Bhagavad Gita 6.26
यतो यतो निश्चरति मनश्चञ्चलमस्थिरम् | ततस्ततो नियम्यैतदात्मन्येव वशं नयेत् ||
yato yato niścarati manaś cañcalam asthiram | tatas tato niyamyaitad ātmany eva vaśaṁ nayet ||
Translation
Wherever the active and unsteady mind would wander, it should be restrained from those, and brought under the control of the self alone.
Reflection
How many times today could you bring your mind back without scolding it, and start counting that as the practice?
Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Six
The instruction does not assume the mind will sit. It assumes the mind will leave, repeatedly, and gives the method for what to do each time it does. Wherever it goes, from there it is to be fetched back. The verse is patient about this. It does not scold the wandering. It just gives the gesture, again and again. The work of meditation is not to install a mind that does not wander. The work is to make the return gesture habitual. The mind that returns easily, even from a hundred excursions an hour, is the trained mind. The mind that has stopped wandering is the rare end-state, much later.