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LXXII, 7.
SELF-RESTRAINT.
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though he does not possess any external marks of prosperity.
LXXII. 1. He must persist in keeping his mind and his organs of sense under restraint.
2. Restraint of the mind implies restraint of the senses.
3. One who has acquired complete command over himself, gains this world and the next.
4. One who has no command over himself, reaps no fruit from any of his acts (whether worldly or tending to the acquisition of spiritual merit).
5. Self-restraint is the best instrument of purification; self-restraint is the best of auspicious objects; by self-restraint he obtains anything he may desire in his heart.
6. The man who rides (as it were) in a chariot drawn by his five senses and directed by his mind (as the charioteer), who keeps it on the path of the virtuous, can never be overcome by his enemies (lust, wrath, and greed), unless the horses (unrestrained by the charioteer) run away with the chariot.
7. As the waters (of all streams) are stored up (and reabsorbed) in the ocean, which, though being filled with them, remains unmoved and tranquil, even so that man, in whose mind the passions are stored up (and dissolved), obtains perfect calmness : but not he who strives after the gratification of his desires.
LXXII. 7=Bhagavad-gîta II, 70. This chapter treats of duties which are common to all the four orders. (Nand.)
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