183. Practice Makes a Man Perfect

Krishna advises, "Fix your mind on Me alone and surrender your intellect to Me. Thereupon, you will always live in Me. Of this, there is no doubt" (12.8). Our mind is trained to continuously divide. This ability helped us protect ourselves by quickly identifying unsafe situations which increased our chance of survival. Hence, fixing the mind, amidst ever changing situations around us, runs contrary to our daily practices. Krishna is fully aware of our difficulties and says, "If you are unable to fix your mind steadily on Me, O Arjun, then seek to reach Me by Abhyasa Yoga (Yoga of practice)" (12.9). Krishna earlier advised to control the mind by practice (abhyaas) and dispassion (vairaagyam) (6.35); and to do regular practice with determination (6.23) to bring the restless mind under control (6.26). He cautioned that Yoga is hard to attain by the ungoverned man but it can be attained by means of striving (6.36). While miracles do happen, they are rare. The same is the case with sudden enlightenment. The alternative is the regular practice of what has been revealed by Krishna in the Gita so far. It is reflecting on every moment by questioning ourselves as to why we do what we do; why we say what we say; and why we feel what we feel. It is first identifying our attachments and hatred then transcending them -one by one and day by day. It is a constant improvement by making our today better than yesterday in terms of awareness about ourselves. This path is unique to each of us with few external benchmarks. That's why Krishna earlier assured that a small step in this direction will give big gains (2.40); He will take care of the welfare of those devotees on this path -'Yoga Kshemam Vahamyam' (9.22).