Yoga as Rejected by Arjuna
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telling us which way to turn. Thus the sum and substance of the  yoga  system is to control the agitated mind. In the meditational  yoga  system the mind is controlled by focusing on the Supersoul—that is the whole purpose of  yoga . But Arjuna says that controlling this mind is more difficult than stopping the wind from blowing. One can imagine a man stretching out his arms trying to stop a hurricane. Are we to assume that Arjuna is simply not sufficiently qualified to control his mind? The actual fact is that we cannot begin to understand the immense qualifications of Arjuna. After all, he was a personal friend of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is a highly elevated position and is one that cannot be at all attained by one without great qualifications. In addition to this, Arjuna was renowned as a great warrior and administrator. He was such an intelligent man that he could understand  Bhagavad-gītā  within one hour, whereas at the present moment great scholars cannot even understand it in the course of a lifetime. Yet Arjuna was thinking that controlling the mind was simply not possible for him. Are we then to assume that what was impossible for Arjuna in a more advanced age is possible for us in this degenerate age? We should not for one moment think that we are in Arjuna's category. We are a thousand times inferior.
Moreover, there is no record of Arjuna's having executed the  yoga  system at any time. At the same time Arjuna was praised by Kṛṣṇa as the only man worthy of understanding  Bhagavad-gītā . What was Arjuna's great qualification? Srī Kṛṣṇa says, “You