Bhagavad Gita 6.6

bandhur ātmātmanas tasya

yenātmaivātmanā jitaḥ

anātmanas tu śatrutve

vartetātmaiva śatru-vat

 

“For one who has mastered the mind,

It serves as a friend, creative and kind.

But for one who has let it stay untamed,

It turns foe, leaving them pained and chained.”                

 

My dear Lord, help me recognize that my enemy is not my mind, but what is inside my mind—the many impurities residing and even presiding there. 

My Lord, I need positive and pure desires inside me to counter the impurities in my mind. You, my Lord, are the ultimate inspirer and empowerer of such positive and pure desires. It is you who want ultimate positivity for me and indeed for everyone.

And it is only through contact with you—who are supremely pure and supremely purifying—that the pure desires within me can be awakened. 

Please, my Lord, help me take shelter in you. And through such shelter, help me learn to fill and fuel my mind with the desire to be a part of your plan—for me and for the world—in the mood of service.

When such pure and positive desires to serve you occupy my mind, they are the most effective means to drive out the impure desires lurking there.

As I align myself with you, my Lord, my mind will increasingly experience joy in serving you. And the more it experiences joy in you, the less it will propose or impose impure desires upon me with the false promise of quick pleasure.

Please, O Lord, help me remember that my mind becomes my friend when I learn to see you and seek you as my friend, my well-wisher, my Lord.

***

06.06 For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will remain the greatest enemy.