Those who tame the mind, which travels far, which wanders alone, which is bodiless and dwells in the cave of the heart, are freed from Māra’s bonds.

Dūraṅgamaṃ — traveling far: mind can travel to the remotest past and farthest future in the instant of a thought. This capacity for extended range is both the greatness and danger of mind: it can contemplate the edges of the universe or lose itself in fruitless fantasies.

Ekacaraṃ — wandering alone: mind has its own life, its autonomous movement. Thoughts arise without being summoned; images appear without being invited. This “solitude” of mind, its relative autonomy, is what makes training both necessary and challenging.

Asarīraṃ guhāsayaṃ — bodiless, dwelling in the cave of the heart: guhā (cave) is a term that also appears in the Upanishads for the place where the Ātman dwells. Mind has no definitive physical location; its “dwelling” is an inner cave, the space of consciousness itself.

Ye cittaṃ saṃyamessanti, mokkhanti mārabandhanā — those who tame the mind are freed from Māra’s bonds: mokkhanti is the verb of liberation, of emancipation. Taming the mind is not a means to another end; it is liberation itself. Controlling mind and freeing from conditioning are, at root, the same.