It is the experience of everyone, and therefore, it is not very difficult for a young seeker to know the state of an aspirant (Arurukshah). It has been said by the Lord that so long as we are in the state of seeking, the Path of Self-Perfection is the highroad of selfless activity. Withdrawal from activity is to be undertaken only when you have reached the state of mental mastery (Yogarudhah). To renounce activity at an earlier stage, would be as unhealthy as to continue disturbing the mind with activities after having reached the second stage, where, we are told, quiescence is the means for gathering speed in our flight through meditation. Naturally, it is necessary for the seeker to know when exactly he reaches the second stage, indicated here by the term Yogarudhah.
In this stanza, Krishna is pointing out the physical and mental conditions of one who has broken in the steed of his mind and ridden it. He says that when one is feeling no mental attachments, either to the sense-objects or to the actions in the outer world, it is one of the symptoms of perfect mastery over the mind. This should not be over-stressed to a dreary literal meaning, making it a grotesque caricature of Truth. It only means that the mind of a seeker in the meditation seat is so perfectly withdrawn from the external world of sense-objects and activities, that it is perfect in its equipoise at the time of self-application. The sense-organs can run into the channels of sense-objects only when the mind is flowing out of the organs. If the mind is kept engaged in the contemplation of a great Truth, providing a larger quota of an ampler joy in the inner bosom, it will no more go hunting for bits of joy in the gutters of sensuality. A well-fed pet dog will not seek the public dust-bins for its food.
When thus the mind is not gushing out either through the sense-channels or through the fields of its ego-centric activities, it becomes completely engaged in the contemplation of the greater truth — the Self. Here the term used to indicate complete non-attachment, is to be noted very carefully. The Sanskrit word anu-shaijate is a word-symbol created by prefixing an indeclinable anu to the verb shaj, meaning ‘attached.’ The prefix anu indicates ‘not a bit’. Therefore, the term used here forbids even traces of attachment either to the sense-objects or to the fields of activity.
When the mind has been withdrawn from the sense-organs and completely detached from all its external physical activities, it is possible that it is still tossed and agitated by the gurglings of its own inner instincts of willing and wishing, desiring and earning. This power of Sankalpa can bring more storms into the bosom of a man than the disturbances his mind could ever receive from the external world. Krishna indicates here that he who has gained a complete mastery over his mind is one who has not only withdrawn himself from all sense-contacts and activities in the outer world, but has also dried up all the Sankalpa-disturbances in his own mind. Such an individual is, at the moment of meditation, in that inward state which is described here as Yogarudhah. It is clear that, to such an individual, meditation can be intensified only by quietude (Shama).
WHEN A MAN HAS ATTAINED YOGA, THEN THE SELF IS RAISED BY THE SELF, FROM OUT OF THE NUMEROUS EVILS OF FINITE EXISTENCE THEREFORE:
