2021.01.04 - BG 17.16. Austerities of the mind

मन:प्रसाद: सौम्यत्वं मौनमात्मविनिग्रह: । भावसंश‍ुद्धिरित्येतत्तपो मानसमुच्यते ॥ १६ ॥ manaḥ-prasādaḥ saumyatvaṁ maunam ātma-vinigrahaḥ bhāva-saṁśuddhir ity etat tapo mānasam ucyate Synonyms manaḥ-prasādaḥ — satisfaction of the mind; saumyatvam — being without duplicity towards others; maunam — gravity; ātma — of the self; vinigrahaḥ — control; bhāva — of one’s nature; saṁśuddhiḥ — purification; iti — thus; etat — this; tapaḥ — austerity; mānasam — of the mind; ucyate — is said to be. Translation And satisfaction, simplicity, gravity, self-control and purification of one’s existence are the austerities of the mind. Purport To make the mind austere is to detach it from sense gratification. It should be so trained that it can be always thinking of doing good for others. The best training for the mind is gravity in thought. One should not deviate from Kṛṣṇa consciousness and must always avoid sense gratification. To purify one’s nature is to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. Satisfaction of the mind can be obtained only by taking the mind away from thoughts of sense enjoyment. The more we think of sense enjoyment, the more the mind becomes dissatisfied. In the present age we unnecessarily engage the mind in so many different ways for sense gratification, and so there is no possibility of the mind’s becoming satisfied. The best course is to divert the mind to the Vedic literature, which is full of satisfying stories, as in the Purāṇas and the Mahābhārata. One can take advantage of this knowledge and thus become purified. The mind should be devoid of duplicity, and one should think of the welfare of all. Silence means that one is always thinking of self-realization. The person in Kṛṣṇa consciousness observes perfect silence in this sense. Control of the mind means detaching the mind from sense enjoyment. One should be straightforward in his dealings and thereby purify his existence. All these qualities together constitute austerity in mental activities. Austerity is called tapa in sanskrit, or fire. If you perform austerity you acquire some energy. Tapasya is the way to get energy by legal means. If you try to satisfy the mind by satisfying senses, you will get exactly the opposite result, you become more and more dissatisfied, because senses are insatiable. But if you just say: “I am satisfied”, it will have an effect on your mind, because you can program your mind. Whatever you have you should say: “That’s good. I don’t need more”, and if something bad happens to you also say: “That’s ok”. That will make your mind strong, whereas if you are always dissatisfied your energy will be wasted in a very useless way. There are another ways to make the mind peaceful: to do good to people, not to compete with them. Matsarya, or competitive spirit is completely opposite to somyatvam or desire to do something good. Atma vinigraha or self-control, it’s important to control yourself. Bhava samsuddhih means to purify existence. It is so easy to make our mind contaminated, but it is difficult to purify it. The best way to purify existence is to serve others, and you get a pleasant state of mind as a result.