Gita 06.35 – The supreme teacher offers guidance – and confidence

Thank you Bhagavad Gita 6.35 This is the beginning of Krishna's answer to Arjuna's Apprehension about The feasibility of controlling the mind As expressed in the Previous two verses 33 and 34 Krishna will answer in this and the next two verse And in this verse Krishna begins On a very Empathetic note He says yes Arjuna it's undoubtedly Assumption Mahabhava Arjuna you are very powerful and yet So it's very difficult to Control the mind Anodh durnigraham chalam The juxtaposition Putting together Of Mahabhava And Durnigraha is Significant It is not that Because one is weak One can't control the mind Krishna says Arjuna you are Mahabhava And yet even for you It is difficult to control the mind And That Communicates The level of difficulty in controlling The mind and further he says Assumption undoubtedly No doubt about it Assumption In a positive sense To refer to Assure the certainty of something That For example in the 8th chapter he said that Antakale chimam Svamukta kalevaram ya prayatis Bhavmyati na sthyatra Asamsaya Nasamsaya So Asamsaya Don't have any doubt That is used in a positive sense to give reassurance About the Certainty of Success on the spiritual path Here Krishna uses the same word Asamsaya To talk about something Comes from the opposite end Yes There is no doubt that the mind is very difficult to Control It's like Say a student goes and tells The teacher the subject is very difficult And the teacher says No doubt the subject is difficult So Such a reply often Gives a lot of Relief to the student The student's anxiety And the student is a little arrogant And It takes the wind out of the sails If How does it take the wind out of the sails Because the student is thinking that the teacher will say Oh you are dumb That's why you are not able to understand it But the subject is not all that difficult Then the student will fight back and will try to show that I am not dumb but it is The subject is difficult and the way this is written The way this is explained that is the problem But when The teacher The student is Itching for a quarrel or a fight And the teacher says yes It's a very difficult subject What's going on? This is not what I expected That's what the student thinks And similarly Krishna Reassures Arjuna Now if a student Has anxiety, oh this subject is so difficult How will I be able to study it? How will I manage it? Then For the student anxiety The empathy of the teacher Is very helpful No doubt It's a very difficult subject Durnigraha Nigraha is discipline And durnigraha is Very difficult discipline Nigraha is the same word Which Arjuna has used in the previous verse Tasyaham nigraham Manyeh Vayoriva sudhushkaram So nigraha Is to control To control it is sudhushkaram Extremely difficult Arjuna has said And Krishna repeats that essentially Agrees with that and reiterates that Durnigraham It's extremely difficult to control And then Krishna also uses the same word Arjuna has used chalam Arjuna has used it with the same word With the prefix chanchala Chala is that which moves Rapidly moves It is restless So normally When someone comes to us Someone has a problem Often People need not just Guidance Guidance for solving the problem People also need Encouragement So that they can have the confidence To solve the problem Even if we have the best guidance But if it comes without confidence Somebody has got a new machine And it's not working So somebody gives instruction Do this, do this, do this And the problem will be solved Now if the client is new And the client is not very tech savvy And is basically uncomfortable with technology Then it's very comfortable Will I be able to understand the language also Will I be able to apply, will it work If the person is given the right It's actually little for people Who have even little technical knowledge It's a non-technical even language And The terms are also understandable If you can't understand the terms Just go to the bibliography Or go to the End of the book That's where you will find the explanation of the terms I know you may not be very tech savvy So it might be a little difficult initially for you But after a while it will become easy Because it's very simply written For people like you only So if A tech assistant guides A nervous tech user Like this A nervous tech user Not only gets the confidence back But also gets, becomes more ready To understand Assimilate and use the guidance that will follow So That giving Confidence Is as important as giving guidance And here Krishna gives confidence to Arjuna by saying Yes it is difficult It's not that You are a below average candidate And you are finding it difficult But everyone else finds it easy Finds it easy Everyone cracks it And you are being cracked by it You are nuts, you are a dumb person The student will get completely deflated by Especially the student is a little Nervous already The student will get deflated, disheartened, dejected May even quit the subject Or quit the course Or quit the school itself The teacher needs to give both Guidance and confidence The first thing that Krishna does is He gives confidence You are very powerful But the mind is very difficult to control Now The teacher says If the student finds the subject difficult Okay, don't study it Just give up the studies The student will not say that The teacher will say that Yes it is difficult but if you apply yourself You will be able to do it That's what Krishna also says over here Krishna says the next two lines Abhyasa Abhyasa refers to practice By diligently Doing the same thing again and again By diligently trying to control the mind Abhyasena What happens? The mind becomes slowly habituated to Focusing on Krishna And it becomes Attached to Krishna And thus it Comes to a Position of transcendental stability By being fixed on Krishna But Abhyasa, it requires diligent practice Now Vairagya Vairagya here Does not necessarily refer to A Vairagi A person in the renounced order Because here We are discussing About the mind And Vairagya is in that context So this can be Referred to two ways One is that If you are working on some Service At that time That We find that There is too much to do And We realize that I just have to keep plugging We can get disheartened on one side and say There is so much to do, I will never do it Or the other hand we can break it down into manageable tasks One, two, three, four And that way The more tasks that we do The more we become Cleverer Clever To attain Krishna's lotus feet So Essentially this verse talks about how By the Service of the Lord By the process of devotion We can actually Make a period of His fortune A period of Fortune Bhagavad Gita.