitad bring that under the control of the self tathastato niyam yaitad niyamya samantata he is using it again here tathastato niyam yaitad atmanyeva vasham nayed and atmanyeva under the control of the self certainly you should bring atmanyeva vasham nayed take it bring it so here the previous verse said gradually step by step fix the consciousness on the self now the question becomes I try to do it but my mind goes here my mind goes there what should I do Krishna says yato yato wherever whenever the mind goes bring it back under the control of the self yato yato nishchalati wherever and whenever it goes bring it back manas chanchalam asthiram we will discuss about the restlessness of the mind in detail when Arjuna will talk about chanchalam but at this stage let's focus on yato yato yato yato wherever whenever so sometimes we think that because I have come to an external situation which is peaceful which is pure my mind should also become peaceful and pure so we may go to temple of the lord and then there are sweet kirtans there are beautiful deities here my mind should be thinking about Krishna but there also the mind keeps thinking about self gratificatory things what is this why is the mind and beholding the beauty of the deities and my mind is thinking about something else entirely we may get disheartened but no Krishna says expect the mind to be like this and bring it back under control wherever it happens even in the temple even if the yogi has gone in the jungle Krishna is talking not so much about bhakti but about yoga so in the context of the Gita here this yogi has gone to a jungle and the yogi expects I am not in a tempting environment of materialistic people I am in a jungle but still we may not have materialistic people around us but the mind is the biggest materialist that is there within us and because of the impressions the mind may go to worldly things so wherever we may be the mind goes bring it back and whenever we may sit down for our sadhana doing our japa, doing our swadhya, doing our deity worship and even at that time although we are doing externally an activity which is very sacred at a time which is very sacred but even then the mind goes here and there so yato yato nishchalati wherever, whenever the mind wanders bring it back now to understand this we can compare the mind here to a child when the mother is taking care of the child and the child grows up now the mother knows that the child will either because of foolishness or because of mischievousness will get into trouble so the child may be kept on a bed and the child will just come to the roll and roll or move and come to the edge of the bed and then bang may fall on the ground so the mother has to know that the child may do this and the mother has to prepare for it when we have some side walls in the bed so that the child cannot so easily come out or whatever side bars or whatever so the point is that when a mother is taking care of a child the mother anticipates the nature of the child it prepares for possible dangers it's not that the child does something wrong this is an example of foolishness it's not that when the child acts foolishly the mother gets upset and the mother also starts acting foolishly now the mother intelligently prepares to protect the child from her or his own foolishness so like that we need to be prepared the mind is going to be foolish rather than getting irritated or exhausted or whatever because of the mind's misbehavior if we focus instead on preparing for it preparing for that misbehavior and being ready to correct it, whatever it takes sometimes the child may do it just because of foolishness sometimes the child may act wrongly because of mischievousness, the child wants to create a mess and thinks that making a mess of things is fun so at that time, sometimes the mind is mischievous sometimes it's foolish, sometimes it's mischievous but then what does the mother do? the child does some mischief as soon as the mother comes to her the child puts an end to the mischief the mother stops the mischief and then takes away the objects within the child and then we chastise the child and then bring the child back on the right track but the point is, the mother doesn't get so frustrated with the child that she starts acting childishly no, the mother acts in a mature way and knowing the child's nature and preparing for the child's nature similarly, when Krishna is speaking here so he's telling us that we use our intelligence to parent the mind parent is a noun usually, but parent is also a word which refers to the act of parenting so we use the intelligence to parent the mind that means the mind may sometimes come up with positive thoughts sometimes with negative thoughts, sometimes with self-destructive thoughts so at that time we put the mind just like the child who is getting into danger because of foolishness the mother acts to protect the child similarly we too need to act in time and as soon as we become aware we check, stop we check to evaluate whether it is proper whatever we are doing is proper or not and then we stop it and in this way, by therefore, coming to terms with the nature of the mind we can prepare for it rather than expecting the mind to be a good boy or a good girl you could say we should know that the mind is likely to act like a bad boy or a bad girl and therefore so in this way, when we make the intelligence, the parent of the mind we make ourselves, we identify ourselves with the intelligence and not with the mind and we act using our intelligence as the parent of the mind and then while parenting the mind we have to use vigilance and intelligence so vigilance means that the intelligence has to be always watchful to see where the mind is going and to bring the mind back so it is not watchful mother has to be watchful to make sure the child doesn't get into mischief or get into trouble or hurt himself or herself so similarly, we have to be watchful that is vigilance, so we expect that the mind may do wrong things and when we are expecting then vigilance is followed by diligence diligence means, it's not that we lose patience it's not that we become disheartened we know that it's a process of maturation which will be gradual so by repeatedly bringing the mind back under control by keeping it fixed on Krishna keeping it fixed on purposeful positive things gradually the mind's tendency will be reformed and gradually it will become positively inclined so we prepare for that by vigilance and diligence by being watchful and being ready to do the correction of the mind's tendencies again and again as it is required and by this, the childlike mind will grow up, it will become reformed and then the mind will become our friend and when it develops a taste for being fixed on Krishna and thereafter, our life will also become our spiritual life will become joyful, indeed our whole life will become joyful because we no longer will be turned towards self-defeating and self-destructive things but we will be prompted towards self-fulfilling and uplifting things by our mind Thank you. Bhagavad Gita 6.27.