When the mind will not stop
This sequence starts with the objection rather than the method. Arjuna interrupts a teaching on equanimity to say it cannot be held, and the text lets the objection stand. What follows is what the Gītā describes about circling thought and what it proposes about it. It is a reading sequence, not a practice, and there are no exercises in it.
A reading suggestion from Devdarshan Bastola, GMBPsS, counselling psychologist — not treatment, not a description of anyone reading it, and not a substitute for care you are already receiving. Nothing here asks you to hurry anything you feel.
If you are in crisis, or having thoughts of ending your life, please contact your doctor, your therapist, your local emergency number, or a crisis line in your country now. That is a better use of the next hour than reading on alone.
योऽयं योगस्त्वया प्रोक्तः साम्येन मधुसूदन।
Arjuna said, "O Krishna, I do not see how this Yoga of equanimity, which you have taught me, can be maintained steadily, due to the restlessness of…
Arjuna says he cannot see how the evenness just described could hold steady, because of cañcalatva, restlessness. The sequence begins with the complaint, in the student's voice, before anything is offered in reply.
चञ्चलं हि मनः कृष्ण प्रमाथि बलवद्दृढम्।
The mind is indeed restless, turbulent, strong, and unyielding, O Krishna; I consider it as difficult to control as controlling the wind.
He presses it: the mind is cañcala, restless, and pramāthi, turbulent — as hard to restrain as the wind. The text gives the difficulty two full verses before answering it. That proportion is worth noticing.
ध्यायतो विषयान्पुंसः सङ्गस्तेषूपजायते।
When one thinks of objects, attachment to them arises; from attachment, desire is born; from desire, anger arises.
Now the mechanism. Dwelling, dhyāyataḥ, on something breeds saṅga, attachment; attachment breeds kāma, wanting; wanting breeds krodha, anger. The verse describes a sequence. It is not a statement about the reader.
क्रोधाद्भवति संमोहः संमोहात्स्मृतिविभ्रमः।
Anger leads to delusion, which causes loss of memory; this, in turn, leads to the destruction of discrimination, resulting in destruction.
The chain continued: confusion, then failure of smṛti, memory, then the collapse of buddhi, judgement. Placed here so that circling is seen recruiting other faculties, rather than being read as a private failing.
असंशयं महाबाहो मनो दुर्निग्रहं चलं।
The Blessed Lord said, "Undoubtedly, O mighty-armed Arjuna, the mind is difficult to control and restless; but with practice and dispassion, it can…
Kṛṣṇa grants the objection outright: yes, the mind is difficult to hold. Two things are named in reply — abhyāsa, doing the thing again and again, and vairāgya, a loosening of what pulls. The agreement arrives before the answer does, which is why this step follows the complaint rather than preceding it.
यतो यतो निश्चरति मनश्चञ्चलमस्थिरम्।
From whatever cause the restless and unsteady mind wanders away, let him restrain it from that and bring it under the control of the Self alone.
The instruction itself, and it is very small: from wherever the mind has wandered off to, the verse has it led back. Stillness held in place is not what is asked for; the returning is. It sits last among the instructions because it is the one the chapter expects to recur.
उद्धरेदात्मनाऽऽत्मानं नात्मानमवसादयेत्।
One should raise oneself by one's own self alone; let not one lower oneself; for the self alone is one's own friend, and the self alone is one's own…
Closing on the chapter's warning rather than its method. The verse says a person can be their own friend or their own enemy — and it is the friend half this path leaves you with, because a practice of returning turns very easily into a record of how often you left. Counting the lapses is not the practice.
The Gītā does not claim the mind is easy to settle. Arjuna's objection is never withdrawn, and the answer given to it is small and repeatable. Chapter 6 assumes many returns rather than one. That is the whole of what these verses say about it.