Meditation & Yoga
The Path to Inner Peace and Self-Mastery
Chapter 6 of the Bhagavad Gita, Dhyana Yoga, is entirely dedicated to meditation and mental discipline. Krishna provides practical guidance on how to still the restless mind, achieve inner peace, and realize the true self.
The Gita's meditation teachings are remarkably practical and timeless. Krishna acknowledges the mind's restless nature and offers a systematic approach: gradual practice, patience, detachment, and gentle persistence. The goal is not to suppress thoughts but to transcend them through steady awareness.
Core Principles
Gradual Practice
Krishna emphasizes patience and gradual progress. The mind wanders—this is natural. Gently bring it back again and again without frustration.
The Mind as Friend or Foe
For those who conquer it, the mind becomes a friend. For those who fail, it acts as an enemy. Self-mastery is the internal battle.
Proper Posture & Environment
Sit with spine erect, in a clean, quiet place. Physical stability supports mental stillness. Create conditions conducive to meditation.
Balance in Life
Moderation in eating, sleeping, working, and recreation. Yoga destroys all sorrows for one who is balanced in daily life.
The Practice of Meditation
Step 1: Prepare the Environment
Find a clean, quiet place. Sit on a firm seat, not too high or too low. The external environment affects inner stillness.
Step 2: Establish Steady Posture
Hold body, head, and neck erect, still, and motionless. Gaze steadily, preferably at the nose tip. Physical stillness aids mental concentration.
Step 3: Calm the Mind Gradually
Slowly and steadily, bring the mind to stillness using the intellect. Fix the mind on the Self and think of nothing else. This takes patient practice.
Step 4: Bring Back Wandering Thoughts
Whenever the restless mind wanders, gently bring it back. This is the practice—not frustration when it wanders, but patience in returning.
Step 5: Practice with Determination
Practice with unwavering determination and an undepressed mind. No effort is wasted—even a little practice protects from great fear.
All Meditation & Yoga Verses (48)
Equanimity in success and failure
Perform your duty equipoised, O Arjuna, abandoning all attachment to success or failure. Such equanimity is called yoga.
Equanimity in success and failure
Perform your duty equipoised, O Arjuna, abandoning all attachment to success or failure. Such equanimity is called yoga.
Yoga transcends ordinary morality
One who practices yoga of the intellect abandons both good and bad deeds in this life. Therefore, strive for yoga. Yoga is skill in action.
Equanimity in pleasure and pain
One who is not disturbed in spite of miseries, who doesn't crave happiness, and who is free from attachment, fear, and anger, is called a sage of steady mind.
Control your senses like a tortoise
When, like a tortoise withdrawing its limbs, one can completely withdraw the senses from their objects, then one's wisdom becomes steady.
Sense control is essential
One who is able to withdraw the senses from their objects, just as a tortoise withdraws its limbs into its shell, is established in divine wisdom.
Sense control is essential
One who is able to withdraw the senses from their objects, just as a tortoise withdraws its limbs into its shell, is established in divine wisdom.
Thought leads to attachment
While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them. From attachment develops desire, and from desire arises anger.
How desire leads to anger
While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises.
Peace comes from inner stillness
A person who is not disturbed by the incessant flow of desires—that enter like rivers into the ocean which is being filled but is always being still—can alone achieve peace, and not the person who strives to satisfy such desires.
Renounce attachment to desires
That person who gives up all material desires and lives free from a sense of possessiveness, proprietorship, and egotism, attains perfect peace.
Renounce attachment to desires
That person who gives up all material desires and lives free from a sense of possessiveness, proprietorship, and egotism, attains perfect peace.
Knowledge is the highest purifier
In this world, there is nothing so sublime and pure as transcendental knowledge. Such knowledge is the mature fruit of all mysticism. One who has become accomplished in yoga finds it within their own self in due course of time.
Faith accelerates spiritual progress
Those who have faith, are devoted, and have mastered their senses quickly attain divine knowledge. Upon attaining such knowledge, they soon achieve supreme peace.
Faith accelerates spiritual progress
Those who have faith, are devoted, and have mastered their senses quickly attain divine knowledge. Upon attaining such knowledge, they soon achieve supreme peace.
Peace comes from renouncing outcomes
The steadily devoted soul attains unadulterated peace by renouncing the fruits of action, whereas the unsteady soul is bound by desire for rewards.
Peace comes from renouncing outcomes
The steadily devoted soul attains unadulterated peace by renouncing the fruits of action, whereas the unsteady soul is bound by desire for rewards.
Inner joy transcends external pleasures
Those who are not attached to external sense pleasures realize divine bliss in the self. Being united with God through meditation, they experience unending happiness.
Inner joy transcends external pleasures
Those who are not attached to external sense pleasures realize divine bliss in the self. Being united with God through meditation, they experience unending happiness.
God is the friend of all beings
The sages, knowing Me as the ultimate enjoyer of all sacrifices and austerities, the Lord of all worlds, and the friend of all beings, attain peace.
God is the friend of all beings
The sages, knowing Me as the ultimate enjoyer of all sacrifices and austerities, the Lord of all worlds, and the friend of all beings, attain peace.
Conquering the mind makes it your ally
For those who have conquered the mind, it is their friend. For those who have failed to do so, the mind works like an enemy.
Mental conquest leads to supreme peace
One who has conquered the mind has already reached the Supreme Self, for they have attained tranquility. To such a person, happiness and distress, heat and cold, honor and dishonor are all the same.
Proper meditation posture
Hold the body, head, and neck erect, still, and straight. Gaze at the tip of the nose, without looking around in any direction.
Physical stillness supports meditation
Hold the body, head, and neck erect, still, and motionless. Gaze steadily at the tip of the nose, without looking in any direction.
Physical stillness supports meditation
Hold the body, head, and neck erect, still, and motionless. Gaze steadily at the tip of the nose, without looking in any direction.
Balance in all activities
For one who is moderate in eating, recreation, working, sleeping, and waking, yoga destroys all sorrows.
Steadiness of a controlled mind
As a lamp in a windless place does not flicker, so the disciplined mind of a yogi remains steady in meditation on the self.
Mind attains perfect quietude
When the mind, restrained by the practice of yoga, attains quietude, and when beholding the self by the self, one is satisfied in the self.
Yoga means freedom from suffering
The state of freedom from all miseries is known as yoga. This yoga should be practiced with determination and an undepressed mind.
Yoga means separation from suffering
The state of severance from union with pain is known as yoga. This yoga should be practiced with determination and an undisturbed mind.
Gradual progress in meditation
Gradually, step by step, with the intellect endowed with steadiness, one should bring the mind to stillness, and think of nothing else.
Gradual progress in meditation
Gradually, step by step, with the intellect endowed with steadiness, one should bring the mind to stillness, and think of nothing else.
Gradual progression in meditation
Gradually, step by step, with full conviction, one should become situated in trance by means of the intellect, and thus the mind should be fixed on the self alone and should think of nothing else.
Mind naturally wanders
Whenever and wherever the restless and unsteady mind wanders, one should bring it back and continually focus it on the self.
The mind will wander—this is natural
Whenever and wherever the restless and unsteady mind wanders, one should bring it back to focus on the self.
The mind will wander—this is natural
Whenever and wherever the restless and unsteady mind wanders, one should bring it back to focus on the self.
Mind is harder to control than wind
The mind is very restless, turbulent, strong and obstinate, O Krishna. It appears to me that it is more difficult to control than the wind.
The mind requires consistent practice
The mind is restless and difficult to restrain, but it is subdued by practice and detachment.
Mind can be controlled with practice
Lord Krishna said: Undoubtedly, O mighty-armed one, the mind is restless and difficult to control. But it can be controlled, Arjuna, through regular practice and detachment.
Devotees transform quickly
Quickly they become righteous and attain lasting peace. O son of Kunti, declare it boldly that My devotee never perishes.
Complete surrender of all actions
But those who worship Me, surrendering all their activities to Me and devoted to Me without deviation, meditating on Me with exclusive yoga...
Complete mental focus on God
Fix your mind on Me alone and let your intellect dwell upon Me. Thereafter, you shall certainly live in Me. Of this, there is no doubt.
Complete mental focus on God
Fix your mind on Me alone and let your intellect dwell upon Me. Thereafter, you shall certainly live in Me. Of this, there is no doubt.
Hierarchy of spiritual practices
If you cannot practice knowledge, then devote yourself to meditation. Better than meditation is renunciation of the fruits of action, for peace immediately follows such renunciation.
Hierarchy of spiritual practices
If you cannot practice knowledge, then devote yourself to meditation. Better than meditation is renunciation of the fruits of action, for peace immediately follows such renunciation.
Sattvic sacrifice is dutiful
Sacrifice that is performed as a duty, without desire for reward, according to scriptural injunctions, with a concentrated mind—that is of the nature of goodness.
Complete surrender to God
Surrender exclusively unto Him with your whole being, O Bharata. By His grace, you will attain supreme peace and the eternal abode.