novelraw Arc 2 - Bhagavad Gītā Parva - Chapter 11 - Dhyāna-Yoga — The Yoga of Meditation (Bhagavad Gītā VI)
Arc 2 - Bhagavad Gītā Parva - Chapter 11 - Dhyāna-Yoga — The Yoga of Meditation (Bhagavad Gītā VI)
Vaiśampāyana said:
When the union of renunciation and action had been shown, Arjuna desired to hear the discipline of stillness. Then, O King Janamejaya, upon that field where conches slept and banners stirred, Śrī Bhagavān taught the Yoga of the quiet mind.
The true renouncer and the means
Śrī Bhagavān said:
Not he who shuns the sacrificial fire,
Nor he who flees from righteous deed—
The doer free of fruit-desire
Is renouncer, yogin both indeed.
Renunciation is not escape from work but freedom from craving. One who performs the due with no claim on result is both saṃnyāsin and yogin.
Śrī Bhagavān said:
What men call “casting all resolves,”
Know that as Yoga’s heart;
For none can truly dwell in Me
Who clings to will and part.
Yoga requires the letting go of self-willed projects; devotion begins when desire slackens.
Śrī Bhagavān said:
For him who seeks to rise in Yoga, work’s the upward way;
For him established firm in Yoga, stillness holds the sway.
Action purifies and steadies; when steadied, the same mind rests in contemplation.
Self as friend and foe
Śrī Bhagavān said:
By Self let man his Self uplift;
Let not the Self be thrown;
The Self is friend of Self subdued,
And foe of Self unowned.
The disciplined inner power becomes ally; the undisciplined, an adversary.
Śrī Bhagavān said:
The mastered self, serene and sure,
Stands equal in the heat and cold,
In joy and grief, in praise and blame—
A mountain-heart of gold.
Equanimity is the sign of conquest within; circumstances cease to shake the center.
The equal vision and the place of practice
Śrī Bhagavān said:
Knowledge-filled and sense-subdued,
To earth and gold alike the same,
To sod and stone impartial-eyed—
That sage deserves the name.
Friend and foe, the good, the base,
Kinsman, stranger, harsh or kind—
He sees them with an equal gaze,
No hatred in his mind.
When the Self is seen in all, preference loosens and compassion becomes natural.
Vaiśampāyana said:
The Lord then laid out the discipline of seat and solitude, befitting one who seeks stillness without disturbance.
Śrī Bhagavān said:
Seek out a clean and quiet place;
Set firm a level seat—
Not high, not low—on kusa spread,
Cloth, or deerskin neat.
Sit steady—spine and neck aligned,
The gaze to tip of nose;
Let senses rest, let fear subside,
Let vow of brahmacarya close.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on NovelBin.
With mind collected, heart on Me,
Abiding still and free,
The yogin finds the tranquil tide
That ends in unity.
Posture, breath, modesty, and one-pointedness prepare the mind; devotion to Śrī Bhagavān completes the seal of peace.
The temperate way and the lamp
Śrī Bhagavān said:
Yoga is not for gluttons,
Nor for those who starve the frame;
Not for those who always slumber,
Nor for those who spurn all sleep the same.
But he whose food and sport are balanced,
Whose work and rest are duly kept,
Whose sleep and waking both are tempered—
His Yoga blossoms, sorrow swept.
The middle path—measure in living—supports the subtle work of calming mind.
Śrī Bhagavān said:
As lamp in windless place does burn,
Unflickering, clear, and bright—
So stands the heart of yogin firm
In contemplation’s light.
The image teaches inward steadiness: when winds of desire are stilled, awareness shines without tremor.
The taste beyond the senses
Śrī Bhagavān said:
When mind, by practice pacified,
Rests, beholding Self by Self,
It drinks a joy no senses touch—
A truth no words can tell.
Gaining that, one would not trade
For aught on earth’s expanse;
Seated there, he is not swayed
By sorrow’s heaviest lance.
This severance from the bond of pain—
Know that as Yoga’s art;
Pursue it with untiring will,
With undespairing heart.
The goal is a direct, self-luminous felicity. Perseverance and hope are the fuel.
Śrī Bhagavān said:
Let every wish born of resolve be left;
Draw in the senses by the mind;
By patient steps make quietness,
To Self return, to naught inclined.
Wherever wanders this restless mind,
Elusive, quick to roam—
Recall it, curb it, lead it back,
And seat it in its home.
Practice means gentle, repeated returning; patience governs progress.
Seeing the Lord everywhere
Śrī Bhagavān said:
The tranquil-souled, from passion freed,
United, sin effaced,
Attains to Brahman’s highest bliss—
By ceaseless turning God-ward faced.
He sees his Self in every being,
All beings in his Self sees he;
Who sees Me thus in everything—
From him I never cease to be.
Whoso, in all, adores but Me,
Knowing the One in many shown,
Whatever life he seems to lead—
He dwells in Me, in Me alone.
Best is that devotee whose heart
Makes others’ joy and grief his own—
Who looks on all with equal art,
As self by self is known.
Equality ripens into devotion: seeing Śrī Bhagavān within all beings and all beings within Śrī Bhagavān is the mature vision of Yoga.
Arjuna’s doubt about the restless mind
Arjuna said:
“This Yoga of even-mindedness,
O Slayer of the foe, I hear—
Yet wind-like is the mind in me:
Unruly, storming, hard to steer.”
The Lord prescribes practice and dispassion
Śrī Bhagavān said:
The mind is restless, hard to rein—
Thy word is true, O mighty-armed;
Yet practice and dispassion tame
The steed that once has wildly stormed.
For one untamed, this Yoga’s hard;
For one self-ruled and diligent,
By fitting means and steady heart,
Attainment comes—magnificent.
Two wings carry the seeker: abhyāsa (steady practice) and vairāgya
(letting go). With these, the wind itself becomes a guide.
The fate of the fallen yogin
Arjuna said:
“If one with faith begins this path
Yet fails to hold the height—
What end is his, O Lord of grace?
Is he like cloud lost from our sight?”
Śrī Bhagavān said:
No ruin here, nor ruin there,
For doer of the good—
None who strives in truth and love
Shall ever end in ill or mud.
He climbs to realms by merit won,
Long joys his guerdon be;
Then born in prosperous, pious homes,
Or saintly lines of seers is he.
From where he ceased he takes again,
Drawn on by ancient practice’ might;
Even unwilling, he is borne
Toward wisdom’s upward light.
Through many births, by striving cleansed,
His doubts dissolved, his sins undone,
He wins perfection, highest peace—
The Brahman-goal is won.
No honest effort is lost. Past practice becomes future impulse; grace meets labor midway.
The supremacy of the devotee
Śrī Bhagavān said:
Greater than austere ascetics,
Greater than the men of lore,
Greater than the ritual-doers—
The yogin I uphold the more.
Therefore be a yogin, Arjuna!
And of all yogins, know to be
The dearest unto Me is he
Who worships Me with faith—
Whose inmost Self on Me is stayed,
In single-hearted, steadfast breath.
Among paths, devotion joined to steady Yoga is supreme. The beloved of Śrī Bhagavān is the one who rests his whole being in Him, acting, knowing, and loving as one.
Vaiśampāyana said:
Thus ended the sixth teaching—the Dhyāna-Yoga—wherein the Blessed Lord showed the way from measured life to lamp-like stillness, from equal vision to unfailing love. Hearing it, O King, Arjuna’s heart grew quiet, as a tide that turns toward the moon.