Gita 3.6
Karma Yoga
कर्मेन्द्रियाणि संयम्य य आस्ते मनसा स्मरन् | इन्द्रियार्थान्विमूढात्मा मिथ्याचारः स उच्यते ||६||
karmendriyāṇi saṁyamya ya āste manasā smaran | indriyārthān vimūḍhātmā mithyācāraḥ sa ucyate ||6||
In essence: Restraining your hands while your mind runs wild is not spirituality—it is hypocrisy. True renunciation happens inside, not outside.
A conversation between a seeker and guide to help you feel this verse deeply
Sadhak-Guru Dialogue
Sadhak: "But isn't some restraint necessary? Don't we have to control our senses to progress spiritually?"
Guru: "Certainly—but there's a crucial difference between restraint as a temporary tool and restraint as the goal. If you restrain your senses to create space for deeper investigation, that's skillful means. If you restrain your senses while believing you've thereby become spiritual, that's self-deception. The question is: what's happening inside while you restrain outside?"
Sadhak: "Sometimes I meditate and my body is still, but my mind is planning meals, remembering movies, fantasizing about success..."
Guru: "This is exactly what Krishna describes. You're sitting in meditation—karmendriyāṇi saṁyamya—but your mind is on indriyārthān, sense objects. The irony is that you might feel virtuous for sitting there, when in truth you're just daydreaming in an uncomfortable position. Better to acknowledge the mind's state and work with it than to pretend stillness you don't possess."
Sadhak: "So what's the solution? Should I just indulge my desires since restraint isn't working?"
Guru: "That's the other extreme—and equally ineffective. Indulgence doesn't satisfy desire; it feeds it. The solution is neither repression nor indulgence but understanding. Why does your mind crave sense objects? What does it truly seek? When you investigate desire deeply, you find it's always seeking happiness, peace, fulfillment. But these don't reside in sense objects—they reside in you. When this is seen clearly, the craving naturally subsides. Not by force but by wisdom."
Sadhak: "That sounds like a long process. What do I do in the meantime?"
Guru: "Practice honest restraint. When you restrain the senses, acknowledge what the mind is doing. Don't pretend to be further along than you are. Use the gap created by restraint to investigate, not to repress. And engage in positive action—karma yoga—so that energy flows outward in service rather than inward into fantasy. The next verse will tell you what a true practitioner does."
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🌅 Daily Practice
During morning meditation or practice, commit to radical honesty. When you sit, notice: is your body still while your mind roams? Don't suppress this; don't pretend it's not happening; don't judge yourself. Simply acknowledge: 'Body sitting. Mind wandering to breakfast... to that conversation... to work tasks.' This acknowledgment breaks the hypocritical split between outer stillness and inner chaos. Start your day with this honesty rather than false peace.
Notice moments of internal-external mismatch throughout the day. Are you at a meeting but mentally elsewhere? Listening to someone while composing your reply? Doing one task while craving another? Each instance is a small version of what Krishna describes. When you catch it, pause. Bring mind and body to the same place. Let action and attention unify. Even a few seconds of genuine presence is worth more than hours of divided consciousness.
Before sleep, do an honest audit: Where today was I the mithyācārī (hypocrite) Krishna describes? Where was my external behavior divorced from my internal reality? This isn't meant to create guilt but awareness. Notice especially: any moments of spiritual pride based on external actions while internal state was unchanged? Any presentation of yourself as more evolved than you felt? Acknowledge these without judgment. Tomorrow, aim for greater integrity—alignment of inner and outer.