Indian stream·Bhagavad Gita·Discourse 6: The Yoga of Meditation

Source context

Theme

meditative withdrawal, self-discipline, and the yoga of inner stillness as path to union with the Atman

Soul-faculty

Consciousness Soul

Steiner

• GA 146, 1913-06-05Steiner treats the three gunas (sattwa, rajas, tamas) as governing principles of the Bhagavad Gita's spiritual anthropology, framing the disciplining of the soul-forces — central to Discourse 6's meditation yoga — as a progression toward self-conscious ascent into higher worlds.
• GA 142, 1912-12-28Steiner identifies the Bhagavad Gita as the harmonious interpenetration of three spiritual streams (including Vedanta philosophy), providing the doctrinal framework within which Discourse 6's inward-turning meditation practice receives its metaphysical grounding.

Cross-tradition

• Neoplatonism (Plotinus, Enneads)Cross-tradition congruence appears in Plotinus's practice of epistrophē — the soul's withdrawal from sense-objects and return to the One — which structurally parallels Discourse 6's instruction to withdraw the mind from external objects and fix it on the Atman.
• Buddhist samatha-vipassanāCross-tradition congruence is evident in the samatha (calming) strand of Buddhist meditation, where progressive stilling of mental activity to achieve one-pointed concentration mirrors Discourse 6's account of the yogi progressively restraining the restless mind.
• Sufi maqāmāt (stations of the path)Cross-tradition congruence appears in the Sufi station of tawakkul (reliance and inner surrender) and the interior stillness cultivated through dhikr, which parallel Discourse 6's insistence that the disciplined yogi must abandon all desire-driven action and rest in equanimity.

Discourse 6: The Yoga of Meditation

6:1The Blessed Lord said: He that performeth such action as is duty, independently
of the fruit of action, he is an ascetic, he is a Yogi, not he that is without fire, and without rites.

6:2That which is called renunciation know thou that as yoga, O Pandava; nor doth
any one be-come a Yogi with the formative will unrenounc-ed.

6:3For a Sage who is seeking Yoga, action is call-ed the means; for the same Sage,
when he is enthroned in yoga, serenity is called the means.

6:4When a man feeleth no attachment either for the objects of sense or for actions,
renouncing the formative will, then, he is said to be enthroned in yoga.

6:5Let him raise the self by the SELF and not let the self become depressed; for
verily is the SELF the friend of the self, and also the SELF the self's enemy;

6:6The SELF is the friend of the self of him in whom the self by the SELF is
vanquished; but to the unsubdued self the SELF verily becometh hostile as an enemy.

6:7The higher Self of him who is SELF-controlled and peaceful is uniform in cold
and heat, pleasure and pain, as well as in honour and dishonour.

6:8The Yogi who is satisfied with wisdom and knowledge, unwavering, whose
senses are sub-dued, to whom a lump of earth, a stone and gold are the same, is said to be harmonised.

6:9He who regards impartially lovers, friends, and foes, strangers, neutrals,
foreigners and relatives, also the righteous and unrighteous, he excelleth.

6:10Let the Yogi constantly engage himself in yoga, remaining in a secret place by
himself, with thought and self subdued, free from hope and greed.

6:11In a pure place, established on a fixed seat of his own, neither very much raised
nor very low, made of a cloth, a black antelope skin, and kusha grass, one over the other;

6:12There, having made the mind one-pointed, with thought and the functions of the
senses subdued, steady on his seat, he should practise yoga for the purification of the self.

6:13Holding the body, head, and neck erect, im-movably steady, looking fixedly at
the point of the nose, with unseeing gaze,

6:14The self serene, fearless, firm in the vow of the Brahmachari, the mind
controlled, thinking on Me, harmonised, let him sit aspiring after Me.

6:15The Yogi ever united thus with the SELF, with the mind controlled, goeth to
Peace, to the supreme Bliss that abideth in Me.

6:16Verily yoga is not for him who eateth too much, nor who abstaineth to excess,
nor who is too much addicted to sleep, nor even to wakeful-ness, O Arjuna.

6:17Yoga killeth out all pain for him who is regulated in eating and amusement,
regulated in performing actions, regulated in sleeping and waking.

6:18When his subdued thought is fixed on the SELF, free from longing after all
desirable things, then it is said, "he is harmonised."

6:19As a lamp in a windless place flickereth not, to such is likened the Yogi of
subdued thought, absorbed in the yoga of the SELF.

6:20That in which the mind finds rest, quieted by the practice of yoga: that in which
he, seeing the SELF by the SELF, in the SELF is satisfied;

6:21That in which he findeth the supreme delight which the Reason can grasp
beyond the senses, wherein established he moveth not from the Reality;

6:22Which, having obtained, he thinketh there is no greater gain beyond it; wherein,
established, he is not shaken even by heavy sorrow; Verse 23: That should be known by the name of yoga, this disconnection from the union with pain. This yoga must be clung to with a firm convic-tion and with undesponding mind.

6:24Abandoning without reserve all desires born of the imagination, by the mind
curbing in the aggregate of the senses on every side,

6:25Little by little let him gain tranquillity, by means of Reason controlled by
steadiness; having made the mind abide in the SELF, let him not think of anything.

6:26As often as the wavering and unsteady mind goeth forth, so often reining it in,
let him bring it under the control of the SELF.

6:27Supreme joy is for this Yogi whose mind is peaceful, whose passion-nature is
calmed, who is sinless and of the nature of the ETERNAL.

6:28The Yogi who thus, ever harmonising the self, hath put away sin, he easily
enjoyeth the infinite bliss of contact with the ETERNAL.

6:29The self, harmonised by yoga, seeth the SELF abiding in all beings, all beings
in the SELF; everywhere he seeth the same. Verse 30: He who seeth Me everywhere, and seeth every-thing in Me, of him will I never lose hold, and he shall never lose hold of Me.

6:31He who, established in unity, worshippeth Me, abiding in all beings, that Yogi
liveth in Me, whatever his mode of living.

6:32He who, through the likeness of the SELF O Arjuna, seeth equality in everthing,
whether pleasant or painful, he is considered a perfect Yogi.

6:33Arjuna said: This yoga which Thou hast declared to be by equanimity, O
Madhusudana. I see not a stable foundation for it, owing to restlessness;

6:34For the mind is verily, restless, O Krishna; it is impetuous, strong and difficult
to bend. I deem it as hard to curb as the wind.

6:35The Blessed Lord said: Without doubt, O mighty-armed, the mind is hard to
curb and restless; but it may be curbed by constant practice and by dispassion.

6:36Yoga is hard to attain, methinks, by a self that is uncontrolled; but by the SELF-
controlled it is attainable by properly directed energy.

6:37Arjuna said: He who is unsubdued but who possesseth faith, with the mind
wandering away from yoga, fail-ing to attain perfection in yoga, what path doth he tread, O Krishna?

6:38Fallen from both, is he destroyed like a rent cloud, unsteadfast, O mighty-
armed, deluded in the path of the ETERNAL?

6:39Deign, O Krishna, to completely dispel this doubt of mine; for there is none to
be found save Thyself able to destroy this doubt.

6:40The Blessed Lord said: O son of Pritha, neither in this world nor in the life to
come is there destruction for him; never doth any who worketh righteousness, O beloved, tread the path of woe.

6:41Having attained to the worlds of the pure-doing, and having dwelt there for
immemorial years, he who fell frona yoga is reborn in a pure and bless-ed house;

6:42Or he may even be born into a family of wise Yogis; but such a birth as that is
most difficult to obtain in this world.

6:43There he recovereth the characteristics belonging to his former body, and with
these again laboureth for perfection, O joy of the Kurus!

6:44By that former practice he is irresistibly swept away. Only wishing to know
Yoga, even the seeker after Yoga goeth beyond the Brahmic word,

6:45But the Yogi, labouring with assiduity, purified from sin, fully perfected through
manifold births, he reacheth the supreme goal.

6:46The Yogi is greater than the ascetics; he is thought to be greater than even the
wise; the Yogi is greater than the men of action; therefore become thou a Yogi, O Arjuna!

6:47And among all Yogis, he who full of faith, with the inner SELF abiding in Me,
adoreth Me, he is considered by Me to be the most completely harmonised.

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