The senses moving, each engaging in its own object, the mind that follows along after them, the mind engaged in imagining objects of the senses, carries off the insight of this ascetic, destroys the insight born of the discernment of self and not-self. How? As the wind a boat on the water: as the wind, dragging from its course a boat that wishes to go straight, drives it onto a wrong course, so the mind, carrying off the insight whose object is the Self, makes it an insight whose object is the senses' objects. Having stated in many ways the proof of the meaning laid down with 'even of a man who strives', and having established that meaning, He sums it up.

This is a brief sub-gloss. For a fuller reading of this verse, see Madhusūdana, Śaṅkara, or Rāmānuja above.

Whichever of the senses moving among objects, present among the objects, the mind follows, that mind carries off this man's wisdom, the wisdom bent toward the self set apart; that is, it makes the wisdom bent toward objects, as a contrary wind forcibly carries off a boat being steered on the water.

How is it that the undisciplined man has no contemplation? Krishna answers with 'of the senses'. 'Is made to follow' means is brought about, surely by the Lord, since it will be said that the buddhi, the knowledge, follows the senses. The sense is that this carries away even the wisdom, the knowledge, that is about to arise; and even of knowledge already arisen there is an overpowering.