Bhagavad Gita 6.25

śanaiḥ śanair uparamed

buddhyā dhṛti-gṛhītayā

ātma-saṁsthaṁ manaḥ kṛtvā

na kiñcid api cintayet

 

“Step by step, let the mind retreat,

Held by wisdom, steady and sweet.

Fix it firm in the self so bright,

Let all distractions fade out of sight.”

 

My dear Lord, the key to turning the mind toward the spiritual is to take a gradual, step-by-step approach.

Bless me, my Lord, so that I can approach my mind just as objectively and clinically as I might approach my body. If I wanted to lift heavy weights, I wouldn’t expect to succeed in just a few tries. I would stick to my exercise routine to build my muscles, gradually increasing the weights.

O Lord, bless me so that while trying to focus my wild mind, I do not succumb to its deceptive strategy of devaluing the power of small steps. Just because I lose my focus after sometime does not mean that the time for which I was able to focus was worthless.

Please, O Lord, help me appreciate the significance of every hour, every minute—indeed, every moment—that I invest in contemplating higher realities, and ultimately, in remembering you. Every such moment is creating healthy impressions in my mind and thereby reforming it. Indeed, O Lord, one small step at a time is the only way to actually change the conditionings of the mind.  

Bless me, O Lord, with the confidence that this evolutionary process will eventually lead to a revolutionary result—taking me and my mind beyond this world of mortality and misery, to your abode of immortality and ecstasy.

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06.25 Gradually, step by step, one should become situated in trance by means of intelligence sustained by full conviction, and thus the mind should be fixed on the Self alone and should think of nothing else.