16. He is unapproachable by missiles, and invulnerable by arms and weapons, and unseizable by the dexterity of warriors; and it is by his resistless might, that he has brought the gods and demigods under his subjection.
17. It was he (the proud mind) that defeated our forefathers, the mighty Hiranyas (Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakasipu), before they were destroyed by the great Vishnu; who felled the big Asuras, as a storm breaks down the sturdy and rocklike oaks.[9]
18. The gods Náráyana and others (who had been the instructors of men), were all foiled by him and confined in their cells of the wombs of their mothers (by an imprecation of the sage Bhrigu, who denounced them to become incarnate in human forms).
19. It is by his favour that Káma (Cupid), the god with his flower bow and five arrows, has been enabled to subdue and overcome the three worlds, and boasts of being their sole emperor. (Káma called also Manoja, is the child of mana or mind, and Kandarpa for his boast of his triumph).
20. The gods and demigods, the intelligent and the foolish, the deformed and the irascible, are all actuated by his influence. (Love is the leader to action according to Plato).
21. The repeated wars between the gods and Asuras, are the sports of this minister (who deliberates in secret the destinies of all beings. The restless mind is continually at warfare).
22. This minister is only manageable by its lord—the silent soul, or else it is as dull as an immovable rock or restless as the wind.
23. It is in the long run of its advancement in spiritual knowledge, that the soul feels a desire in itself to subdue its minister; who is otherwise ungovernable of its nature by lenient measures. (Govern your mind or it will govern you. The mind is best taught by whip).
24. You are then said to be valiant, if you can conquer this greatest of the giants in the three worlds, who has been worrying all people out for their breath. (The mind longs for occupation).
25. After the rising of the intellect, the world appears as a flower garden, and like the lake of blooming lotuses at sunrise; and its setting covers the world in darkness as at sunset (i.e. in unconsciousness).