1-9: From Arurukshato (beginning stage) To Arudha stage (advance Stage) (Advancement in astang yoga)

Bg 6.6

bandhur ātmātmanas tasya

yenātmaivātmanā jitaḥ

anātmanas tu śatrutve

vartetātmaiva śatru-vat

Word for word:

bandhuḥ — friend; ātmā — the mind; ātmanaḥ — of the living entity; tasya — of him; yena — by whom; ātmā — the mind; eva — certainly; ātmanā — by the living entity; jitaḥ — conquered; anātmanaḥ — of one who has failed to control the mind; tu — but; śatrutve — because of enmity; varteta — remains; ātmā eva — the very mind; śatru-vat — as an enemy.

Translation:

For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will remain the greatest enemy.

So bandhur ātmātmanas, so atma is the mind; atmanah is the soul. So the mind is the friend of the soul, when yenātmaivātmanā jitaḥ, when the mind is conquered by the soul—mind is the friend. anātmanas tu śatrutve, anātmana–when mind is not in control, it will remain ātmaiva śatru-vat, the same very mind will act as the enemy śatru-vat, as an enemy.

In 6.5 and 6.6 Sri Krishna has referred to atma as mind, and self as the soul. As discussed earlier, the word Atma can have many meanings. So here the verse makes best sense, when atma is referred to as mind. If we are thinking of the word–atma as soul, then we have to think about actual soul and conceived soul. The meaning would be self is friend of self, and self is enemy of the self. So one should elevate the self by the self and not degrade self by the self. So, when self is in control of the self, self is friend of the self. When self is not in control of the self, self is the enemy of the self.

So at the end we will confuse what is this self. Just leave me to myself, don’t trouble me, it will be too much of an intellectual headache for me to think of such things. Certainly, it is challenging.

Some Acharyas have referred to atma as self. Here, what it actually means is, there are some commentary that refer to the lower self and higher self. The lower self is what we currently identify ourselves to be, and the higher self is what we actually are and what we essentially are. We are soul which is part of Sri Krishna that is the higher self. And the lower self who we presently misidentify ourselves as i.e. our body, our attachments, our misconceptions and our prejudices. We think, “this is what I am.” So actually there is a difference between the two. So the lower self drags us down, and the higher self makes us elevated.

bandhur ātmātmanas tasya; yenātmaivātmanā jitaḥ, so there is a conflict going on with lower self and higher self. So if higher self wins we become elevated, if lower self wins we become degraded. So these are the words which can be used. But Srila Prabhupad keeps things simple for us.

Mind is the enemy and mind is the friend, when mind is the controller it can become the enemy, when mind is the controlled, mind turns as a friend. For instance, a horse out of control will run helter skelter. The person riding or the chariot may meet with an accident. But, if the horses are controlled by the rider, or the charioteer; then the horses are means by which charioteer can go fast, if same person has to run by foot the same person cannot go fast. So when we are living in the material world we need matter to act and interact in the material world so we need the mind and senses we cannot wish away the mind and the senses we need them but we have to regulate them that is what Sri Krishna is talking about over here

Srila Prabhupad writes in his purport here: The constitutional position of the living entity is to carry out the order of the superior. As long as one’s mind remains an unconquered enemy, one has to serve the dictations of lust, anger, avarice, illusion, etc. But when the mind is conquered, one voluntarily agrees to abide by the dictation of the Personality of Godhead, who is situated within the heart of everyone as Paramātmā.

It implies, we are all servants. Always. Either we can serve Sri Krishna, or we can serve Maya. Either we can serve almighty, or we will find that our sense has become almighty—the tongue, the genital, the mind. We can’t serve two masters at the same time. Even if we may, but eventually we will fall off or dragged down by sense gratification, by default. There is gravity which will drag us down; as there is gravity in this world which drags things down, similarly there is gravity in terms of consciousness also. By default in material world our consciousness goes down to sense object to sense gratification. So we need to consciously push it upwards and we have to hold on to Sri Krishna through the process of Bhakti Yoga, or process of any yoga in general. But Bhakti Yoga is the easiest by which we will move upwards.

Srila Prabhupad in this verse, is saying we have to follow somebody’s order, we cannot stay suspended. Either we are pulled up or we are pulled down, that is our situation. We have to follow either Sri Krishna or Maya. If we want to disobey the mind, we need to obey Sri Krishna, but if we disobey Sri Krishna, we will be bound up as an obedient servant of Maya. Mind says, come on go to sleep, mind will say come-on watch this TV. When mind says come on do this, and we follow: that’s similar to Serva Dharman Parityajya Mayam Ekam Sernam Varja: What happens is we give up everything else, and surrender to maya. Whatever the mind prods us to do an activity; if we look back, actually we could be doing much more responsible, fruitful, joyful activities. While doing urgent work, the mind says come-on don’t do this, go there do this. Often we just leave the task on hand, and go with the flow as per the demand of mind. Actually we trust the mind too much, instead we should begin trusting Sri Krishna. He is our ever well-wisher. And what Sri Krishna is telling us to do is in our best interest. What the mind impels us to do, mostly its impulsive and not in our best interest. So Srila Prabhupad instructs, as the eternal part and parcel of the Lord, if we follow Sri Krishna, we will be free from obedience to the mind. Thus, we can elevate the lower self (the mind) with the higher self (the soul).