VI: 6

Chapter 6, Verse 6

"When a person learns self-mastery,
The will is the friend of the Self.
But the will of an uncontrolled person
Is hostile to the Self,
Like an enemy."

Swami Shivananda:

Master the lower mind with the help of the higher mind.  The lower mind is your enemy.  The higher mind is your friend.  Make friends with the higher mind and you will master the lower mind.  The lower mind is filled with darkness.  The higher mind is filled with purity and light.

Father Bede Griffiths:

Our real Self is spirit.  When the psyche is guided by spirit, we are integrated, at one with spirit, the spirit of God.  At that point the spirit of God meets the spirit of humanity.  That is Yoga, our state of unity.

What people imagine to be their real Self is usually their outer persona, from the Latin, per sona, that through which sound passes.  This refers to the masks worn in the Greco-Roman amphitheaters to project the voices of the actors.  The persona masks our true Self.  To penetrate the superficial layers of the persona and to discover our true identity becomes possible as we long for that identification.  Otherwise we will identify ourselves as a self separate from spirit, and we will live an illusion.