What this chapter is about
Krishna teaches the practice of meditation (dhyana) in detail — the right posture, the right environment, the right inner attitude. He describes the highest state of meditation (samadhi) and addresses Arjuna's concern about what happens to an earnest practitioner who fails to reach perfection in one lifetime.
- Meditation
- Mind Control
- Samadhi
- Yoga Practice
- Gradual Liberation
Verses
Chapter overview
This is the practical chapter. Where to sit, how to sit, what to eat, how much to sleep.
Krishna is specific. A clean spot, not too high, not too low. Spine and head steady. Gaze soft. Then he adds the part that saves people from failing early: this is not for the person who eats too much or too little, sleeps too much or too little. Yoga is for the moderate.
The mind is the difficulty, and Arjuna says so plainly — it is restless, turbulent, strong, as hard to hold as the wind. Krishna does not argue. He agrees it is hard, and says it is done anyway, by practice and by letting go, repeated.
Then the question everyone eventually asks: what if I try and do not get there? Krishna's answer is that nothing is wasted. No one who does good comes to a bad end. Effort carries over — you begin the next life further along than you began this one, drawn on by what you already built.
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Questions about Chapter 6
What does Krishna actually prescribe for meditation practice?
6.11–6.13 are specific: a clean place, a seat neither too high nor too low, cloth and skin and kusha grass laid on it. Body, head and neck held straight and still, gaze steady, not looking about. 6.14 adds the inner condition — serene, fearless, the mind restrained and turned toward him.
Is this only for people who renounce everything?
No, and 6.16–6.17 rule out the extremes explicitly. Yoga is not for one who eats too much or too little, nor for one who sleeps too much or too little. For the one moderate in food and recreation, in effort at work, in sleep and waking, yoga becomes the destroyer of sorrow. Moderation is the entry requirement, not renunciation.
Arjuna says the mind is impossible to control — does Krishna disagree?
6.34 is Arjuna's complaint: the mind is restless, turbulent, powerful and obstinate; controlling it is as hard as controlling the wind. 6.35 is the reply, and Krishna concedes the difficulty — undoubtedly it is hard to restrain. But it is held by abhyasa and vairagya, repeated practice and release. No shortcut is offered.
What happens if I practise sincerely and still fall short?
Arjuna asks this in 6.37–6.39. Krishna answers in 6.40 that there is no destruction for such a person in this world or the next — one who does good never comes to a bad end. 6.41–6.43 continue: they are reborn into fortunate or wise households and regain the understanding built in the previous body. Nothing accumulated is lost.
What standard does Krishna set for a realised yogi?
6.32 sets it high: one who sees, by comparison with the self, the same everywhere — whether in pleasure or in pain — is considered the highest yogi. The measure is not depth of trance but whether another's pain registers the way your own does. 6.29 says it another way: seeing the self in all beings, and all beings in the self.