Bhagavad Gita 6.35
श्रीभगवानुवाच | असंशयं महाबाहो मनो दुर्निग्रहं चलम् | अभ्यासेन तु कौन्तेय वैराग्येण च गृह्यते ||
śrī-bhagavān uvāca | asaṁśayaṁ mahā-bāho mano durnigrahaṁ calam | abhyāsena tu kaunteya vairāgyeṇa ca gṛhyate ||
Translation
The Deity said: Doubtless, O you of mighty arms! the mind is difficult to restrain, and fickle. Still, O son of Kuntī! it may be restrained by constant practice and by indifference to worldly objects.
Reflection
Which of the two tools is your practice currently missing, the daily return or the cooling of the chase?
Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Six
Krishna does not contradict the picture Arjuna has just drawn. He grants it. The mind is hard to hold. It moves. There is no argument about that. Then he names the two tools that work on it anyway. Practice, by which he means the repeated, unflashy return of the mind to its seat. And dispassion, by which he means the cooling of the appetite for what the mind has been chasing. The two run together. Without practice, dispassion has nothing to do. Without dispassion, practice keeps colliding with the same pulls. With both, the wind that cannot be gripped is gradually quieted.