Bhagavad Gita 6.19
यथा दीपो निवातस्थो नेङ्गते सोपमा स्मृता | योगिनो यतचित्तस्य युञ्जतो योगमात्मनः ||
yathā dīpo nivāta-stho neṅgate sopamā smṛtā | yogino yata-cittasya yuñjato yogam ātmanaḥ ||
Translation
As a light standing in a windless place flickers not, that is declared to be the parallel for a devotee whose mind is restrained, and who applies his self to abstraction.
Reflection
When was your mind last that still, and what had you set down to allow it?
Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Six
The image is given the whole verse to land. A lamp in a still room. The flame stands straight, it does not lean, it does not bend. Anyone who has ever lit a candle indoors and stepped away from the door knows this picture. That is what the steadied mind looks like from inside. The flame is not extinguished. The mind is still alight, still seeing. What has stopped is the constant lean toward the next thing. Krishna chooses a domestic image, not a heroic one, because the state he is naming is closer to ordinary stillness than to ecstasy. The lamp is the picture.