10 Those who aspire to the state of yoga should seek the Self ininner solitude through meditation. With body and mind controlled they should constantly practice one-pointedness, free from expectations and attachment to material possessions.
11 Select a clean spot, neither too high nor too low, and seat yourselffirmly on a cloth, a deerskin, and kusha grass.
12 Then, once seated, strive to still your thoughts. Make your mind one-pointed in meditation, and your heart will be purified.
13 Hold your body, head, and neck firmly in a straight line, and keep your eyes from wandering.
14 With all fears dissolved in the peace of the Self and all desires dedicated to Brahman, controlling the mind and fixing it on me, sit in meditation with me as your only goal.
15 With senses and mind constantly controlled through meditation, united with the Self within, an aspirant attains nirvana, the state of abiding joy and peace in me.
16 Arjuna, those who eat too much or eat too little, who sleep too much or sleep too little, will not succeed in meditation. 17 But those who are temperate in eating and sleeping, work and recreation, will come to the end of sorrow through meditation. 18 Through constant effort they learn to withdraw the mind from selfish cravings and absorb it in the Self. Thus they attain the state of union.
19 When meditation is mastered, the mind is unwavering like the flame of a lamp in a windless place.
20 In the still mind, in the depths of meditation, the Self reveals itself. Beholding the Self by means of the Self, an aspirant knows the joy and peace of complete fulfillment.
21 Having attained that abiding joy beyond the senses, revealed in the stilled mind, he never swerves from the eternal truth.
22 He desires nothing else, and cannot be shaken by the heaviest burden of sorrow.
23 The practice of meditation frees one from all affliction. This is the path of yoga. Follow it with determination and sustained enthusiasm.
24 Renouncing wholeheartedly all selfish desires and expectations, use your will to control the senses.
25 Little by little, through patience and repeated effort, the mind will become stilled in the Self.
26 Wherever the mind wanders, restless and diffuse in its search for satisfaction without, lead it within; train it to rest in the Self
27 Abiding joy comes to those who still the mind. Freeing themselves from the taint of self-will, with their consciousness unified, they become one with Brahman.
28 The infinite joy of touching Brahman is easily attained by those who are free from the burden of evil and established within themselves.
29 They see the Self in every creature and all creation in the Self. With consciousness unified through meditation, they see everything with an equal eye.
30 I am ever present to those who have realized me in every creature. Seeing all life as my manifestation, they are never separated from me.
31 They worship me in the hearts of all, and all their actions proceed from me. Wherever they may live, they abide in me.
32 When a person responds to the joys and sorrows of others as if they were his own, he has attained the highest state of spiritual union.
ARJUNA
33 O Krishna, the stillness of divine union which you describe is beyond my comprehension. How can the mind, which is so restless, attain lasting peace?
34 Krishna, the mind is restless, turbulent, powerful, violent; trying to control it is like trying to tame the wind.
KRISHNA
35 It is true that the mind is restless and difficult to control. But it can be conquered, Arjuna, through regular practice and detachment.
36 Those who lack self-control will find it difficult to progress in meditation; but those who are self-controlled, striving earnestly through the right means, will attain the goal.
ARJUNA
37 Krishna, what happens to the man who has faith but who lacks self-control and wanders from the path, not attaining success in yoga?
38 If a man becomes deluded on the spiritual path, will he lose the support of both worlds, like a cloud scattered in the sky? 39 Krishna, you can dispel all doubts; remove this doubt which binds me.
KRISHNA
40 Arjuna, my son, such a person will not be destroyed. No one whodoes good work will ever come to a bad end, either here or in the world to come.
41 When such people die, they go to other realms where therighteous live. They dwell there for countless years and then are reborn into a home which is pure and prosperous.
42 Or they may be born into a family where meditation is practiced; to be born into such a family is extremely rare.
43 The wisdom they have acquired in previous lives will be reawakened, Arjuna, and they will strive even harder for Self-realization.
44 Indeed, they will be driven on by the strength of their past disciplines. Even one who inquires after the practice of meditation rises above those who simply perform rituals.
45 Through constant effort over many lifetimes, a person becomespurified of all selfish desires and attains the supreme goal of life.
46 Meditation is superior to severe asceticism and the path ofknowledge. It is also superior to selfless service. May you attain the goal of meditation, Arjuna! 47 Even among those who meditate, that man or woman who worships me with perfect faith, completely absorbed in me, is the most firmly established in yoga.
Chapter Seven, Wisdom from Realization
In Sanskrit this chapter is called “The Yoga of Wisdom and Realization” – or “The Yoga of Wisdom from Realization.” The term used for wisdom is jnana; for realization, vijnana. There is room for confusion in this terminology, as jnana and vijnana are open to differing interpretations. Both words are from the root jna, “to know,” which is related to the Greek word gnosis. The prefix vi added to a noun usually intensifies its meaning; so vijnana could mean to know intensely or to a greater degree. In this context, however, jnana is the standard term for the highest kind of knowledge: not scholarship or book-learning but direct knowledge of God, spiritual wisdom. If we take jnana in this sense, we are not left with an obvious meaning for vijnana, a “more intense kind of jnana.” Ramakrishna takes vijnana to mean an intimate, practical familiarity with God, the ability to carry through in daily affairs with the more abstract understanding that is jnana. Ramakrishna says, “One who has merely heard of fire has ajnana, ignorance. One who has seen fire has jnana. But one who has actually built a fire and cooked on it has vijnana.”
In this chapter we find ourselves following several trails and sometimes lose the unifying theme, which is knowledge of the supreme reality underlying nature. Eventually, however, we come back to the starting point: knowledge contrasted with ignorance, transcendent reality as opposed to the phenomenal world.
But to pursue the byways. First, Krishna’s “two natures” are discussed. On the one hand, he has created out of himself the elements and all things that make up the phenomenal world. Beyond this is Krishna’s spiritual nature as the transcendent Lord of the universe. Here the Gita is referring to a concept that later became a basis of the Sankhya school of Hindu philosophy. Sankhya recognized two fundamental principles underlying all things: prakriti, the principle of mind and matter, and Purusha, the principle of pure spirit. The union of these two eternal, fundamental forces sets in motion the creation of the world as we know it. Their union also shapes and defines all ordinary human experience. In Sankhya, the goal of Selfrealization is seen as the final freeing of the spirit (Purusha) from its flirtation with mind and matter (prakriti).
Unlike Sankhya, however, in the Gita it is Krishna who is behind both prakriti and Purusha. In this chapter, Krishna is presented as the Creator of the world. His divine nature can be glimpsed in his bewildering and wonderful creation. In much Hindu mythology, it is the god Brahma who takes credit for creating the world. It is he, the four-faced deity, who has flung forth the manifold worlds of this and former (as well as future) universes. But in the mythology of Vishnu, Brahma is born in the lotus that grows from Vishnu’s navel.
The lotus is Vishnu’s womb. In it Brahma is born, and at Vishnu’s urging he creates the worlds. Vishnu is the real Creator; Brahma is a demigod born of Vishnu’s will to create. Here in the Gita Krishna directly assumes all the roles and honors usually shared with the other aspects of God worshipped in the Hindu faith. It is not that these other divine personifications are rejected, but simply that all attention is on Krishna. For the author of the Gita, Krishna is the form of God to be worshipped, and for the time being all other forms of God disappear. Krishna alone is. In fact, one verse states that whatever other god one seems to worship, one is in reality approaching Krishna himself. Worshipping him, knowing him, enables the devotee to attain the goal.
Though the word is not used in the Gita, the idea of the world as Krishna’s lila, his play, became a cherished theme of later Hinduism.
Krishna, it is said, created the world in play: just as a child might desire to have companions to play with, Krishna desired companions, and made the world. Krishna participates in the game of life; his divine qualities shine through in the world wherever there is excellence of any kind. He is, he tells
