May 8 – Bhagavadgita Chapter 6; Verses 6.12 (Day 129) Adhyatma Yoga, Yoga of Meditation

 May 8 – Day 129

Verse 6.12

तत्रैकाग्रं मनः कृत्वा यतचित्तेन्द्रियक्रियः ।

उपविश्यासने युञ्ज्याद्योगमात्मविशुद्धये ॥ ६-१२॥ 

tatraikāgraṁ manaḥ kṛitwā yata-chittendriya-kriyaḥ
upaviśhyāsane yuñjyād yogam ātma-viśhuddhaye (12) 

த¹த்¹ரைகா¹க்³ரம் மன: க்¹ருத்¹வா யத¹சி¹த்¹தே¹ன்த்³ரியக்¹ரிய: |
உப¹விஶ்யாஸனே யுஞ்ஜ்யாத்¹யோக³மாத்¹மவிஶுத்³த⁴யே ||12|| 

12. There, having made the mind one-pointed, with the actions of the mind and the senses controlled, let him, seated on the seat, practise Yoga for the purification of the self. 

Commentary: The self means the mind.  The real Supreme Self is the Atma.  This is Primary (Mukhya).  Mind also is the self.  But this is used in a secondary sense (Gauna).  Mukhya Atma is Brahman or the highest Self.  Gauna Atma is the mind.

Make the mind one-pointed by collecting all its dissipated rays by the practice of Yoga.  Withdraw it from all sense-objects again and again and try to fix it steadily on your Lakshya or point of meditation or center.  Gradually you will have concentration of the mind or one-pointedness.  You must be very regular in your practice.  Only then will you succeed.  Regularity is of paramount importance. You should know the ways and habits of the mind through daily introspection, self-analysis or self-examination.  You should have knowledge of the laws of the mind.  Then it will be easy for you to check the wandering mind.  When you sit for meditation, and when you deliberately attempt to forget the worldly objects, all sorts of worldly thoughts will crop up in your mind and disturb your meditation.  You will be quite astonished. Old thoughts that you entertained several years ago, and old memories of past enjoyments will bubble and force the mind to wander in all directions.  You will find that the trap-door of the vast subconscious mind is opened or the lid of the storehouse of thoughts within is lifted up and the thoughts gush out in a continuous stream.  The more you attempt to still them, the more they will bubble up with redoubled force and strength.

Be not discouraged. Nil desperandum. Never despair. Through regular and constant meditation, you can purify the subconscious mind and its constant memories.  The fire of meditation will burn all thoughts.  Be sure of this.  Meditation is a potent antidote to annihilate the poisonous worldly thoughts.  Be assured of this.

Meditation on the immortal Self will act like a dynamite and blow up all thoughts and memories in the conscious mind.  If the thoughts trouble you much, do not try to suppress them by force.  Be a silent witness as in a bioscope.  They will subside gradually.  Then try to root them out through regular silent meditation.

During introspection you can clearly observe the rapid shifting of the mind from one line of thought to another.  Herein lies a chance for you to mould the mind properly and direct the thoughts and the mental energy in the divine channel.  You can rearrange the thoughts and make new associations on a new Sattvic basis.  You can throw out worldly and useless thoughts.  Just as you remove the weeds and throw them out, you can throw these out, and you can cultivate sublime, divine thoughts in the divine garden of your mind.  This is a very patient work.  This is a stupendous task indeed.  But for a Yogi of determination who has the grace of the Lord and an iron will it is nothing.

Calm the bubbling emotions, sentiments, instincts and impulses gradually through silent meditation.  You can give a new orientation to your feelings by gradual and systematic practice.  You can entirely transmute your worldly nature into divine nature.  You can exercise supreme control over the nerve-currents, muscles, the five sheaths (of the Self), emotions, impulses, and instincts through meditation. 

Commentary by Swami Venkatesananda: 

The light of the self is veiled by its own rays blinding our conditioned and limited perception. These rays are conducted via the mind (conscious and subconscious) and the senses in order to illumine the world. In meditation, the yogi controls the inner rays in such a way that his attention is not distracted by the senses and the activity of citta (subconscious mind).

The citta functions on account of:

(a) latent desires and tendencies (memory), and

(b) the movement of prāṇa.

The yogi, therefore, practises prāṇāyāma (regulated breathing) and turns the desires upon their own source! Thus the citta is freed from turbulent activity and it therefore becomes transparent enough to reveal the underlying essential divinity of the self.

The mind and the senses are already turbulent. Violently subduing them will only result in making them more turbulent! A wind opposed by another will only make a whirlwind. ‘Control’ is best illustrated in the expression: ‘He has good control of the motor-car’. Not that he has shut the engine off, but he knows in which direction to steer, when to apply the brakes or press the accelerator. Controlling the mind and the senses, therefore, implies that we are their masters, their skilled manipulators, not their prison warders.

Some people foolishly assert that the aggregate of the senses is the mind. On the contrary, the senses are the leaking holes of the mind. Hence, when they are controlled, the energy and the intelligence that leak through them will be made available for the higher purpose of purification of the self.

When control is achieved, the self is experienced as ever-present and eternal reality. Meditation does not create the self but only removes the opacity, purifying the mind so that the insight shines, unveiling the truth. When the mirror is cleaned the face is seen; the cleaning did not ‘create’ the image, but only removed the dirt which hid the image. 

-*-