Chapter 6 of the Bhagavad Gita — titled Dhyana Yoga or the Yoga of Meditation — is one of the oldest systematic meditation manuals in existence. Krishna gives Arjuna detailed, practical instructions on how to meditate: where to sit, what posture to adopt, where to direct the gaze, how to work with a wandering mind. These instructions remain as applicable today as they were when first given.
Here are five techniques drawn directly from the chapter, with guidance for practicing each.
1. Establish a Dedicated Practice Space
Verse 6.10 instructs the meditator to find a clean, fixed place — a seat that is neither too high nor too low, covered with appropriate material. This instruction is pointing at something timeless: the power of a dedicated practice space. The Gita is clear that consistent meditation requires a consistent place.
In practice: Designate one place in your home for meditation, even if it's just a corner with a cushion. Sit there daily, even for five minutes. Over time, the association between that space and the practice of inwardness builds, and the mind settles more quickly when you sit there. The space begins to carry the quality of whatever has been cultivated in it.
2. Upright, Still Posture
Verses 6.13-14 describe the proper physical posture: spine erect, neck and head in line with the spine, gaze directed toward the tip of the nose, not wandering. The body should be still. This is not mere formalism. The relationship between body posture and mental state is real and well-documented. A collapsed posture encourages dullness and drowsiness. An unnaturally rigid posture produces tension. The Gita's prescribed posture — alert but relaxed, upright but not strained — mirrors the mental quality being cultivated: neither agitated nor dull, but clear and present.
In practice: Sit cross-legged on a cushion or in a chair with both feet on the floor. Allow the spine to lengthen naturally. Relax the shoulders and jaw. The goal is a posture you can maintain without struggle for the duration of your sitting period.
3. Withdraw the Senses Inward
Chapter 2, verse 58, offers one of the Gita's most evocative images: "One who is able to withdraw the senses from sense objects, as a tortoise withdraws its limbs into its shell, is firmly fixed in perfect consciousness." This process — called pratyahara in classical yoga — is fundamental to the Gita's meditation teaching.
The mind ordinarily flows outward through the senses, always moving toward objects: sounds, sights, sensations, thoughts about the world. Meditation reverses this direction. The senses are gently withdrawn, the attention turned inward toward the experience of awareness itself.
In practice: At the beginning of your meditation session, take three to five slow breaths, allowing the out-breath to be a deliberate releasing of external concerns. With each breath, let your attention draw slightly more inward, away from the sounds and sights around you.
4. Return Without Frustration
Verse 6.26 is perhaps the most practically useful instruction in the entire chapter: "Whenever the restless, unsteady mind wanders away, it must be brought back and restrained in the Self." The emphasis is on "whenever" — not if, but whenever. Krishna does not suggest that an advanced practitioner's mind stops wandering. He simply says: when it wanders, return.
This instruction dissolves the most common source of frustration in meditation practice: the belief that a wandering mind means you're failing. The wandering is not failure. The return is the practice. Each moment of noticing that attention has drifted and gently bringing it back is a repetition of the essential movement being trained.
In practice: When you notice your mind has drifted into planning, memory, or fantasy, simply note it without judgment and return attention to the breath. Do this as many times as needed. One hundred returns in a single session is a productive session, not a failed one.
5. Cultivate Equal Vision Toward All Experience
Verse 6.32 describes the fully realized meditator's state: "One who compares everything with the Self, seeing equality in happiness and distress in all beings, is the highest yogi." This is the ultimate aim of the practice — a stable, non-reactive awareness that does not prefer pleasant experiences or resist unpleasant ones, but remains present and clear through all of them.
In practice: During meditation, when pleasant sensations arise — warmth, calm, a sense of expansion — observe them without grasping. When unpleasant sensations arise — restlessness, discomfort, boredom — observe them without pushing them away. The practice is to sustain the same quality of attention regardless of what appears in experience. This equanimity is exactly what the Gita prescribes for all of life — and meditation is where it is trained most directly.
Integrating the Practice
Arjuna famously objects in verse 6.34 that the mind is "restless, turbulent, powerful, obstinate — as difficult to control as the wind." Krishna's response is quietly encouraging: yes, it is difficult. But with practice and dispassion, it is possible (6.35). He does not promise it will be easy. He promises it is achievable. Start with ten minutes per day, a fixed time, a fixed place, and all five techniques applied in sequence. That is enough to begin.