When Arjuna had enough mind control to perform great austerities, why does he say that he can’t control the mind?

From Promila Chitkara Mataji
Arjuna had all the rare accomplishments (e.g. winning boons from Shiva, entering heaven etc) because of the difficult austerities he performed before the war. He lived in forests to perform those austerities, fought wars etc. Then, why did he say he could control the wind but not the mind? He did control his mind otherwise he wouldn’t be able to do what he did. Moreover, he wouldn’t be Gudakesha if he had no control over mind.
Is this because the Gita was spoken for us and not so much for him?
Answer Podcast:

Transcript

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Question from Pramila Mataji. What does why does Arjuna say that he cannot control the mind even if he can control the will when we know that Arjuna had performed extreme austerities had attained benediction from Shiva and other devatas and he was also celebrated as the Buddha Akesha and he couldn’t have done all this unless he had control over the mind.
So is it that Arjuna is saying this just so that Bhagavad Gita can be spoken for us Answer Let’s look first of all precisely at Arjuna’s statement. He says he gives a list of what are the problematic qualities of the mind. Chanchalambi manaha krishna pramati balla badraham tasyaham nigraham manye vayor iva sudhushkaram So tasyaham nigraham that mind which is chanchala, restless pramati which is mad intoxicated extremely powerful obstinate these four qualities of the mind then he says that to control it tasyaham nigraham manye vayor iva sudhushkaram it is as difficult as it is to control the wind so now vayor iva sudhushkaram so of course sometimes while talking about the the expanding on this word sometimes it is said that Arjuna could control the wind but still he said that he could not control the mind now he could control the wind in the sense that he could sometimes call the vayavya astra and other astras which involve involve controlling the wind and channelizing the wind for one’s own purposes but there is also incidents when the pandas are in the forest when storms come and it is not that Arjuna or the other pandas at that time start using their astras to stop the storms no, at that time they take shelter so when there are rains the pandas stay in some cave or they build some cottage for themselves or find some shelter so the point is that it is not that Arjuna was at any time and every time just wantonly controlling the wind and certainly he had control over the mind so the context of that verse is that Arjuna is is pointing out the difficulty even the impossibility of controlling the mind as it is required for the process of ashtanga yoga so if we look at the verse previous to this so this is 6.34 and 6.33 Arjuna is saying that Krishna the process that you have told him chanchalattva he says that samyena madhusudana etasyaham na pashyami yoyam yoga svayap rokta the process of yoga that you have taught it centers on samya and that samya to maintain towards everything and everyone that is not practical because the mind is restless so there are different levels of mind control and certainly any person who wants to be a part of a civilized society needs to have a basic level of mind control there can be say a student who has no mind control at all and is not able to concentrate even for 5 minutes or 10 minutes or half an hour and is not able to study at all so that is a very less level of mind control then there are students who are able to study for several hours but then often they also may have some habits, some addictions or some idiosyncrasies because during those times their mind just fools them here and there so now such people, often people who are addicts, sometimes you may think of addicts say alcoholics or there are people who drink and fall unconscious on the street and talk in a inebriated way, no that is not necessarily the way these people who are addicts may be at other times very normal and cultured in their even cultured in their behavior but then when their mind gets hooked on to that object then they become almost like a different person so the point is that there are different levels of mind control and when Krishna and Arjuna is saying that I cannot control the mind he is saying that specifically the way of Samya, Samya means looking at everyone equally everyone and everything equally so that is what is required for a person to attain perfection through the process of Ashtanga Yoga so Krishna has said earlier in that same chapter in 6.9 he says that so one who is a very affectionate friend one who is a good friend and one who is a enemy one who is neutral look at all of them equally so the Acharya has explained over here that Arjuna says that I can’t see Duryodhana and Yudhishthira equally Duryodhana is vicious, Yudhishthira is virtuous it’s not possible for me to see everyone equally so that particular context has to be understood for understanding what Arjuna means.
Arjuna has sense control but the kind of Samya the utter equanimity towards everything and everyone that is required for the process of Ashtanga Yoga that Arjuna is saying is not practical for me and that level of mind control is not possible for me now the verses of the Bhagavad Gita have a contextual meaning and also have a perennial meaning now when we use it we generally talk about how the mind is difficult to control and often we may not talk of it in terms of Ashtanga Yoga the principle which Arjuna is talking about the mind being difficult to control that is a universal principle and today people face different challenges today for example when we talk about controlling the mind we may not be talking about say practicing the process of Ashtanga Yoga and being equipoised towards everyone but we were talking about controlling the mind enough so that we don’t get distracted in the high tech age of mass distraction and we are able to focus on things nowadays people have various kinds of attention deficiency disorders and the capacity to control one’s own mind is something which is rapidly being eroded by the many and many and powerful distractions that bombard us so Arjuna if we look at the Bhagavad Gita’s verse in its context Arjuna is saying that the stringent level of mind control required for the practice of Ashtanga Yoga is as difficult as is controlling the environment even for him even when he practiced some level of Ashtanga Yoga not exactly Ashtanga Yoga but he sat in a yogic posture and he meditated to propitiate the gods at that time it was not that he was thinking of Yudhishtira and Duryodhana at that time he was practicing, utilizing yogic meditational processes to satisfy the devatas by which they would bless him with weapons with which he could eventually protect his brothers in case Duryodhana and the Kauravas tried to attack them again so even by doing that kind of austerity he definitely required mind control but that particular austerity did not require Samyu whereas that was for gaining some material perfection material power whereas what Krishna was talking about was for attaining spiritual perfection through the process of yoga one requires Samya towards all people and all things and Arjuna is saying that is not practical of course at another level we can say when the Bhagavad Gita was spoken for us and Arjuna is taking the role of a conditioned soul and he is speaking for our benefit yes that is true at a general level but then that is not necessarily true for that specific argument that we can say is true for the fact of how Arjuna got bewildered at the start of the Bhagavad Gita and how he came under illusion so usually speaking if you want to go into the specifics of a scriptural context of a scriptural statement then we need to look at the context but if you want to get a broad general understanding then it is also true that yes Krishna was orchestrated by Arjuna Krishna orchestrated Arjuna so that through Arjuna’s apparent illusions Krishna could enlighten the whole world that is generally the overall principle for the whole speaking of the Bhagavad Gita in this particular context Arjuna is saying that he cannot control the mind the way it is required for the process of Ashtanga Yoga in terms of maintaining utter Samya towards everyone and everything Thank you.