Yoga As Body And Mind Control

This material world is a world of duality—at one moment we are subjected to the heat of the summer season and at the next moment the cold of winter.

 Or at one moment we’re happy and at the next moment distressed. At one moment honoured, at the next dishonored. In the material world of duality, it is impossible to understand one thing without understanding its opposite. It is not possible to understand what honor is unless I understand dishonour. Similarly, I cannot understand what misery is if I have never tasted happiness. Nor can I understand what happiness is unless I have tasted misery. One has to transcend such dualities, but as long as this body is here these dualities will be here also. Insofar as one strives to get out of bodily conceptions—not out of the body but out of bodily conceptions—one has to learn to tolerate such dualities. In the Second Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā Krishna informs Arjuna that the duality of distress and happiness is due to the body alone. It’s like a skin disease, or skin itch. Just because there is itching, one should not be mad after it to scratch it. We should not go mad or give up our duty just because mosquitoes bite us. There are so many dualities one has to tolerate, but if the mind is fixed in Krishna consciousness, all these dualities will seem insignificant. How is it one can tolerate such dualities?

jñāna-vijñāna-tṛptātmā
kūṭastho vijitendriyaḥ
yukta ity ucyate yogī
sama-loṣṭrāśma-kāñcanaḥ