(1) WHEN thus vigour has been nurtured, it is well to fix the thought in concentred effort; the man of wandering mind lies between the fangs of the Passions. It cannot wander if body and thought be in solitude; so it is well to forsake the world and put away vain imaginations. Because of love, or hunger for gain, and the like, men will not forsake the world; then in order to cast it aside the wise will lay to heart these thoughts. Passion is overcome only by him who has won through stillness of spirit the perfect vision. Knowing this, I must first seek for stillness; it comes through the contentment that is regardless of the world. What creature of a day should cling to other frail beings, when he can never again through thousands of births behold his beloved? Yet when he sees him not, he is ill at ease; he rests not in concentred thought; and even when he beholds him he is not satisfied, but is distressed by the same longing as before. He sees not things in their reality; he loses his horror of the world; he is consumed by his grief in yearning for union with the beloved. In thoughts thereupon his brief life vainly passes away hour by hour; and the eternal Law is broken for the sake of a short-lived friend!

(5) The sage who has turned away all external impressions, fixing his gaze in the centre of the brows, controlling the incoming and outgoing breath rhythmically, keeping the senses, the mind and the intellect controlled, free from desire, fear and hatred, aspiring for the highest freedom indeed enjoys freedom always.

(3) The thought thus must be kept ever under watch; I must always be as if without carnal sense, like a thing of wood. The eyes must never glance around without object; their gaze should always be downward, as if in meditation. But sometimes, to rest his gaze, one may look around him; he sees [strangers] as mere phantoms, but will turn his eyes upon them to bid them welcome. On the road, and other such places, he will look from time to time to the four quarters of space, to take note of danger; he will rest and turn round to look about him. He will go forward or backward with heed, and in all conditions do what he has to do with understanding. In every act that he undertakes he will consider the due posture of his body, and from time to time will look to see how it is. He will watch with great heed the wild elephant of his thought, so that it remain bound to the stout stake of holy meditation and become not loosed. He will watch to see where his mind is moving, so that it may not even for an instant cast off the yoke of rapt devotion....

(2) But the self-controlled man free from attraction and repulsion, with his senses under restraint though moving among objects, attains peace.

(6) 'But he who has understanding and whose mind is always firmly held, his senses are under control, like good horses of a charioteer.'

(18) Endowed with a pure understanding, restraining the self with firmness, turning away from sound and other sense-objects, and abandoning love and hatred; Dwelling in solitude, eating but little, controlling the speech, body, and mind, ever engaged in meditation and concentration, and cultivating freedom from passion; Forsaking conceit and power, pride and lust, wrath and possessions, tranquil in heart, and free from ego— he becomes worthy of becoming one with Brahman.

(5) To the self-controlled sages who are free from desire and wrath, who have controlled their thoughts, who have realised the Self, absolute freedom exists on all sides.

(1) HE who would keep the rules must diligently guard his thought; the rules cannot be kept by him who guards not the fickle thought. Untamed elephants in their madness do not such harm here as the thought works in Avichi and the rest of the hells, a young elephant ranging free. But if the young elephant of thought be entirely bound by the rope of remembrance, all peril departs, and perfect happiness comes. Tigers, lions, elephants, bears, snakes, all foes, all the warders of the hells, witches and devils — all of them are bound, if only thought be bound; all are subdued if only thought be subdued. The Speaker of the Truth has said that from thought alone come all our countless terrors and griefs. Who has diligently forged the swords of hell, or its pavement of red-hot iron, and whence were born its sirens? All this has sprung from the sinful thought, as the Saint's song tells; thus in the threefold world there is no foe to fear save the thought. If the Perfect Charity frees the world from poverty, how could the Saviours of old have had it, since the world is still poor? The Perfect Charity is declared to be the thought of surrendering to all beings our whole possessions and likewise the merit thereof; thus it is but a thought. Where can fishes and other creatures be brought into safety, that I may not slay them? When the thought to do them no hurt is conceived, that is deemed the Perfect Conduct. How many can I slay of the wicked, who are measureless as space? But when the thought of wrath is slain, all my foes are slain. Whence can be found leather enough to cover the whole earth? But with a single leather shoe the whole ground is covered. In like manner the forces without me I cannot control; but I will control the thought within me, and what need have I for control of the rest? Though aided by voice and body, indolence can never win for its prize an estate such as that of Brahma, which falls to the lot of the vigorous unaided thought. The prayers and mortifications of a heedless and feeble man, however long he labour, are all in vain, says the Omniscient. To overcome sorrow and win happiness men wander in vain, for they have not sanctified their thcfught, the mysterious essence of holiness. Then I must keep my thought well governed and well guarded; what need is there of any vows save the vow to guard the thought?...

(12) But despite its fall, the whole earth cannot satisfy the lust of the flesh; who can do its will? To him who longs for the impossible come guilt and bafflement of desire; but he who is utterly without desire has a happiness that ages not. Then give no room for the lust of the flesh to swell; blessed indeed is the thing that is not imagined for the sake of its pleasant- ness. The body is a motionless thing stirred by something without, and ending in ashes, a loathsome frame of foulness; why do I cling to it? What have I to do with this machine, alive or dead? What distinguishes it from such things as clods of earth? Alas, O thought of self, thou wilt not die! Through complicity with the flesh I win sorrow, all to no purpose; it is no better than a thing of wood, and what should avail its hatred or its kindness? It feels no love when I guard it, no hate when vultures devour it; then why do I love it? I am angered when it is treated with scorn, delighted when it is honoured; but if it has no knowledge, to what end is my toil? My friends, forsooth, are they who wish well to this body; but all men wish well to their own flesh, and why are not they also my friends? So I have surrendered my body indifferently for the weal of the world; it is but as an instrument of work that I still bear it, with all its guilt. Enough then of worldly ways! I follow in the path of the Wise, remembering the Discourse upon Heedfulness and putting away sloth. To overcome the power of darkness I concentre my thought, drawing the spirit away from vain paths and fixing it straightly upon its stay.

(4) On this point there is this verse: Where one's mind is attached — the inner self Goes thereto with action, being attached to it alone. Obtaining the end of his action, Whatever he does in this world, He comes again from that world To this world of action. — So the man who desires. The soul of the released Now the man who does not desire. — He who is without desire, who is freed from desire, whose desire is satisfied, whose desire is the Soul — his breaths do not depart. Being very Brahma, he goes to Brahma.

(6) Having abandoned all desires born of the ego-centric will, having restrained the group of senses with mind from all sides, one should attain quietude slowly and slowly by the intellect held firmly. And then, fixing the mind in Atma, he should not think of anything else at all.

(12) He who is free from desire, who is pure in body and mind, who is competent and ready-willed, who is unconcerned, free from anxiety and sorrow, who has renounced all sense of doership (or who has renounced all acts of desire, prohibited by the ‘sastras’), who is devoted to Me – is dear to Me.

(4) He who is free from hope, who is self-controlled, who has abandoned all possessions, though working merely with the body, does not incur sin.

(2) He whose mind is not troubled in sorrow, who does not hanker after pleasures and is free from attachment fear and hatred, is called the sage of steady wisdom.

(11) But those who practise penance and faith in the forest, tranquil, wise, and living on alms, depart free from passion through the sun to where that immortal Person dwells whose nature is imperishable.

(12) Those who, having restrained well all the senses, even-minded everywhere, rejoicing in the welfare of all beings, meditate on the indefinable, eternal, all-pervading, and Imperishable Brahman – they attain Me alone.

(12) 'The wise who, by means of meditation on his Self, recognises the Ancient, who is difficult to be seen, who has entered into the dark, who is hidden in the cave, who dwells in the abyss, as God, he indeed leaves joy and sorrow far behind.'

(7) It is well for a man to depart to the forest ere the four bearers carry him away amidst the laments of his folk. Free from commerce and hindrance, possessing naught but his body, he has no grief at the hour of death, for already he has died to the world; no neighbours are there to vex him or disturb his remembrance of the Enlightened and like thoughts. Then I will ever woo sweet Solitude, untroubled dayspring of bliss, stilling all unrest. Released from all other thoughts, with mind utterly set upon my own spirit, I will strive to concentre and control my spirit.

(2) 'As a bird when tied by a string flies first in every direction, and finding no rest anywhere, settles down at last on the very place where it is fastened, exactly in the same manner, my son, that mind (the gîva, or living Self in the mind, see VI, 3, 2), after flying in every direction, and finding no rest anywhere, settles down on breath ; for indeed, my son, mind is fastened to breath.

(6) Alone, stationed in a solitary place, self-controlled, free from desire, and not receiving anything from others, the yogi (Practising Dhyanayoga) should unite the mind with Atma.