Bhagavad Gita Verse 22, Chapter 10

vedaanaam saamavedosmi devaanaamasmi vaasavaha |
indriyaanaam manaschaasmi bhootaanaamasmi chetanaa || 22 ||
 
Among the Vedaas I am the Saama Veda, among the deities I am Vaasava, among the senses I am the mind and among the beings, I am the intellect.
 
vedaanaam : among the Vedas
saamavedaha : Saama Veda
asmi : I am
devaanaam : among the deities
asmi : I am
vaasavaha : Vaasava
indriyaanaam : among the senses
manaha : mind
cha : and
asmi : I am
bhootaanaam : among the beings
asmi : I am
chetanaa : intellect
 
Shri Krishna, elaborating on Ishvara’s expressions, says that Ishvara is the Saama Veda among all the Vedas. Each Veda has a unique characteristic. The Yajur Veda contains prose, the Rig Veda contains metric hymns, the Saama Veda contains songs and the Atharva Veda contains incantations. Of these, the Saama Veda is Ishvara’s expression, indicating his preference for music.
 
Among all the deities, Ishvara is the king of all deities known as Vaasava, also known as Indra. While our attention usually falls on the excesses of wealth and power that kings demonstrate, this was not the case traditionally. A king is supposed to spend every minute of his life serving his subjects, sacrificing everything. Such a rules of deities is a true expressions of Ishvara.
 
As we have seen earlier, we transact or interact with the world with our body, our senses, our organs of action, our mind and our intellect. The five senses and the five organs of action would be useless if not for the mind, that collects information from the senses and pulls together a complete picture of the world for us. It also instructs our organs to move, based on the inputs it receives. Shri Krishna says that this mind is an expression of Ishvara.
 
If we were to be born as a plant, animal or human, we would undoubtedly prefer to be born as a human. The key difference between a human and a plant or animal is the capacity of intelligence that lets us think logically, display compassion towards others, plan for the future and most importantly, pursue the path of the higher self. This wonderful intelligence in is is also Ishvara’s expression.
 
So therefore, if our mind generates thoughts of compassion or service, if our intellect makes us acts upon these thoughts so that we can serve others, we should remember that it is not the “I” in us that is causing everything to happen. It is all happening through Ishvara and his expressions.

Bhagavad Gita Verse 67, Chapter 2

indriyaanaam hi charataam yanmanuvidheeyate |
tadasya harati prajnyaam vaayurnaavamivaambhasi || 67 ||
 
For, even one of the wandering senses overpowers the mind and steals away wisdom, like wind affects a ship in water.
 
indriyaanaam : among the senses
hi : for
charataam : wandering
yat : the one that
manah : mind
anuvidheeyate : submitted
tat : that
asya : this
harati : steals
prajnyaam : wisdom
vaayuh : wind
naavam : ship
iva : like
ambhasi : water
 
A picture is worth a thousand words. So here, just like Shri Krishna painted a picture of the tortoise earlier, he uses another picture to portay an important point - that just one sense organ has the ability to destroy us. He gives us the example of a rudderless ship at sea. It will go wherever the wind takes it, and in time, eventually be destroyed.
 
In the same way, just one sense organ - the eye seeing something tempting, the ear hearing some gossip, the tongue tasting alcohol -  one sense organ can bring the mind under submission. In doing so, it can take away the intellect's capacity to function. And worse still, this whole chain of events can happen in a fraction of a second, and we won't even know it has happened unless we are eternally aware and alert.
 
We are nearing the end of the section on the signs of the individual of steady wisdom, and are a few shlokas away from concluding the second chapter.