As a ship with sails up and helmsman dead would be completely at the mercy of the fitful storms and reckless waves, and will not reach any definite harbour, but is destroyed by the very tossings of the waves, so too, life gets capsized and the individual drowned, if his mind is unanchored and left to be carried hither and thither by the uncertain buffets of passionate sense-storms. Therefore, the senses are to be controlled if man is to live a better and more purposeful life, designed and planned for enduring success.

HAVING EXPLAINED THE PROPOSITION ENUNCIATED EARLIER, THE LORD CONCLUDES BY RE-AFFIRMING HIS STATEMENT:

Hi, for; yat manah, the mind which; anu-vidhiyate, follows in the wake of; caratam, the wandering; indriyani, senses that are tending towards their respective objects; tat, that, the mind engaged in thinking [Perceiving objects like sound etc. in their respective varieties.] of the objects of the senses; harati, carries away, destroys; asya, his, the sannyasin’s; prajnam, wisdom born from the discrimination between the Self and the not-Self. How? Iva, like; vayuh, the wind; diverting a navam, boat; ambhasi, on the waters. As wind, by diverting a boat on the waters from its intended course, drives it along a wrong course, similarly the mind, by diverting the wisdom from the pursuit of the Self, makes it engage in objects. After having stated variously the reasons for the idea conveyed through the verse, ‘For, O son of Kunti,’ etc. (60), and having established that very idea, the Lord concludes thus: