Gita 06.12 – Concentration is the foundation for purification

Thank you This is Bhagavad Gita 6.12 Krishna is describing the process of yoga in which he is talking about the yogi who goes into the forest and begins the process of dedicated meditation, yogic meditation so in the previous verse Krishna talks about how the yogi sat chooses a particular place for anasana and then sits over there, that is continued to be described over here tatra means at that place, that place was a clean place, not too high, not too low with a kusha and chaila, with a deer skin and kusha grass there tatra ekagram manahakritva so the external is for the purpose of the internal tatra at that place ekagram ekagram make the mind one pointed ekagram manahakritva concentrated Krishna uses the same word ekagra the conclusion of his instructions when he asks Arjuna in 18.72 Arjuna have you heard this with one pointed intelligence so the one pointedness that the yogis use for that the ashtanga yogis use for that process of ashtanga yoga and internal meditation the bhakti yogis use the same one pointedness in the process of devotional service for hearing for in remembrance of Krishna then there is comprehension, there is realization, there is satisfaction tatra ekagram manahakritva so one pointed one makes the mind ekagram manahakritva then chitta indriya kriya at that place what does one do chitta indriya kriya so after making the mind one pointed now what does making the mind one pointed involve chitta indriya kriya so one pointedness in chitta that is consciousness so actually chitta is specifically the consciousness that is rooted through matter the soul is spiritual consciousness and the consciousness that is rooted through matter is called chitta so sat chit ananda c i t chit is the chit the enlightenment and the conscious aspect of the soul but when that conscious aspect of the soul is rooted through matter into this material world that materially embodied consciousness of the soul is called chitta so just like a person who is sitting in a movie theater that person can see the walls of the movie theater, the neighbors who are sitting on the other seats can see all the other things also but when that movie watcher's attention gets focused on the movie screen then the consciousness enters into the movie screen and starts experiencing the world that is depicted over there so if you consider the body to be like the movie theater and the spectator to be like the soul then the spectator's capacity to perceive other things in the movie theater apart from the movie on the screen that capacity of the spectator is like the soul's chitta so soul is capable of perceiving spiritual reality beyond the body also but currently just like a movie theater movie watcher who is completely absorbed, obsessed, lost in the movie so like that the soul is currently caught in the body with absorption in the body so that embodied consciousness of the soul is called chitta and now the this chitta which is caught in the body needs to be rooted towards spirit through the body till it becomes spiritually aware and then it can become disentangled from the body so this chitta runs here and there seeking various kinds of titillations and pleasures so now the yogi in order to draw the chitta out of the material in the world, out of matter first makes it one-pointed that consciousness is and then not only the consciousness, consciousness is internal but indriya kriya the senses and the actions that we perform using the senses we use for performing various actions indriya kriya so one controls this thing ekagra ekagra manakritva ekagra manakritva, at one-pointed now ekagra is also actually in the process of yoga one of the stages in mind control there are five stages of the control mind which we will discuss in more detail when we come to the 1920th verses of samadhi but here briefly they are called as mudha kshitta, vikshitta, ekagrita so roughly is a mudha is the state when one is when is in tamoguna you know one is completely deluded not even aware of material reality properly it's lost in daydreams or fantasies or intoxication or things like that then there is ship ship there is the consciousness that is a passion when this one is one is distracted by or maybe this pleasure that pleasure that pleasure that pleasure one is ity-bitty that one is running here and there a little bit Ranta so once desires are caught here and there and that is in passion then from passion as one struggles towards goodness that is weak ship the big ship dies so actually one is trying to concentrate the one is not succeeded in concentration but at least one is striving at which if the one is just running here and there in which if the one is trying to concentrate and then there is a car so everyone after trying to concentrate on car succeeds in concentrating and then there is the road the road that means the material consciousness shuts down and gradually afterwards the spiritual consciousness awakens so that's like the person stops watching the movie and then after that the person will start looking at the other things outside apart from the movie what all is reality so here before one can come to disentangle our consciousness from the body there is first of all focusing on the of the consciousness on some particular thing by which it does not flitter here and there at the material level so after making this ekagra like that upavishasane yunjad upavisha so one gives upavishasane yunjad so one sits formally yoga atma vishuddhaya yoga one starts in practice of yoga for what purpose atma vishuddhaya for the sake of purification Krishna has talked about purification as the purpose of yoga of even the karma yogi so in 5.11 he said kāyena manasa buddhya kevalair indriyair api yoginā karmakurvanti saṅgam tyaktvātma-shuddhaya so the karma yogi works for ātma-shuddhi for the sake of purification with one's senses with one's mind one's buddhi actually with even with one's senses so there the karma yogi acts but here the strana yogi contemplates it stops action and contemplates so purification is you could say it's almost like a perennial progression there's certain level of purification that the karma yogi achieves by action and then subsequent purification that the strana yogi achieves by cessation of action and inner we could say inner action that is inner contemplation that is contemplation for going inwards for taking one's consciousness inwards so here what the yogi does is sits in a pilasana so after that was mentioned the point is here so control so that there can be the inner journey afterwards the trikāgrama manahagritvā chittendriyagrihā so fix the mind at one point and for that purpose bring keep the consciousness the senses the actions under control and sit visited sit in a one place yogam ātma-siddhaye for the sake of purification so in this way the yogi.