restless and unsteady, may run, restraining it from those, one should direct it to self alone.  Indeed, unto such a devotee whose mind is in tranquillity, whose passions have been suppressed, who hath become one with Brahma and who is free from sin, the highest felicity cometh (of his own accord).  Thus applying his soul constantly (to abstraction), the devotee, freed from sin, easily obtaineth that highest happiness, viz., with Brahma.  He who hath devoted his self to abstraction casting an equal eye everywhere, beholdeth his self in all creatures and all creatures in his self.  Unto him who beholdeth me in everything and beholdeth everything in me.  I am never lost and he also is never lost to me.[198] He who worshippeth me as abiding in all creatures, holding yet that all is one, is a devotee, and whatever mode of life he may lead, he liveth in me.  That devotee, O Arjuna, who casteth an equal eye everywhere, regarding all things as his own self and the happiness and misery of others as his own, is deemed to be the best.’

“Arjuna said, ’This devotion by means of equanimity which thou hast declared, O slayer of Madhu,—­on account of restlessness of the mind I do not see its stable presence.[199] O Krishna, the mind is restless, boisterous, perverse, and obstinate.  Its restraint I regard to be as difficult of accomplishment as the restraint of the wind.’

“The Holy One said, ’Without doubt, O thou of mighty arms the mind is difficult of subjugation and is restless.  With practice, however, O son of Kunti, and with the abandonment of desire, it can be controlled.  It is my belief that by him whose mind is not restrained, devotion is difficult of acquisition.  But by one whose mind is restrained and who is assiduous, it is capable of acquisition with the aid of means.’

“Arjuna said, ’Without assiduity, though endued with faith, and with mind shaken off from devotion, what is the end of him, O Krishna, who hath not earned success in devotion?  Fallen off from both,[200] is he lost like a separated cloud or not, being as he is without refuge, O thou of mighty arms, and deluded on the path leading to Brahma?  This my doubt, O Krishna, it behoveth thee to remove without leaving anything.  Besides thee, no dispeller of this doubt is to be had.[201]

“The Holy One said, ’O son of Pritha, neither here, nor hereafter, doth ruin exist for him, since none, O sire, who performs good (acts) comes by an evil end.  Attaining to the regions reserved for those that perform meritorious acts and living there for many many years, he that hath fallen off from devotion taketh birth in the abode of those that art pious and endued with prosperity, or, he is born even in the family of devotees endued with intelligence.  Indeed, a birth such as this is more difficult of acquisition in this world.  There in those births he obtaineth contact with that Brahmic knowledge which was his in his former life; and from that point he