Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 6, Verse 34: Krishna to Arjuna — Dhyāna-Yoga
The mind is restless, turbulent, powerful, and stubborn, Krishna; I think restraining it is as difficult as restraining the wind.
Bhāṣyakāra purports
- Śaṅkaraadvaita
The mind (manas) is by nature cañcala (restless) — not merely unstable but actively pramāthin (an aggressor that seizes and subjugates body and sense-organs). Śaṅkara adds that it is balaval (potent, not restrainable by any means) and dṛḍha (hard as a thorn-rope, indivisible like a tāntanī-serpent). Therefore Arjuna declares nigraha (absolute cessation) of such a mind to be suduṣkara (exceedingly difficult) — as impossible as imprisoning wind in the sky.
divergence: Śaṅkara: 'pramathyaśīlam, deham indriyāṇi ca vikṣipat sat paravasīkaroti … dṛḍhaṃ tantunāgavat acchedyam' — the mind grasps and subjugates, and is impenetrable like a thorn-snake.
- Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita
Even in objects long rehearsed (anavarata-abhyasta-viṣayeṣu), the mind cannot be held in one place by the puruṣa's own effort — it forcibly (balāt) seizes him and wanders elsewhere. Rāmānuja compares restraining the mind toward an object contrary to its conditioning to trying to stop a great wind (mahāvāta) with a fan — it is suduṣkara because the mind's svabhāva is misdirection, not quiescence.
divergence: Rāmānuja: 'tad-viparītākārātmani sthāpayituṃ nigrahāṃ pratikūla-gateḥ mahāvātasya vyajanādinā iva suduṣkaram' — restraint in a direction contrary to the mind's current is like pushing back a great wind with a fan.
- Madhvadvaita
Madhva grounds Arjuna's complaint in Vyāsa's own Yoga-scripture: because the mind is cañcala (unstable), yoga's steadiness (sthiti) cannot arise without abhyāsa (practice) and vairāgya (dispassion) — of that there is no doubt (na saṃśayaḥ). The difficulty of nigraha is thus doctrinally confirmed by śāstra-citation, not merely by Arjuna's experience.
divergence: Madhva cites Vyāsayoga: 'manasaś-cañcalatvād-dhi sthitir-yogasya vai sthirā / vinābhyāsān-na śakyā syād-vairāgyād-vā na saṃśayaḥ' — without practice and dispassion, stable yoga is impossible.
- Vallabhaśuddhādvaita
Arjuna perceives that the yoga of sama (equanimity) described by Kṛṣṇa is impossible precisely because the mind is cañcala (restless by nature). Vallabha glosses the wind-simile spatially: just as restraining wind that churns in open sky (ākāśe dhodhūyamānasya) into a pot is impossible, so too the uncontainable mind cannot be dammed. The verse thus names the failure-point of all autonomous sādhana, making Puṣṭi-mārga's prasāda (divine grace) the only viable ground.
divergence: Vallabha: 'yathākāśe dodhūyamānasya vāyor-ghaṭādiṣu nirodho duṣkaras-tadvat' — restraining wind churning in the sky into a vessel is as impossible as restraining such a mind.
- Śrīdharabhakti
Śrīdhara enumerates four qualities that make the mind ungovernable: cañcala (restless by inherent nature), pramāthin (agitator of body and sense-organs), balaval (not conquerable even by deliberate reasoning), and dṛḍha (impenetrable, bound fast by viṣaya-vāsanā). Restraining it entirely — as one cannot stop wind from churning in the sky into a jar — is sarvathaiva aśakya (wholly impossible).
divergence: Śrīdhara: 'pramāthi pramathana-śīlaṃ dehendriya-kṣobhakam … dṛḍhaṃ viṣaya-vāsanānubadhhatayā durbhedam … tathā tasya manaso nigrahaṃ suduṣkaraṃ sarvathaiva kartumaśakyaṃ manye'.
- Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti
Madhusūdana begins with the word 'Kṛṣṇa' itself as a signal: by addressing the Lord as kṛṣ (one who draws away the sins of devotees), Arjuna implicitly appeals to the only power that can restrain the unrestrainable — thus the very name is a petition. He then glosses pramāthin as that which makes body and sense-organs helpless (vivasha-kara), balaval as that which cannot be turned away by any upāya, and dṛḍha as a tāntanā-pāśa (a coiled serpentine snare). Even after jñāna arises, prārabdha-karma sustains the citta's oscillations; therefore yoga-nigraha of mind in the full sense is impossible even for a jñānin still bound by prārabdha.
divergence: Madhusūdana: 'yasyāḥ saṃpādanena sa yogī paramo mataḥ … prārabdhakarmabhogāya jīvataḥ puruṣasya … citta-cāñcalye yogena tan-nivāraṇam-aśakyam-ahaṃ svabodhād-eva manye'.