Bhagavad Gita 6.19

yathā dīpo nivātastho

neṅgate sopamā smṛtā

yogino yatacittasya

yuñjato yogam ātmanaḥ

 

“As a lamp in a windless place burns bright,

Unflickering, steady in its light,

So is the yogi whose mind is still,

Absorbed in yoga, focused in will.”

 

My dear Lord, my desire for you and the consequent focusing of my consciousness toward you, are presently feeble—like the flickering flame of a candle.

Also present within me are many disruptive desires for worldly things. These desires are like gusts of wind that drag my consciousness toward their desirable objects, thereby extinguishing the tiny flame of spiritual focus.

O Lord, to decrease the likelihood of these disruptive gusts of wind bursting into my consciousness, I need to resolutely say no to such desires whenever they arise, and to pay no more attention to them. It is my attention that gives power to these disruptive winds. And it is my refusal to give attention—or rather, my intentional inattention—that will disempower them.

Simultaneously, my Lord, bless me so that I can invest my intelligence, my imagination, and my intention in my spiritual aspiration to connect with you—and thereby fuel that flame. Let that tiny candle grow large and strong—like a mighty forest fire.

Just as wind does not extinguish a great fire but only spreads it further, when my desire for you becomes strong, then the recollection of other objects and the spreading of my consciousness toward them will no longer distract me. Instead, it will only increase my desire to engage even those objects in your service, my Lord.

And thus, my beloved Lord, I will rise beyond the world’s temptations and become immersed in you, intensely and irreversibly.

***

06.19 As a lamp in a windless place does not waver, so the transcendentalist, whose mind is controlled, remains always steady in his meditation on the transcendent Self.