Krishna explained to Arjuna has been the need to live a quiet and retired, although active in the world. No matter how spiritual we think of ourselves, neighborhood and condition of our body is an important factor in how the mind works in meditation. Often dictated by external conditions of the internal market. Now take his speech, the yogi has to his retirement, at home or "in retreat" elsewhere. He spoke with a significant activity, saying: ". He must think of the Atman unceasingly" So it goes:
The yogi seat (asana)
"The place where you should be firm, neither too high nor too low, and placed in a clean, should be covered with sacred grass, then with a goatskin. Then, put a cloth in the past. "(Bhagavad Gita 6:11)
Krishna assumes that the yogi will sit on the floor, as was the custom in India at the time and still in many cases. We will look first and then consider other options.
The soil should be firm, neither soft nor shifting as sand or gravel or a pile of things that might slip. The sand is pulverized stone, and after a while sitting literally becomes rock-hard. Do not be soft also indicates that the soil should be dry.
Yogi should not perch in a tree on the edge of a precipice, or in / on any place where it may fall if he fell over-either in sleep or samadhi.
Place must be clean, free of dirt. It is also not pure, in a place where evil has taken place, and ceremonial place like desecrating a cemetery, the grave, or the place where the killing of any kind has occurred or is still sentient beings.
The damp and cold are often properties of the earth where the yogi can sit, so it is addressed first establish some grass Kusha. Kusha grass is considered purifying and rings woven from the sometimes worn by the cult to keep their hands ritually pure. It is also an excellent insulator, both physically and metaphysically. In India, I used the carpet Kusha with a blanket on top of sleeping on wet ground in very cold weather, and was never disturbed by either wet or cold, at least for me. These mats also have very good meditation seats. However, only dried Kusha grass is used in a mat, and the edges are very sharp and can cut one of the mishandled.
To compensate for this, and to increase the insulating effect, a deer skin to be placed on Kusha grass. A deerskin is the only animal skin considered appropriate for the seat of meditation, yoga (asanas), because the vibrations of Sweden is neutral and thus contribute to peace and tranquility. However, deer have died a natural death. To use the skin of a deer killed for its skin is broken the rule of ahimsa. One of my vivid memories of Hardwar bazaar is seeing deer skins for sale that had bullet holes in them. When I once expressed disapproval of a shop owner, he was very friendly and said. "I understand how you feel about Deer being shot by a gun, many objects of yogis that if you give me some time I will. Do you find someone who was killed with a bow and arrow. I will provide certification to that effect.
"When I explained that I was opposed to the killing of deer, whatever form it took, I realized he thought I was eccentric. However, the same leading yogis have told me that the deer must have died naturally. is difficult to find a skin, due to decomposition will begin immediately. But it is possible, because I've seen.
To keep the deer skin to become worn out (I met a yogi who wore the skin every four years, he traveled almost constantly), Krishna advises that the fabric is placed over it (my friend my yogi does not). He did not specify what kind, but at the time of Gita cotton or silk, was the most common. (Since the silk of the silkworm to get killed, many yogis do not use silk, although it has insulating properties.) Paramhansa Yogananda recommended wool cloth, is also against the subtle currents Kusha grass is not silk. Sheep should not be used, because the sheep are dying to do it, while the fabric is made of plain wool wool sheared from sheep without harming them.
There are two points to mention that you may think is incorrect: the cemeteries are not appropriate places for meditation, and none of the animal skins, deer skins, but are suitable for yogis to use. Most of us have heard that the crematorium is a good place for meditation, and tiger skins are good for meditation. This is the tantric tradition, no tradition of yoga, and Krishna is purely a yogi.
President Yogi
In the West many yogis prefer to use a pillow on the floor or sit on a chair. Both are in perfect condition, and posture, which is described Krishna as soon as possible to a chair. It 'important that the posture of meditation is comfortable and easy to maintain. If you can not sit cross-legged position without your feet going to sleep and you have to move often, it is very good. Done, but meditation chair is just as good. Better to sit on a chair at home and be aware of the home rather than sitting cross-legged and be mostly aware of the poor, protesting legs.
The chair should be comfortable, not hard, but not so "easy" that bob around when you sit down. It should also be designed to prevent accidents and deep relaxation. Padded can be very good for this, or is curved, which is kept afloat.
The president should not be so high that the feet can be placed on the floor or below the knee are well above the base of the spine and can cause back pain.
The insulation provided by the Kusha grass and buckskin are unnecessary when meditating on a chair, so you need not bother with them. It is good if the president can not be used for meditation. (The same applies to a pad or mat used for meditation, cross-legged on the floor.). It will capture the beneficial vibrations of your meditation, and when you sit on it your mind will become calm and your meditation easier. If you can not use a chair to your meditation, find some kind of cloth or throw that you can put on a chair when you meditate and remove when finished.
The inner seat
Sankara wrote a brief essay that analyzes the symbolism of the eight "limbs" of Patanjali Yoga. He says the yogi-asana security should be a stable mind, which remains focused on the object of meditation. In this sense, Krishna said:
"When he sits down, takes the senses and the imagination under control, and keep your mind focus on the target. If he exercises on meditation in this way, his heart is pure." (Bhagavad Gita 6:12)
Senses, their functions, and the internal memory of past sensations in different forms must be kept under control by the meditator. As it does, absorbed in his meditation, the Divine, his heart was still pure.
A yogic posture
"His posture will be motionless, with his body, head and neck erect, and vision indrawn, as if looking at the nose. Do not look around him. "(Bhagavad Gita 6:13)
His posture is immobile. Sanskrit text, the body is said to have property (achalam) and flat (sthirah). As the yogi meditates his body should not move back and forth or side to side, but perfectly still. This is ideal, but do not think that Krishna to lead a kind of self-torture, coercion of the body. It says that we should be as stiff as a mummy petrified. It 'the only self-torment. Yoga great adepts also say that the position is comfortable, easeful and relaxed. Yoga Sutra says: "The posture should be steady and comfortable." Yoga Vashishtha simply says: "He should sit down with a soft seat in a comfortable position to promote a balance." Shankara comments: "Let him practice the position so that when established, his mind and legs should be flat, and that does not cause pain." Relaxation is the key to the Yoga Sutras say: "The location is the relaxation Mastering".
With the body, holding the head and neck upright. Kaivalya Upanishad the words: "Keep your head, neck and body in a straight line." The purpose of this is to ensure that the body will be balanced in an upright position and not move. The head should be held to your chin is parallel to the ground. As Shankara leader: "Your chin should be kept in a fist width away from your chest." This is done by making a fist, holding it against your neck and let your chin rest on your curled-together thumb and forefinger. You do not need to be painfully accurate about it. The idea is to keep your head at an angle such that it will not fall forward when you relax. Otherwise, you will be afflicted with what meditators call "bobs" upper body continually falling forward during meditation.
And indrawn vision. As if watching the nose. The literal translation from Sanskrit is "When you look at [samprekshya] his nose [MAVS nasikagram]." This means that your eyes should be closed, relaxed, and turned slightly downward. "As if looking at the tip of my nose" means that your eyes can not be crossed, but just pointing down at the corner they would be if you look at the nose on a casual manner. To help thinking the right angle to turn the eyes downward, touching the middle of your index for the horizontal tip of his nose and looks down on the finger, without looking in. This way you can determine the angle without you squint. The angle is important because by turning the eyes all the way down can drain and also a tendency to fall asleep. Then the eyes should be lowered, closed, relaxed, and then forgotten.
If you spontaneously go up or down in meditation, which is entirely correct, but we must begin with they refused.
Do not look around him. It is not difficult to manage, keep your eyes closed!
Common sense should always be used. For example, those with back problems should pay compensation for them, and no matter if you can not stand.
Krishna makes no mention of hand because it does not matter. You just have to sit on your lap or on the thighs and forget.
Working within the yogi
"Yes, his heart was calm and fearless, the promise of the company refused, in view of its restless roaming, now let him struggle to get my drive increasingly absorbed, eyes on me always, his prize, the its purpose. " (Bhagavad Gita 6:14)
Just as there are several points in the external practice of the yogi, both in its domestic politics, and we must take this into account. Sargeant is a literal translation of this verse: "With the mind quieted, banish fear, founded in the oath Brahmacharin, control the mind, with thoughts fixed on me, should sit, concentrated, dedicated to me."
With the mind quieted. Many people become impatient with themselves or their practice, if the right mind does not calm down, but because yoga is a practice rather than a momentary impact on the issue. After a few sessions the practical effect is to go and the mind begins to calm down after the first minute of meditation. After all, every day we spent hours and hours and forced to raise our minds to all kinds of reactions. It 'also a living being, not a machine that can be turned off with the flick of a finger. Right meditation certainly not mind a bit 'after. But we do without them, organizing our lives so that distractions are minimal. The diet is essential. Rajas and tamasic diet (discussed in the seventeenth century) to prevent the effectiveness of yoga meditation. And, above all, our thoughts and feelings matter the state of mind, and therefore it is easier or more difficult still.
Be strong. This is not often discussed in writings or discussions on yoga, but it should be noted. It is no surprise that when we sit in meditation we discover that our mind is restless and uninspired. We also understand that the long-buried past is also the impulses of past lives, to the surface, such as anger, lust, greed, and so on. But so many lives, as well as this, we were in a situation that produces a wide range of fear in us, the fear simple absolute horror. When the surface of things we are not aware of the case, if the same fear, and this actually exacerbates the fear. The fear of death can also occur as a result of meditation, such as sleep, is to approximate cancellation of the life force, which is death. I've known a few people who were afflicted by the fear of death, the beginning of their meditation practice. How can they win? With the practice of meditation, self-Nothing special is needed.
Thus, when the irrational fear rushes over us, we continue as usual, and will be banned. At times we may feel anxious at the beginning of strange sensations in your body and mind, and fear that we may be harmed by anything that produce them. There are also fears in the form of a doubt to do with: the fear that our meditation may be ineffective, or fear that we will not achieve as much as we should, and even the fear that we will not live enough time to make significant progress. All these are just the whims ego-mind and should be ignored.
Created in Brahmacharin hope. No doubt part of the "Brahmacharin desire" is celibacy, even for non-monks must live a disciplined life and not sensual. The idea that God "created" or ordained marriage for men and women could have sex all they wanted in an approval is outrageous. All those who aspire to true humanity and divinity should be much less chaste in body and mind. Those who do not want to live by what they owe to please, but leave yoga alone. This is why Patanjali says that the first step in yoga is moral observance (yama-niyama), which includes brahmacharya-celibacy.
Dharma Shastra, which describes the correct non-life of the monks are very explicit about the need for the husband and wife to lead lives of continence. See how parents yogi Paramahansa Yogananda lived as presented in Autobiography of a Yogi. In the first chapter, we find: "Mom has a remarkable admission to my eldest sister Roma:." Your father and I live together as husband and wife once a year to have children "The fact that Yogananda, a devoted son and a yogi with a pure heart, to reveal this to the world in the pages of a book shows how should we felt it was for both Eastern and Western readers to display the standard of chastity that yogis should observe in their life, not to use their non-monastic status slightest excuse for behavior.
He later said in Chapter 44a, giving the words written to Mahatma Gandhi by his wife Kasturbai: "Thanks for the perfect wedding in the world, based on brahmacharya and not sex." S-Please note that these are examples of married yogis do not the monks to impose their ideas on others. Remember also that the parents are married guru Yogi Yogananda, so there is no monastic influence you.
Having said all this, I must stress that Brahmacharin vow (vrata) involves discipline, cleaning, adjusting, and pampering of all senses. Moreover, it is a promise, a voluntary resolution. Those who do not want to do such a resolution does not need to do so. But they should not lie to themselves and others who claim to be yogis.
Mind control. When the mind is quieted, rendered fearless, and to strengthen the power (virya) stacked to show restraint and discipline of the senses (the word "virtue" comes from the Latin word for power), then and only then, can be controlled.
With thoughts fixed on me. The mind must not be empty and static, as it would be stagnation and conscious coma. On the contrary, thought, conscience toward God Impel be generated at a constant flow, but still. Patanjali says that the repetition of Om and meditation "is the way." But Mundaka Upanishad is even more explicit by saying: "With mind absorbed and heart melted in love, and draw the arrow hit the mark, the imperishable Brahman Om is the bow, the arrow is the individual and Brahman is the goal .. With a quiet heart, aim. Lose yourself in it, even though the arrow is lost in order .... Meditate upon him as the OM. easy to learn from you across the ocean of darkness. "
He should sit. Body and mind need to be supported. Shankara says that asana means steadiness of mind and body. It has been said that the Buddha attained enlightenment, he knew that "sit" through firm resolve, taking the body and mind under control.
Concentrate. The mind must be collected and made uniform. This is the meaning of the word "yukta" in this verse. The mind must be connected or "tense" were first and then to God in the state of yoga, of union.
Dedicated to me. This Union is not abstract, and is not only limited awareness of one's life for you. Rather, it is filled with the consciousness of God as the eternal object-subject. Self-knowledge is a necessary condition, but only a precursor of God-consciousness we find the true self-consciousness, and that is why Jesus spoke of "losing" our "find" the largest, primordial life it is God himself.
The aim of yogi
"If a Yogi has perfect control over his mind and fights all the time in this way to unite with Brahman, he finally comes to peace wreath of Nirvana, the peace that is in me." Sargeant, "So continually disciplining himself, the yogi whose mind is subdued goes to nirvana, to supreme peace, to union with me. "
Just keep in mind, and that Krishna has just told us, the yogi achieve the objective and relatively easy-infallibly.
