Speaker: Śrī Kṛṣṇa
यदा संहरते चायं कूर्मोऽङ्गानीव सर्वशः ।
इन्द्रियाणीन्द्रियार्थेभ्यस्तस्य प्रज्ञा प्रतिष्ठिता ॥५८॥
yadā saṁharate cāyaṁ
kūrmo 'ṅgānīva sarvaśaḥ
indriyāṇīndriyārthebhyas
tasya prajñā pratiṣṭhitā
Word for word (synonyms)
- yadā
- when
- saṁharate
- winds up
- ca
- also
- ayam
- all these
- kūrmaḥ
- tortoise
- aṅgāni
- limbs
- iva
- like
- sarvaśaḥ
- altogether
- indriyāni
- senses
- indriya-arthebhyaḥ
- from the sense objects
- tasya
- his
- prajñā
- consciousness
- pratiṣṭhitā
- fixed up
Translation
One who is able to withdraw his senses from sense objects, as the tortoise draws his limbs within the shell, is to be understood as truly situated in knowledge.
Defined in the Gītā
Knowledge
What is knowledge?
Humility, pridelessness, nonviolence, tolerance, simplicity, approaching a bona fide spiritual master, cleanliness, steadiness and self-control; renunciation of the objects of sense gratification, absence of false ego, the perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease; nonattachment to children, wife, home and the rest, and evenmindedness amid pleasant and unpleasant events; constant and unalloyed devotion to Me, resorting to solitary places, detachment from the general mass of people; accepting the importance of self-realization, and philosophical search for the Absolute Truth—all these I thus declare to be knowledge, and what is contrary to these is ignorance.
Purport
The test of a yogī, devotee, or self-realized soul is that he is able to control the senses according to his plan. Most people, however, are servants of the senses and are thus directed by the dictation of the senses. That is the answer to the question as to how the yogī is situated. The senses are compared to venomous serpents. They want to act very loosely and without restriction. The yogī, or the devotee, must be very strong to control the serpents—like a snake charmer. He never allows them to act independently. There are many injunctions in the revealed scriptures; some of them are do-not's, and some of them are do's. Unless one is able to follow the do's and the do-not's, restricting oneself from sense enjoyment, it is not possible to be firmly fixed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The best example, set herein, is the tortoise. The tortoise can at any moment wind up his senses and exhibit them again at any time for particular purposes. Similarly, the senses of the Kṛṣṇa conscious persons are used only for some particular purpose in the service of the Lord and are withdrawn otherwise. Keeping the senses always in the service of the Lord is the example set by the analogy of the tortoise, who keeps the senses within.
What this verse teaches
[A3] Sthita-prajña’s sense control (sitting) – He withdraws senses like a tortoise. Sense control is difficult even for the wise, and is possible only by kṛṣṇa-bhakti. One falls down in eight stages due to uncontrolled mind.
- Themes
- Self-control
In thematic compilations 1
- One who is able to withdraw his senses from sense objects, as the tortoise draws its limbs within the shell, is firmly fixed in perfect consciousness (2.58 yadā saṁharate cāyaṁ...)
- Don’t let the senses to come in contact with sense objects, like a tortoise that withdraws the senses when not in use (2.58 yadā saṁharate cāyaṁ...)
Śrīla Prabhupāda lectures 3
- Bhagavad-gītā 2.55–58 1966-04-13 · New York
- Bhagavad-gītā 2.58–59 1966-04-15 · New York
- Bhagavad-gītā 2.46-62 1968-12-16
Bhagavad-gītā As It Is by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda © The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International.