6.7 Meditation

27. As a yogi perfects the practice of withdrawing the mind from sense objects and securing it upon God, the passions get subdued and the mind becomes utterly serene. Earlier, effort was required to focus it upon God, but now it naturally runs to him. At this stage, the elevated meditator sees everything in its connection with God. Sage Narad states:

"The consciousness of the devotee whose mind is united in love with God is always absorbed in him. Such a devotee always sees him, hears him, speaks of him, and thinks of him." When the mind gets absorbed in God in this manner, the soul begins to experience a glimpse of the infinite bliss of God who is seated within.

Sādhaks often ask how they can know that they are progressing. The answer is embedded in this verse. When we find our inner transcendental bliss increasing, we can consider it as a symptom that our mind is coming under control and the consciousness is getting spiritually elevated. Here, Shree Krishna says that when we are śhānta-rajasaṁ (free from passion) and akalmaṣham (sinless), then we will become brahma-bhūtam (endowed with God-realization). At that stage, we will experience sukham uttamam (the highest bliss).

28. Happiness can be classified into four categories:

Tāmasic happiness. This is the pleasure derived from narcotics, alcohol, cigarettes, meat products, violence, sleep, etc.

Rājasic happiness. This is the pleasure from the gratification of the five senses and the mind.

Sāttvic happiness. This is the pleasure experienced through practicing virtues, such as compassion, service to others, cultivation of knowledge, stilling of the mind, etc. It includes the bliss of self-realization experienced by the jñānīs when they stabilize the mind upon the soul.

Nirguṇa happiness. This is the divine bliss of God, which is infinite in extent. Shree Krishna explains that the yogi who becomes free from material contamination and becomes united with God attains this highest state of perfect happiness. He has called this unlimited bliss in verse and supreme bliss in verse.

29.During the festival of Diwali in India, shops sell sugar candy molded in various forms, as cars, airplanes, men, women, animals, balls, caps, etc. Children fight with their parents that they want a car, elephant, and so on. The parents smile at their innocuousness, thinking that they are all made from the same sugar ingredient, and are all equally sweet.

Similarly, the ingredient of everything that exists is God himself, in the form of his various energies.

"Just as the sun, while remaining in one place, spreads its light everywhere, similarly the Supreme Lord, by his various energies pervades and sustains everything that exists." The perfected yogis, in the light of realized knowledge, see everything in its connection with God.

30. To lose God means to let the mind wander away from him, and to be with him means to unite the mind with him. The easy way to unite the mind with God is to learn to see everything in its connection with him. For example, let us say that someone hurts us. It is the nature of the mind to develop sentiments of resentment, hatred, etc. toward anyone who harms us. However, if we permit that to happen, then our mind comes away from the divine realm, and the devotional union of our mind with God ceases. Instead, if we see the Supreme Lord seated in that person, we will think, "God is testing me through this person. He wants me to increase the virtue of tolerance, and that is why he is inspiring this person to behave badly with me. But I will not permit the incident to disturb me." Thinking in this way, we will be able to prevent the mind from becoming a victim of negative sentiments.

Similarly, the mind separates from God when it gets attached to a friend or relative. Now, if we train the mind to see God in that person, then each time the mind wanders toward him or her, we will think, "Shree Krishna is seated in this person, and thus I am feeling this attraction." In this manner, the mind will continue to retain its devotional absorption in the Supreme.

Sometimes, the mind laments over past incidents. This again separates the mind from the divine realm because lamentation takes the mind into the past and the present contemplation of God and Guru ceases. Now if we see that incident in connection with God, we will think, "The Lord deliberately arranged for me to experience tribulation in the world, so that I may develop detachment. He is so concerned about my welfare that he mercifully arranges for the proper circumstances that are beneficial for my spiritual progress." By thinking thus, we will be able to protect our devotional focus. Sage Narad states:

"When you suffer a reversal in the world, do not lament or brood over it. See the grace of God in that incident." Our self-interest lies in somehow or the other keeping the mind in God, and the simple trick to accomplish this is to see God in everything and everyone. That is the practice stage, which slowly leads to the perfection that is mentioned in this verse, where we are never lost to God and he is never lost to us.

31. God is all-pervading in the world. He is also seated in everyone's heart as the Supreme Soul. In verse, Shree Krishna states: "I am situated in the hearts of all living beings." Thus, within the body of each living being, there are two personalities—the soul and the Supreme Soul.

Those in material consciousness see everyone as the body, and make distinctions on the basis of caste, creed, sex, age, social status, etc.

Those in superior consciousness see everyone as the soul. Thus in verse 5.18, Shree Krishna states: "The learned, with the eyes of divine knowledge, see with equal vision a Brahmin, a cow, an elephant, a dog, and a dog-eater."

The elevated yogis in even higher consciousness see God seated as the Supreme Soul in everyone. They also perceive the world, but they are unconcerned about it. They are like the hansas, the swans who can drink the milk and leave out the water from a mixture of milk and water.

The most elevated yogis are called paramahansas. They only see God, and have no perception of the world. This was the level of realization of Shukadev, the son of Ved Vyas, as stated in the Śhrīmad Bhāgavatam:

When Shukadev entered the renounced order of sanyās, walking away from home in his childhood itself, he was at such an elevated level that he had no perception of the world. He did not even notice the beautiful women bathing in the nude in a lake, while he happened to pass by there. All that he perceived was God; all that he heard was God; all that he thought was God.

In this verse, Shree Krishna is talking about the perfected yogis who are in the third and fourth stages of the above levels of realization.