Bhagavad Gita · Chapter 6

Path of Meditation

6.1Krishna says the real holy person is someone who does their duty without caring about the reward. Someone is not holy just because they stopped lighting the sacred fire and doing religious rituals.Krishna
6.2Krishna tells Arjuna (called Pandava, son of Pandu) that giving things up and yoga are really the same. No one becomes a true yogi without giving up their selfish plans and wants.Krishna
6.3Krishna says that for someone just starting on the path of yoga, doing good work is the way forward. Once they are settled in yoga, staying calm and peaceful becomes the way forward.Krishna
6.4Krishna says a person is settled in yoga when they no longer cling to pleasures or to their actions. They have given up their selfish plans and wants.Krishna
6.5Krishna says you must lift yourself up with your own higher self and not let yourself sink down. Your own mind can be your best friend or your worst enemy.Krishna
6.6Krishna says that when you have mastered yourself, your higher self is your friend. When you have not, your own self works against you like an enemy.Krishna
6.7Krishna says that a person who has mastered themselves and is at peace stays steady with God. Cold or heat, pleasure or pain, praise or insult do not shake them.Krishna
6.8Krishna says a yogi (a person who practices yoga, the discipline of joining the mind with God) is content with what he knows and understands. He stays steady, controls his senses, and sees a lump of dirt, a stone and gold as having the same worth.Krishna
6.9Krishna says the best person treats everyone the same: friends, enemies, strangers, family, people who don't care either way, and good and bad people alike.Krishna
6.10Krishna says the yogi should practice meditation regularly, alone in a quiet, private place. He should keep his mind and body under control and let go of wanting and grasping.Krishna
6.11Krishna describes the meditation seat. It should be in a clean place, firm, not too high and not too low, made of kusha grass (a sacred grass), with a deer skin and then a cloth on top.Krishna
6.12Krishna says to sit steadily on that seat and focus the mind on one thing. With thoughts and senses calmed, a person should meditate to make the inner self pure.Krishna
6.13Krishna says to keep the body, head and neck straight and still. The eyes rest toward the tip of the nose without looking around at anything.Krishna
6.14Krishna says the meditator should be calm and unafraid, and keep the vow of a brahmachari (a student who lives a pure, celibate life). With the mind controlled, he should sit thinking of Krishna and longing for Him.Krishna
6.15Krishna says the yogi who always keeps his mind controlled and joined with the Self reaches peace. This is the highest joy, which lives in Krishna.Krishna
6.16Krishna tells Arjuna that yoga does not work for someone who eats too much or too little. It also does not work for someone who sleeps too much or too little.Krishna
6.17Krishna says yoga removes all suffering for a person who is balanced. Such a person is moderate in eating, fun, work, sleep and waking.Krishna
6.18Krishna says a person is called balanced when his calm mind rests on the Self and he no longer craves the things people usually want.Krishna
6.19Krishna says the mind of a yogi deep in meditation is like a lamp flame in a place with no wind. It does not flicker.Krishna
6.20Krishna describes the state where the mind finally rests, made quiet by meditation. In it, a person sees his true Self and is fully satisfied within.Krishna
6.21Krishna says in that state a person finds the greatest joy. This joy goes beyond the senses and is known by the understanding. Once there, he does not slip away from what is truly real.Krishna
6.22Krishna says once someone reaches this state, he knows nothing is worth more. Even a great sorrow cannot shake him.Krishna
6.23Krishna says yoga means being cut off from pain. A person should stick with this practice firmly and without losing heart.Krishna
6.24Krishna says to completely drop the desires that come from imagining things. Use the mind to pull back all the senses from every direction.Krishna
6.25Krishna says to grow calm slowly, step by step, using steady understanding. Once the mind rests in the Self, think of nothing else.Krishna
6.26Krishna says the mind is restless and wanders. Every time it wanders off, bring it back and place it under the control of the Self.Krishna
6.27Krishna says the highest joy comes to the yogi whose mind is peaceful and whose strong passions have calmed down. Such a person is free of sin and has become one with the Eternal.Krishna
6.28Krishna says that a yogi (a person who practices meditation and inner discipline) who keeps calming and balancing himself becomes free of wrongdoing. Such a person easily feels the endless joy of being in touch with the Eternal, meaning God.Krishna
6.29Krishna says that a person made calm and balanced by yoga sees the same divine Self living inside every being. He sees all beings as part of that one Self, so he sees the same thing everywhere.Krishna
6.30Krishna says that whoever sees Him everywhere and sees everything as resting in Him will never be lost to Him. Krishna will never let go of that person, and that person will never lose Krishna.Krishna
6.31Krishna says that a person who feels at one with everything and worships Him as living in all beings truly lives in Him. This is true however that person lives their daily life.Krishna
6.32Krishna tells Arjuna that the perfect yogi feels others' joy and pain as if it were his own. Because he sees himself in everyone, he treats all beings equally, whether in pleasure or in pain.Krishna
6.33Arjuna tells Krishna, whom he calls Madhusudana (slayer of the demon Madhu), that he cannot see how this yoga of staying calm and balanced could last. His mind is too restless to stay steady.Arjuna
6.34Arjuna says the mind is restless, wild, strong and stubborn. He thinks controlling it is as hard as trying to hold back the wind.Arjuna
6.35Krishna agrees that the mind is restless and hard to control. But he says it can be controlled through steady, repeated practice and by letting go of cravings.Krishna
6.36Krishna says yoga is very hard for someone with no self-control. But a person who disciplines himself can reach it by putting his effort in the right direction.Krishna
6.37Arjuna asks about a person who has faith but lacks self-control, whose mind wanders away from yoga so they never reach the goal. What happens to that person?Arjuna
6.38Arjuna worries that such a person loses out on both worldly life and spiritual success. He asks if they simply fade away like a torn cloud, lost on the path to God.Arjuna
6.39Arjuna begs Krishna to clear away this doubt completely. He says no one but Krishna is able to answer it.Arjuna
6.40Krishna tells Arjuna, the son of Pritha, that such a person is never destroyed, not in this life or the next. Anyone who does good never ends up on a path of misery.Krishna
6.41Krishna explains that the person who fell away from yoga goes to the heavenly worlds of good people and stays there a very long time. Then they are born again into a good and fortunate family.Krishna
6.42Krishna says such a person might even be born into a family of wise yogis. But he adds that a birth like that is very rare in this world.Krishna
6.43Krishna says that in the new life, the person gets back the spiritual progress they made before. With it, they work toward perfection once again.Krishna
6.44Krishna says the habits from that earlier practice pull the person strongly back to the spiritual path. Even someone who only wants to learn about yoga goes beyond simply following religious rituals.Krishna
6.45Krishna says the yogi who keeps working hard and is cleansed of wrongdoing becomes fully perfect over many lifetimes. In the end, they reach the highest goal.Krishna
6.46Krishna says the yogi is greater than people who only punish their bodies, greater than the merely learned, and greater than people who only do rituals and duties. So he tells Arjuna to become a yogi.Krishna
6.47Krishna says that of all yogis, the best is the one full of faith who keeps their inner self fixed on Him and worships Him with love. Krishna sees that person as the most united with Him.Krishna