Chapter VI-45. Striving assiduously, the Yogi, purified from sins, perfected during many births, reaches the highest goal.
The Spiritual path holds the promise of final bliss. Yet even the path offers a roadmap and safety during life. It gives a universal measure to help us grow and move to greater and greater harmony with the creation.
Chapter VI-46. The Yogi is superior to ascetics, to the learned men, to the men of ritual, therefore be a Yogi.
The word Yogi can mean either one striving to have direct knowledge of the Self, the Absolute or it can mean one who has achieved this state in Samadhi (mystical union). In other words, to reach this goal is the highest aspiration and most difficult, because it has to be sought with one-pointed determination.
Chapter VI-47. Among all the Yogis, one, who full of faith and with the inner Self merged in Me, worships Me, is deemed by Me to be the most devout.
The worship gradually becomes denser and more directed. Faith must grow, as all other facets of life pale compared to the awaited Bliss of the cosmic Lover uniting with the Beloved. The mirage of two fades and the Unique ONE remains.
Chapter VII-1 Arjuna, with the mind into on Me, practicing Yoga, taking refuge in Me, without a doubt you will know me fully.
It helps to read spiritual books or scripture because they fill the mind with stories of God's grace and images of the Ultimate omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent being. If our mind starts to spin, we through our practice can focus, calm, and purify it by taking refuge in the God-thought. It is our shield against the willful selfish small self within.
We come to know God first by hearing and reading this is called wisdom. When we come to know God by personal experience this is called realization. When this state is with us all the time, when we experience the Eternal Oneness that knows God fully, nothing else needs to be known.
Chapter VIII-8. By the practice of Yogic harmony, with the mind not moving towards any other thing, constantly meditating, one goes to the resplendent Supreme Being.
The practice of Yoga harmony means the endeavor to keep alive always at the back of the mind the single object of meditation representing the continual presence of God. This thought is like a leash that keeps us always connected to God. Part of the mind may be eating, reading, writing but the bedrock remains the background of the god thought. Practice is the repeated effort to draw the mind back, to again and again put on the imaginary leash. Regularity is important, a time set aside to practice, where this is the whole endeavor and during the rest of the day, a regular practice of continued reminders toward remembrance. If we can do that we are ever in the presence of the self-effulgent Inner Light or Supreme Being, undivided as if divided, within all beings.
Chapter VIII-10. At the time of death, with unmoving mind, endowed with devotion, by the power from Yoga, placing the life-breath wholly in the middle of the eyebrows, one reaches the Divine Supreme Being.
At the beginning of the chapter, Arjuna asks the Lord the question, "At the time of death how are You knowable by the controlled self? There are two qualities necessary; the first is devotion. God asks that we place love for the cosmic being, recognizing it as the bedrock, first. The second is a history of practice to prepare us to centre our mind on God as our source, our all-in-all at the time of death. Through our practice of meditation we can make our mind unmoving and focus the life-breath in our heads. We thereby connect with the Divine energy our resting place. The next verse gives us the preparatory steps.
Chapter VIII-12,13. I am easily attained by the ever-steadfast Yogi. who having controlled all the gates, having confined the mind in the heart, and having placed the breath (energy) in the head, established in yogic concentration, with the mind not thinking of any thing else, daily remembers Me.
We must daily practice controlling all the gates (not letting in the sense objects – the smells, sounds, tastes, pains and visions of the mundane). The one can, instead of thinking with the mind, rest it in the peace of the heart where God dwells. Breath control is again advised – but this is not only the gross breath that we feel moving in or out – it is also the subtle energy that drives our body to action. This energy is steady and connected, fostering single pointed concentration so the mind only thinks of God. If we are steady in our practice, death becomes not something feared, but something that we have the ability to face..
