Text 18] The First Step in God Realization 31

Person of the Absolute Truth. But one who is unable to accommodate such
personal features of the Absolute is disciplined in that impersonality to
train the mind to make further progress.

TEXT 18

frasstraeisaaaa sae: |
ma: aaprrad Dae amatsar ec

niyacched visayebhyo’ksan
manasa buddhi-sarathih

manah karmabhir aksiptam
Subharthe dharayed dhiya

niyacchet—withdraw; visayebhyah—from sense engagements; aksan—
the senses; manasad—by dint of the mind; buddhi—intelligence; sdrathih—
driver; manah—the mind; karmabhih—by the fruitive work; aksiptam—
being absorbed in; subharthe—fer the sake of the Lord; dhdrayet—hold
up; dhiya—in full consciousness.

TRANSLATION

Gradually, as the mind becomes progressively spiritualized, withdraw
it from sense activities, and by intelligence the senses will be controlled.
The mind, being too much absorbed in material activities, can be engaged
in the service of the Personality of Godhead and become fixed in full
transcendental consciousness.

PURPORT

The first process of spiritualizing the mind by mechanical chanting of
the pranava omkara and controlling the breathing system is technically
called the mystic or yogic process of pranayama, or fully controlling the
breathing air. The ultimate state of this prandyadma system is to become
fixed up in trance, technically called the stage of samadhi. But experience
has proven that even the samadhi stage also fails to control the materially-
absorbed mind. For example, the great mystic Visvamitra Muni, even in
the stage of samadhi, became a victim of the senses and cohabited with
