Mind Control and Devotion

To act without desire for the fruits, Krishna taught, a soul must master its own mind and senses, and this is the hardest of all conquests; and Krishna named plainly the enemies that must be overcome and the way to overcome them.

The senses, he warned, are so strong and turbulent that they can carry away by force even the mind of a wise man who is striving to control them. And he traced the whole descent into ruin, step by step, in one of the most famous passages of the Gītā:

ध्यायतो विषयान्पुंसः सङ्गस्तेषूपजायते।

सङ्गात्सञ्जायते कामः कामात्क्रोधोऽभिजायते॥

dhyāyato viṣayān puṁsaḥ saṅgas teṣūpajāyate

saṅgāt sañjāyate kāmaḥ kāmāt krodho 'bhijāyate

Dwelling on the objects of the senses, Krishna said, a man forms attachment to them; from attachment springs desire; from desire, when it is thwarted, springs anger; from anger comes delusion; from delusion, the loss of memory and understanding; and from the loss of understanding, the man is utterly ruined.

This is the whole mechanism of our destruction, traced from its small beginning in a wandering thought to its end in total ruin; and we have watched it work itself out through the whole epic, in Yayāti's endless desire, in Duryodhana's envy, in the anger that undid sage after sage. And Krishna names, as the three gates of self-destruction, lust, anger, and greed, and bids us abandon all three.

The story sets beside this teaching a lovely image of what mastery looks like: a duck swims in the lake, moving through the water all day, and yet when it steps onto the land it gives a single vigorous shake and every drop rolls off, and it is perfectly dry. So must the seeker live in the world, moving through all its affairs, and yet be able to shake off its clinging temptations and remain, in the soul, spotless and detached. To be in the world and not soaked by it, to act and not be stained by the action, this is the mastery the Gītā teaches.

But Krishna knew, and said, that to subdue the mind by one's own effort alone is fearfully hard, almost beyond human power; and so he revealed the deepest secret of all, the highest teaching of the whole Gītā: bhakti, loving devotion, and sharaṇāgati, complete and unconditional surrender to the Divine. For those who cannot master the mind by their own strength, there is a surer way, which is to give the whole self, mind and action and all, to the Lord, in love and in surrender, and to let him carry the burden.

And the Lord makes a promise to such souls, the most comforting promise in all the scripture:

अनन्याश्चिन्तयन्तो मां ये जनाः पर्युपासते।

तेषां नित्याभियुक्तानां योगक्षेमं वहाम्यहम्॥

ananyāsh chintayanto māṁ ye janāḥ paryupāsate

teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ yogakṣemaṁ vahāmy aham

Those who worship me with undivided devotion, always thinking of me, Krishna promised, to them I myself carry what they lack and preserve what they have; I take up their burden as my own. And he asked for no grand offering, but only love:

पत्रं पुष्पं फलं तोयं यो मे भक्त्या प्रयच्छति।

तदहं भक्त्युपहृतमश्नामि प्रयतात्मनः॥

patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayachchhati

tad ahaṁ bhaktyupahṛtam ashnāmi prayatātmanaḥ

Whoever offers me with devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit, or water, Krishna said, that offering of love, made by a pure heart, I accept and delight in. And this, the tellers note, is the very truth we saw in Shabari's half-eaten berries and the squirrel's grains of sand in the other epic: that the Divine looks not at the greatness of the offering but at the love with which it is given, and that the humblest gift, given with a whole heart, is received and cherished.

The leaf, the flower, the fruit, the water, the simplest things, offered in love, are enough; for it is the love, and not the gift, that the Lord receives. And in this surrender, this loving offering of the whole self, lies the way that is open to everyone, the high and the low, the learned and the simple, who cannot conquer the mind alone but can give their hearts.