THE BHAGAVAD GITA X:22

Excerpts from God Talks with Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita
by Paramahansa Yogananda

Focus on the Spiritual Eye

Among the Vedas, I am the Sama Veda; among the gods, I am Vasava (Indra); among the senses, I am mind (manas); in creatures, I am the intelligence.

—The Bhagavad Gita X:22

Sama means "calm" or "tranquil" (from the word saman: "calming, tranquilizing," from sa, "meditation").

The acquisition of true knowledge (veda), truth realization, comes not from scriptural tenets or outward rituals, but from inner intuitive perception.

When by meditation,
interiorization,
the mind is tranquil (samana),
the attention of the yogi focuses at the Kutastha center of universal consciousness in the forehead;
and through the omniscient intuitive vision of the spiritual eye,

the devotee becomes a seer of veda, truth.

In the Vedas, and particularly in the rhythmic meter of the Sama Veda, there is a strictly regulated order (anupurvi) of the words, and phonological rules for combinations of sounds (sandhi) and for the recitation of letters (sanatana), which conduce to such interiorization. Each syllable (akshara) is endowed with significance and a spiritualizing vibration. [...]

Manas, the sense mind, is the coordinator of the ten senses (five of perception and five of action) and the cause of their externalization in the sensory organs. Mind is thus superior to its sensory instruments. Without mind, no sensations could be received, nor could activities be performed in response to sensations or to thoughts of the ego. Mind exists even without the physical senses. In the dreamland the mind can see, hear, smell, taste, and touch; and can perform all actions without the instruments of the sensory organs.