12 On the Way to Krsna
atma-samstham manah krtva
na kificid api cintayet
yato yato niscalati
manas caficalam asthiram
tatas tato niyamyaitad
atmany eva vasam nayet
“One should engage oneself in the practice of yoga
with undeviating determination and faith. One should
abandon, without exception, all material desires born
of false ego and thus control all the senses on all sides
by the mind. Gradually, step by step, with full con-
viction, one should become situated in trance by
means of intelligence, and thus the mind should be
fixed on the Self alone and should think of nothing
else. From whatever and wherever the mind wanders
due to its flickering and unsteady nature, one must
certainly withdraw it and bring it back under the
control of the Self.”

The mind is always disturbed. It is going some-
times this way and sometimes that way. By yoga
practice we literally drag the mind to Krsna conscious-
ness. The mind strays from Krsna consciousness to so
many exterior objects because from time immemori-
al, life after life, that has been our practice. Due to
this, there may be great difficulty in the beginning
when one tries to fix his mind in Krsna con-
sciousness, but these difficulties can all be overcome.

It is because the mind is agitated and not fixed on
Krsna that it goes from one thought to another. For
instance, when we are engaged in work, memories of
events that happened ten, twenty, thirty or forty
