Chapter2- Sloka 60
yatato hyapi kaunteya puruṣasya vipaścitaḥ |
indriyāṇi pramādhīni haranti prasabhaṃ manaḥ || 60 ||
(2.60)
he kaunteya- O Kunti putra! puruṣasya- A person's; pramādhīni- strong; indriyāṇi- senses; prasabhaṃ- forcefully; haranti- carry away; manaḥ- the mind; vipaścitaḥ- (though) he has knowledge to discriminate between good and bad; yatataḥ api- and is continuously striving (for soul realisation);
Purport
In this śloka, Kṛṣṇa says that since a person cannot achieve complete control over his senses until the attachment towards sense objects gets removed, he cannot get a vision of the soul. By saying so the complexity in achieving perfection in jñāna yoga is being told.
Kṛṣṇa says, "O Kunti Putra! A person's strong senses forcefully carry away his mind even though he can discriminate between right and wrong and is continuously striving for soul realisation."
vipaścitaḥ (Of the jñāni) Here the person talked about is the one who has acquired the discriminative knowledge from the śāstras that the nature of the soul is superior and that the sense objects like sounds, forms, etc, are all inferior.
yatataḥ api puruṣasya (Though he is continuously striving) As a result of this discriminative knowledge though he is striving continuously for a vision of the soul...
pramādhīni indriyāṇi (Strong senses) Since the senses are very strong they have the ability to pull forcefully. balavānindriyagrāmo vidyāṃsamapi karṣati Manu Smṛti 2.215 (The group of senses which are very strong carry away even a jñāni) The senses are so strong that they can pull even a jñāni towards themselves. The strength of these indriyas (senses) is the attachment of this jīva that is holding on to the sense objects without leaving them.
manaḥ prasabhaṃ haranti (Forcefully pull away the mind) These senses keep forcefully pulling away the mind which is trying to move towards the soul and in turn direct it towards the sense objects. Therefore it is concluded that in spite of a person's continuous efforts he cannot get soul realisation until he gains victory over his senses and as a result gets his attachment towards sense objects removed. In the previous śloka it was said that until the soul is realised, the taste for sense objects does not go away. The scenario is such that victory over the senses is achieved only after the soul is realised and the soul is realised only after the senses are in control. Therefore it is said that achieving perfection in jñāna yoga is very difficult. This mutual dependency on one another is called as anyonyāśraya doṣaṃ)