6. The Yoga of Meditation

Summary

Krishna gives a practical meditation manual: where to sit, how to sit, what to fix the mind upon. He describes the disciplined practitioner — moderate in food, moderate in sleep, moderate in everything — and the state of yoga as "stillness like a flame in a windless place." Arjuna objects: the mind is harder to control than the wind. Krishna agrees but says it can be done — through abhyāsa (practice) and vairāgya (dispassion).

Key teaching

The Gita's meditation teaching is not "calm the mind in one session." It is: pick a focal point, return to it whenever the mind wanders, do this every day for years. The mind is trained the way a wild horse is trained — by repetition, not by force.

Famous verses from this chapter

• 6.5 Lift yourself by yourself; do not let yourself sink. For the self alone is the friend of the self, and the self alone is the enemy of the se…
• 6.35 Without doubt, O mighty-armed, the mind is difficult to control and restless. But by practice and by dispassion, it can be brought under con…