Conquer Your Mind — Lessons from Bhagavad Gita

Introduction

In the last article, we saw how do we fall in our bad habits. In this article we’ll find out how to conquer the mind and get rid of the bad habits. We’ll take reference from the Srimad Bhagavad Gita and try to solve the issue.

Arjuna, in chapter 3 of the Bhagavad Gita, asks Krishna how is it that we are forced to in sinful ways even if we do not want.

arjuna uvāca
atha kena prayukto ’yaṁ pāpaṁ carati pūruṣaḥ
anicchann api vārṣṇeya balād iva niyojitaḥ (BG 3.36)

Translation: Arjuna said: O descendant of Vṛṣṇi, by what is one impelled to sinful acts, even unwillingly, as if engaged by force?

Hearing such question from his devotee, the Supreme Lord answered in the next verse.

śrī-bhagavān uvāca
kāma eṣa krodha eṣa rajo-guṇa-samudbhavaḥ
mahāśano mahā-pāpmā viddhy enam iha vairiṇam (BG 3.37)

Translation: The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: It is lust only, Arjuna, which is born of contact with the material mode of passion and later transformed into wrath, and which is the all-devouring sinful enemy of this world.

Conquering Lust

In the above verse, the Lord speaks of lust. By lust he means, our desire sense gratification, i.e, we enjoying independently from the Lord. Our tendency to enjoy for the self is lust. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also says, “atmendriya-priti-vancha — tare bali kama, krisnendriya priti ichha dhare ‘prema’ nama.” This means, ‘The desire to satisfy one’s own senses is called kama (lust) but the desire to satisfy Krishna’s senses is called prema (love).’ We have forgotten this that if we render our senses to the service of the Lord, then we can enjoy even more. Due to this lack of knowledg, we have been conditioned by lust (in the mode of passion).

Krishna in the subsequent verses also tells us how does this happen and how to control and conquer our mind. He first reveals the enemy to us, the reason we fall in our bad habits. Next, He tells us, where in our body this enemy resides and finally how to conquer the enemy.

āvṛtaṁ jñānam etena jñānino nitya-vairiṇā
kāma-rūpeṇa kaunteya duṣpūreṇānalena ca (BG 3.39)

Translation: Thus the wise living entity’s pure consciousness becomes covered by his eternal enemy in the form of lust, which is never satisfied and which burns like fire.

In this verse, Lord mentions again that lust is the cause of all these ill habits. It is the lust which covers our memory and bewilders it and make us do something unfavourable. We perform the activity in the hope of quenching the thirst, but the fire of lust is such that it never extinguishes. The more we keep doing, the heavy the fire of lust gets over us. For example, if someone has bad habits of smoking, then quitting is difficult because, lust covers our determination to quit it. It provokes the mind to smoke the last cigarette but the last one never comes. This how mind tricks us.

In the next verse, the Supreme Lord informs us the address of this lust in the body.

indriyāṇi mano buddhir asyādhiṣṭhānam ucyate
etair vimohayaty eṣa jñānam āvṛtya dehinam (BG 3.40)

Translation: The senses, the mind and the intelligence are the sitting places of this lust. Through them lust covers the real knowledge of the living entity and bewilders him.

Now, we know the address of this enemy, lust. The very next verse, Krishna tells us how to tackle with it.

tasmāt tvam indriyāṇy ādau niyamya bharatarṣabha
pāpmānaṁ prajahi hy enaṁ jñāna-vijñāna-nāśanam (BG 3.41)

Translation: Therefore, O Arjuna, best of the Bhāratas, in the very beginning curb this great symbol of sin [lust] by regulating the senses, and slay this destroyer of knowledge and self-realization.

The Lord advised Arjuna to regulate the senses from the very beginning so that he could curb the greatest sinful enemy, lust, which destroys the urge for self-realization and specific knowledge of the self. Jñāna refers to knowledge of self as distinguished from non-self, or in other words, knowledge that the spirit soul is not the body. Vijñāna refers to specific knowledge of the spirit soul’s constitutional position and his relationship to the Supreme Soul. It is explained thus in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (2.9.31):

jñānaṁ parama-guhyaṁ me yad vijñāna-samanvitam
sa-rahasyaṁ tad-aṅgaṁ ca gṛhāṇa gaditaṁ mayā

“The knowledge of the self and Supreme Self is very confidential and mysterious, but such knowledge and specific realization can be understood if explained with their various aspects by the Lord Himself.” Bhagavad-Gītā gives us that general and specific knowledge of the self. The living entities are parts and parcels of the Lord, and therefore they are simply meant to serve the Lord. This consciousness is called Krishna consciousness. So, from the very beginning of life one has to learn this Krishna consciousness, and thereby one may become fully Krishna conscious and act accordingly. (Purport by Srila Prabhupada)

Know how to conquer the mind here.