Shloka 18
The First Step in God Realization: The Glory of Hearing and the Virāṭ-Rūpa Meditation
नियच्छेद्विषयेभ्योऽक्षान्मनसा बुद्धिसारथि: । मन: कर्मभिराक्षिप्तं शुभार्थे धारयेद्धिया ॥ १८ ॥
niyacched viṣayebhyo ’kṣān manasā buddhi-sārathiḥ manaḥ karmabhir ākṣiptaṁ śubhārthe dhārayed dhiyā
စိတ်သည် တဖြည်းဖြည်း ဝိညာဉ်ရေးရာဖြစ်လာသော် အာရုံခံအရာဝတ္ထုများမှ ပြန်လည်ဆုတ်ခွာစေပြီး ဉာဏ်ကို စာရഥီအဖြစ်ထားကာ အင်ဒြိယများကို ထိန်းချုပ်ရမည်။ လောကီကမ္မများတွင် စွဲလမ်းနေသော စိတ်ကို ဘုရားသခင်၏ ဝန်ဆောင်မှု၌ ချိတ်ဆက်လျှင် အပြည့်အဝ သာလွန်သတိတွင် တည်မြဲလာသည်။
The first process of spiritualizing the mind by mechanical chanting of the praṇava ( oṁkāra ) and by control of the breathing system is technically called the mystic or yogic process of prāṇāyāma, or fully controlling the breathing air. The ultimate state of this prāṇāyāma system is to be fixed in trance, technically called samādhi. But experience has proven that even the samādhi stage also fails to control the materially absorbed mind. For example, the great mystic Viśvāmitra Muni, even in the stage of samādhi, became a victim of the senses and cohabited with Menakā. History has already recorded this. The mind, although ceasing to think of sensual activities at present, remembers past sensual activities from the subconscious status and thus disturbs one from cent-percent engagement in self-realization. Therefore, Śukadeva Gosvāmī recommends the next step of assured policy, namely to fix one’s mind in the service of the Personality of Godhead. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, also recommends this direct process in the Bhagavad-gītā (6.47) . Thus, the mind being spiritually cleansed, one should at once engage himself in the transcendental loving service of the Lord by the different devotional activities of hearing, chanting, etc. If performed under proper guidance, that is the surest path of progress, even for the disturbed mind.
FAQs
This verse teaches that the senses should be restrained from their objects by using the mind as reins and intelligence as the guiding charioteer, redirecting attention toward the supreme auspicious goal.
Parīkṣit, facing imminent death, asked for the highest duty for one who is about to die; Śukadeva instructs him in practical inner discipline—mastering senses and mind—so the consciousness can be fixed on the Lord.
Limit sense-driven distractions, notice when the mind is pulled by habitual activity, and deliberately re-anchor it—through discernment and devotional focus—on what is spiritually beneficial.