Gita 06.34 – The mind is dangerous like an unstoppable storm

Bhagavad Gita 6.34 Chanchalam himanah krishna Pramadhi vipalavendranam Asyaham nigraham manye Vayorivasu duskaram Chanchalam himanah krishna Arjuna is speaking this verse While expressing his concerns About practicing Ashtanga yoga Which centers on cultivating Equanimity of the mind And also So he says In the previous text He has said that I don't think of this as practical This process I don't see how I can follow it Because of the restlessness Because The situation of the mind Is of being not situated in one place And that theme he continues On this verse Chanchalam himanah krishna So chanchalam Chala means to move Chanchala means to keep moving Restlessly Achala means that which does not move So chanchala is the opposite of achala So Chanchalam himanah krishna Krishna Arjuna is referring to Krishna by his Intimate name here To point out How this is a personal Problem which one friend is telling to another friend And is also a universal problem Which everyone faces So chanchalam Himanah krishna The mind is restless Intoxicated, mad, turbulent Powerful, forceful Stubborn, obstinate So after giving these four attributes Then he says Asyaham nigraham Manye So controlling such a mind I think Vayoriva sudhushkaram Oh krishna I think that it is As difficult as controlling The raging Wind Vayoriva sudhushkaram So now Krishna is giving basic Arjuna is giving here Five characteristics Or five Ways in which to understand The problem in controlling the mind The first four are Attributes of the mind And the fifth is a Illustration which further Drives home The forceful And fearful nature of those attributes Chanchala Restless Now Chanchala can be a characteristic of a child also Children if they are left To their own means They will just flitter from one thing to another to another If they are told to study they will not Really be able to study for long They will just want to go from This to that to this to that So the mind flitters Restlessly Not applying itself to any one thing Now Children are restless They are naughty But they are not really very dangerous But the mind is not just Having a childlike restlessness It also has further Attributes which make it not just Playfully Restless but dangerously restless And what are those characteristics The characteristics is 34b Pramathi The word pramatta Means intoxicated Noonam Pramatta kurute vikarma Comes in the teachings of Maharaja Yudhishthira In the 5th cant of Shambhava 5th chapter His instructions To Bharata and his 100 sons So there he says that Pramathi here means Agitating Turbulent Sheiks The boat that is there inside it Similarly The mind shakes us up Pramathi And then It is It says now When the waves are turbulent in the ocean That is not just It's not just Harmless restlessness Now when the waves are turbulent They can overturn a ship and The ship gets capsized Then People can drown also So pramathi Is Agitating turbulent And then Further to illustrate that point It is restless So pramathi So it's like Pramatta if you consider to be mad So then it's like a Not just like a child but it's like a Restless like a mad man Now if that mad man Is a weak emaciated person Who can be easily restrained Then that mad man will not be very harmful Will not be very dangerous but if that Mad man is If some Very powerful body builder That person is because of Some frustrations in life Been remanded to a mental asylum And there that person Goes mad then Or gets a Sort of attack of Less than sane behavior Then controlling such a person will be very difficult Sometimes There are multiple security guards Required To bring one insane person under control Sometimes those people get into a delirium They get into a delusion Or a delirium and they think that You know somebody is chasing me and I have to protect myself Or whatever they think Start running here and there And they start breaking things So It's very difficult to control A person who is Sort of restless Not just restless like a child but Agitated like a mad man And who is built like a Body builder And further You know sometimes some people Further the mind is Drudham The word drudha Is often used in a positive sense to Refer to determined In 9.14 Krishna says that Serious devotees practice bhakti And serve him with great determination So Drudha can refer to Determination in a positive sense But that same activity Of holding on to one thing Is Said to be determination that activity Is good and is said to be Stubbornness Obstinacy Recalcitrance If that activity is bad So Dhritarashtra Especially Dhritarashtra and his son Duryodhana's Attachment to the kingdom Determination to hold on to the kingdom Despite warnings from Great saintly and elderly wise persons That is not considered Determination in a positive sense That is considered Negative sense of adamance So the mind is like that It is Stubborn, obstinate Adamant Recalcitrant Once it gets attached to an idea It just wants it And it doesn't give it Forcefully holds on to it Give it to me, do it I want it and I want it now So just imagine A person who is restless Like a child Who is agitated like a mad man Who is powerful like a body builder And who is Stubborn Like a Stubborn and adamant So such a person Is extremely dangerous And that's why we see their minds Infatuated with something And it just hooks on to it Wanting that and craving for that Again and again and again No matter what The reasons for not doing it No matter how sound and Reasonable and Irrefutable the reasons for not doing that May be Such a Dangerous mind Powerful and dangerous mind To control such a mind I say Arjuna says that I say it is like Controlling the wind Now why you Wind It's so subtle And that we cannot catch it with our hands And although it is subtle It can be extremely strong When Sometimes storms come Storms can be Tornadoes, they can be cyclones They can be typhoons Whenever this sort of storms come At that time People can be blown away By the force of the storms When trees can be Uprooted and flung far away Buildings can Crash down And even With our best technology We cannot stop the Force of storms Arjuna had Access to celestial weapons Which Could check storms But he says that That is an extremely difficult thing to do It's a very rare capacity That somebody has been stuck to weapons By which a storm can be Stormed by say creating a mountain Or something like that But it's not an easy thing to do So it's a very very difficult thing to do And Arjuna wants to convey that It is not at all easy And Actually Krishna Is the ultimate mountain Who can block the storm like Flow of the wind Of the wind like mind And that's why when we bring Krishna In the center of our consciousness Then the mind cannot forcibly Push us here and there And that will be discussed In the further flow of the Bhagavad Gita Especially towards the end of this chapter And in the later chapters But here Krishna Arjuna conveys quite Graphically how difficult It is to control The mind Because it is not just restless like a child But also Agitated like a mad man And Powerful like a Wrestler or a body builder And as stubborn as Anyone can be Say in the Mahabharata As stubborn as As difficult as Controlling the raging wind And Although there is no specific question That Arjuna asks The question is implicit In the sense that That if somebody Recommends something and says This is why I don't think it is practical Then although there is no question asked The question is implicit In the sense that How can I practice it Or what can I practice if this is so impractical And that will be answered by Krishna From the next verse Onwards in two verses.