Verses 6.10–6.14
योगी युञ्जीत सततमात्मानं रहसि स्थित: | एकाकी यतचित्तात्मा निराशीरपरिग्रह:
yogī yuñjīta satatam ātmānaṃ rahasi sthitaḥ / ekākī yatachittātmā nirāśīraparigrahaḥ / / 6.10
A Yogī should always try to concentrate his mind on the Supreme Self; situated in a secluded place, he should carefully control his mind without being attracted by anything and should be free from the feeling of possessiveness.
शुचौ देशे प्रतिष्ठाप्य स्थिरमासनमात्मन: | नात्युच्छ्रितं नातिनीचं चैलाजिनकुशोत्तरम्
śucau deśe pratiṣṭhāpya sthiram āsanam ātmanaḥ / nātyucchritaṃ nātinīcaṃ cailājina-kuśottaram / / 6.11
On a clean and pure place, one should establish his seat by laying kuśa grass, a deer skin and a cloth, one over another, neither too high nor too low.
तत्रैकाग्रं मन: कृत्वा यतचित्तेन्द्रियक्रिय: | उपविश्यासने युञ्ज्याद्योगमात्मविशुद्धये
tatraikāgraṃ manaḥ kṛtvā yata-cittendriya-kriyaḥ / upaviśyāsane yuñjyād yogamātmaviśuddhaye / / 6.12
Sitting firmly on that pure seat, the yogi should practice the purification of the self by controlling the activities of mind and the senses
समं कायशिरोग्रीवं धारयन्नचलं स्थिर: | सम्प्रेक्ष्य नासिकाग्रं स्वं दिशश्चानवलोकयन्
samaṃ kāyaśirogrīvaṃ dhārayannacalaṃ sthiraḥ / samprekṣya nāsikāgraṃ svaṃ diśaścānavalokayan / / 6.13
Holding the body, head and neck steady, look at the tip of your nose without looking in any other direction.
प्रशान्तात्मा विगतभीर्ब्रह्मचारिव्रते स्थित: | मन: संयम्य मच्चित्तो युक्त आसीत मत्पर:
praśāntātmā vigatabhīr brahmacārivrate sthitaḥ / manaḥ saṃyamya maccitto yukta āsī ta matparaḥ / / 6.14
Sit with an unagitated mind, free from fear and in tune with Existence, controlling the mind, focusing it on Me and make Me the supreme goal.
In these verses Kṛṣṇa gives directions for the practitioner of Yoga, the Yogī. There are instructions about both the state of the mind and the state of the body. These verses are often quoted and misused with a literal understanding and without grasping the inner meaning and significance. We can sit with closed or half closed eyes, with spine erect, in a sound-proofed dark room, and still be far away from enlightenment. Understand, these are general and practical guidelines given to help us with how we should sit and meditate. These are not essential qualifications for Enlightenment. Kṛṣṇa repeats the importance of controlling our senses again and Dhyāna Yogaḥ Look In, Be Complete Before Any Conclusion 451 again.
Why? Senses are our doors to the external world. As long as they are open and uncontrolled, we are immersed only in the external world. It is impossible to understand our true reality when we are studying the external world. We may become a great scientist or a wealthy businessman by observing the outer world, but never an enlightened person. For this path, looking inwards is the only way. Unclutch and Become Liberated Controlling the senses requires controlling the mind. Controlling the mind requires control of thoughts. Controlling the thoughts requires integrity. When we continuously live integrity, we will become aware of the thoughts and processes happening in our inner space.
And constantly listening to our own inner space is the beginning of integrity. If our inner space says that there is nothing more to listen, if only silence is there, then that is the end of integrity. We have achieved integrity. When we start listening to our inner space, we start integrity and when we listen to only silence from our inner space, we have achieved integrity. As long as we are hearing something from our inner space, it is lack of integrity. Go on listening. Even while you are sitting, driving, talking or walking, listen to you. Also listen to you, when you are talking! It is listening to you that is going to bring integrity to you!
Listen! Listen! Untiringly listen! Intensely bring integrity to your life. If we sit for a few minutes and intensely listen and analyze our thoughts, we will find that there is no connection between one thought and another. There is no logic in our thinking process. By their very nature our thoughts are illogical, unconnected and irrational. Thoughts keep swinging from past to future and back to the past. We need to do two things to control our thoughts. First, we need to stay in the present moment by refusing to move to the past and future and second, we need to disconnect thoughts. I call this Unclutching. We need to be aware that thoughts are not inherently connected.
We connect them into a shaft of joy or sorrow. These shafts do not exist at all. So I say to you, unclutch and become liberated. I am not saying to stay without thoughts. That is not possible; just witness thoughts. Understand that thoughts are unconnected. Detach yourself from the emotional baggage of the thoughts. If we detach ourselves from the regrets of the past and the speculations about the future we will automatically rise into the present. People again and again ask me, ‘The moment I sit for meditation or Unclutching, I have more thoughts! I have more confusion, I have more problems. Next time, I don’t want to sit for meditation or Unclutching.
Swamiji, what should I do?’ How will you not have thoughts or confusion? Unclutching is not like switching off the electricity to your house. It is like cleaning, sweeping and wiping your house. It is not like electricity that you will just switch off and be unclutched. No! It is like cleaning, sweeping and wiping. First, listen to your inner space! That is the first step to meditation, to life. Listen!! We cannot live without desires. If anyone tells us that we can reach Enlightenment through elimination of desires, it is incorrect. First of all, we are already enlightened. Our inner Self knows it is connected to the Divine. We are just not aware of it, that’s all.
If we are already there, how can we achieve it? Second, desires are energy. We cannot inhale and exhale without the desire to live. Simply dying will not give us the experience! That is what Kṛṣṇa talks about here—dropping the attachment and possessiveness to desires, not the desire itself. It is the feeling of ‘mine,’ the desire to possess, that creates the feeling of ‘I,’ not the other way around. Our identity is made up of all the things that we want, that we desire, that we are attached to. These constitute our mental make-up. The seeds of desire and embedded memories are the stuff our package of ‘I’ is made of.
Once the feeling of possession, the feeling of ‘mine’ disappears, it is possible to shed our identity as well. When we are free of the feeling of Dhyāna Yogaḥ Look In, Be Complete Before Any Conclusion 453 ‘mine’ and ‘I’, when we are not attached or attracted to external objects, when we are not led by our senses, we have steadied the mind and senses. To facilitate this, Kṛṣṇa stipulates the conditions. We should go to a secluded place. Why? Whatever said and done, in the house, the phone may ring, somebody may knock or some salesperson may call. A secluded place is really just a means to move us away from these disturbances.
Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa continuously recommends in his books that every person should retire from the regular activities at least for two or three days a month, or at least once in six months, and re-align himself towards the higher ideals. I also recommend this for all my followers and disciples, at least once in six months, take three or four days off. Come and spend your time in the Bidadi ashram campus, realigning yourself to integrity. Here, you will see and hear the miracles happening just by integrity and authenticity. Only when you see all these miracles with your eyes, you will understand the power of integrity, the power of authenticity.
Whatever is happening is the power of dharma. Buddha means a person who has aligned with dharma. Sangha means a group of people who are aligning with dharma. But dharma is the center. It is the power of dharma. Once in a while, you have to retreat from the regular activities and align yourself to integrity, authenticity, responsibility and enriching. The kuṣa (a grass ideal to sit on and meditate), deerskin and all those things are like insulation, so that the earth will not absorb the energy we create. But now we don’t have to bother about that, since we usually sit in a chair, raised a little from the ground.
The seat should neither be too high nor too low and it should be comfortable. That’s all. The most important thing to be aware of in any meditation is to be relaxed. We cannot meditate in discomfort. Sthira (stable) and sukha (pleasurable) are the basic essentials of any meditation posture. Here Kṛṣṇa updates the technique that He gave earlier. Here He gives three more instructions: 1. Head, spine and neck should be in a straight line. 2. We should fix our eyes on the tip of the nose. If we look at the tip of the nose, naturally, our awareness will settle on the third eye. Our concentration will settle on the ājña cakra (the brow energy center).
In addition, the focus is on the third eye between the brows, which, when energized, dissolves the ego block. Finally, Kṛṣṇa says, ‘Focus on Me—manaḥ saṁyamya mac-chitto. Make Me the Supreme goal—yukta āsīta mat-paraḥ (6.14).’ He means our true Self. If we like, we can meditate on the form of Kṛṣṇa, with a flute and peacock feather. But I always prescribe going beyond the form. Go into your being. Of course, when we enter into our third eye, automatically we will go beyond the form. We will start meditating on the formless energy that is beyond the form. Neither Too Much Nor Too Little