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THE PATH OF PERECTION
said, “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.” If we have no Kṛṣṇa conscious engagement, we will engage in sense gratification or fruitive activity. If a child is not trained or educated, he becomes spoiled. If one does not practice the  yoga  system, if he does not attempt to control his senses by the  yoga  process, he will engage his senses in their own gratification. When one is gratifying his senses, there is no question of practicing  yoga .
Without Kṛṣṇa consciousness, one must be always seeking self-centered or extended selfish activities. But a Kṛṣṇa conscious person can do everything for the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa and thereby be perfectly detached from sense gratification. One who has not realized Kṛṣṇa must mechanically try to escape material desires before being elevated to the top rung of the  yoga  ladder.
One may compare the  yoga  system to a stepladder. One  yogī  may be situated on the fifth step, another  yogī  may be on the fiftieth step and yet another on the five-hundredth step. The purpose, of course, is to reach the top. Although the entire ladder may be called the  yoga  system, one who is on the fifth step is not equal to one who is higher up. In  Bhagavad-gītā , Śrī Kṛṣṇa delineates a number of  yoga  systems— karma-yoga ,  jñāna-yoga ,  dhyāna-yoga , and  bhakti-yoga . All of these systems are connected with God, Kṛṣṇa, just as the entire ladder is connected to the topmost floor. This is not to say that everyone practicing the  yoga  system is situated on the topmost floor; only he who is in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness is so situated. Others are situated on different steps of the yogic ladder.
uddhared ātmanātmānaṁ nātmānam avasādayet ātmaiva hy ātmano bandhur  (  ātmaiva ripur ātmanaḥ
“A man must elevate himself by his own mind, not degrade himself. The mind is the friend of the conditioned soul, and his enemy as well.” (Bg. 6.5) The word  ātmā  denotes body, mind, and soul—depending on different circumstances. In the  yoga  system, the mind and the conditioned soul are especially important. Since the
Mastering the Mind and Senses
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mind  is the central point of  yoga  practice,  ātmā  refers here to the  mind . The purpose of the  yoga  system is to control the mind and  to  draw it away from attachment to sense objects. It is stressed  herein  that the mind must be so trained that it can deliver the conditioned soul from the mire of nescience.
In the  aṣṭānga-yoga  system, these eightfold  yogas—dhyāna, dhāraṇā , etc.—are meant to control the mind. Śrī Kṛṣṇa explicitly states that a man must utilize his mind to elevate himself. Unless one can control the mind, there is no question of elevation. The body is like a chariot, and the mind is the driver. If you tell your driver, “Please take me to the Kṛṣṇa temple,” the driver will take you there, but if you tell him, “Please take me to that liquor house,” you will go there. It is the driver’s business to take you wherever you like. If you can control the driver, he will take you where you should go, but if not, he will ultimately take you wherever he likes. If you have no control over your driver, your driver is your enemy, but if he acts according to your orders, he is your friend.
The  yoga  system is meant to control the mind in such a way that the mind will act as your friend. Sometimes the mind acts as a friend and sometimes as an enemy. Because we are part and parcel of the Supreme, who has infinite independence, we have minute, or finite, independence. It is the mind that is controlling that independence, and therefore he may either take us to the Kṛṣṇa temple or to some nightclub.
It is the purpose of this Krṣṇa consciousness movement to fix the mind on Krṣṇa. When the mind is so fixed, he cannot do anything but act as our friend. He has no scope to act any other way. As soon as Krṣṇa is seated in the mind, there is light, just as when the sun is in the sky, darkness is vanquished. Krṣṇa is just like the sun, and when He is present, there is no scope for darkness. If we keep Krṣṇa on our mind, the darkness of  māyā  will never be able to enter. Keeping the mind fixed on Krṣṇa is the perfection of  yoga . If the mind is strongly fixed on the Supreme, it will not allow any nonsense to enter, and there will be no falldown. If the mind is strong, the driver is strong, and we may go wherever we may desire. The entire  yoga  system is meant to make the mind strong,