Bhagavad Gita 5.17

tad-buddhayaḥ tad-ātmānaḥ

tan-niṣṭhāḥ tat-parāyaṇāḥ

gacchanty apunar-āvṛttiṁ

jñāna-nirdhūta-kalmaṣāḥ

 

“With intelligence convinced, mind fixed in absorption,

With faith refined, making Him the destination.

Cleansed by wisdom, pure and bright,

They reach a state beyond rebirth’s sight.”

 

My consciousness is my fundamental energy, O Lord, yet I am often unaware of how this energy is used—or even misused.

My Lord, your words of wisdom help me understand the various streams along which my consciousness tends to flow. Among all these streams, the most manageable is the stream of my intelligence. If I contemplate your words of wisdom, I become intellectually convinced to invest my consciousness in you. Because, my Lord, you are the supreme source of meaning and happiness—indeed, of meaningful happiness.

With my intelligence convinced, I can then direct my mind toward you. Even though my mental stream of my consciousness often seeks instant pleasures, grant me, my Lord, the adventurousness to experiment with fixing my mind upon you. Through such an experiment, when my mind directly experiences the peace and joy of absorption in you, then it becomes my friend on my journey toward you.

With the mind thus harmonized, bless me, O Lord, to elevate my faith—from a mere intellectual proposition to a deeply lived realization. And when that happens, I can make you my life’s supreme purpose, my ultimate destination, the supermost object of my love.

When you thus become the shelter of my intelligence, mind, faith, and aspiration, my Lord, I will surely march toward you, wholehearted and undistracted.

***

05.17 When one’s intelligence, mind, faith and refuge are all fixed in the Supreme, then one becomes fully cleansed of misgivings through complete knowledge and thus proceeds straight on the path of liberation.