Meditation & Stillness

Dhyāna — training the mind to rest — 77 verses, starred ones first.

4.18 ★ Seeing inaction in action, action in inaction — that one is wise, a yogi, a complete doer of all actions.
4.38 ★ Nothing in this world purifies like jñāna. The karma-yogi finds it within themselves in time.
6.6 ★ Your own mind is your best friend when mastered; your worst enemy when not.
6.19 ★ As a lamp in a windless place does not flicker — so is the mind of the yogi who practises the yoga of the Self.
6.30 ★ Who sees Me everywhere and all in Me — I am never lost to that one, nor that one to Me.
6.35 ★ Yes, the mind is restless and hard to restrain — but through abhyāsa and vairāgya, it is governed.
6.47 ★ Of all yogis, the one whose inner self is merged in Me, worshipping with śraddhā — that one I hold to be most united.
4.24 ☆ Instrument, offering, fire, act, destination — all Brahman. One absorbed in Brahman-action reaches Brahman alone.
6.7 ☆ The self-conquered yogi finds the Supreme Self equally present through cold, heat, joy, pain, honour and dishonour.
6.8 ☆ Satisfied by knowledge and realisation, senses mastered, gold and mud equally seen — this is the true steadfast yogi.
6.10 ☆ The yogi practises constantly in solitude — alone, mind and body subdued, free from craving and possessiveness.
6.14 ☆ Peaceful, fearless, vowed to brahmacharya, mind on Krishna — yoked in practice, with the Supreme as the final goal.
6.15 ☆ Practising thus always, with a controlled mind — the yogi reaches the supreme peace of nirvāṇa, abiding in the Supreme.
6.18 ☆ When the completely controlled mind rests serenely in the Self alone, free from all desire-pull — that is called yoga.
6.20 ☆ Where the mind ceases, stilled by yoga — where the Self sees itself and rests content in itself: this is samādhi.
6.21 ☆ Boundless joy beyond the senses, grasped by the purified intellect — once known, one never moves from the Reality.
6.22 ☆ Once that joy is found, no other gain seems greater — established in it, even the heaviest sorrow cannot shake you.
6.23 ☆ Yoga is the disconnection from suffering — practise it with firm resolve and a mind that does not despond.
6.24 ☆ Abandon all desires born of mental planning — without remainder — and restrain the senses completely, by the mind alone.
6.26 ☆ Wherever the restless, unsteady mind wanders — from there and there, bring it back under the Self's control. Every time.
6.27 ☆ Supreme bliss comes naturally to the yogi whose mind is fully at peace, passion quieted, stainless — Brahman-become.
6.29 ☆ Equal vision everywhere: the yogi sees the Self in all beings, and all beings within the Self — the same, everywhere.
6.31 ☆ Established in unity, worshipping Me as dwelling in all beings — whatever the mode of life, that yogi abides in Me.
6.32 ☆ Who measures others' joy and pain by the standard of their own — seeing the same everywhere — is the supreme yogi.
6.33 ☆ O Madhusūdana — I see no stable foundation for this yoga: the mind's restlessness defeats all steadiness.
6.34 ☆ Restless, turbulent, strong, unyielding — O Krishna, restraining the mind is as hard as restraining the wind.
6.37 ☆ O Krishna — the faithful yogi who fell short of yoga's perfection through wandering mind: what is their destination?
6.40 ☆ O Pārtha — no destruction for that one, neither here nor hereafter. For never does any doer of good come to an evil end.
6.41 ☆ After worlds of merit, the fallen yogi is reborn in a pure and prosperous family — conditions for resuming practice.
6.43 ☆ In the new birth, one recovers the former body's intelligence — and strives even more than before toward perfection.
6.44 ☆ Past practice carries the yogi forward involuntarily — even the yoga-inquirer surpasses the Vedic ritualist.
6.45 ☆ Striving through many births, fully purified, the yogi — perfected across lifetimes — reaches the highest goal.
6.46 ☆ The yogi surpasses the ascetic, the scholar, the ritualist — therefore, O Arjuna, be a yogi!
8.13 ☆ Uttering OM — the single syllable of Brahman — departing while meditating on Me, one reaches the highest goal.
8.14 ☆ I am easily attained by the ever-steadfast yogi who constantly remembers Me daily with single-pointed mind.
18.9 ☆ Sāttvic tyāga: niyata karma done ONLY because 'this must be done,' having abandoned attachment and fruit.
2.44 Minds absorbed in pleasure and power cannot settle into the resolute intelligence — they are carried away.
2.53 When your mind — shaken by conflicting teachings — stands still in samādhi: that is yoga attained.
5.6 Renunciation without yoga is painful to achieve — the yoga-joined muni attains Brahman swiftly.
5.11 Yogis act with body, mind, intellect, and bare senses — abandoning attachment — solely for self-purification.
5.12 The yogi abandons fruit and attains lasting peace. The non-yogi, bound to fruit by desire, is fettered.
5.24 Joy within, delight within, light within — that yogi, become Brahman, attains brahma-nirvāṇa.
5.27 Sense contacts excluded, gaze fixed between brows, breath equalized — this is the meditation posture for liberation.
6.3 For the aspiring muni, action is the means to yoga; for the one ascended to yoga, stillness (śama) is the means.
6.4 When unattached to sense objects and to actions, and all saṃkalpas are renounced — then one is called yogārūḍha.
6.9 Who sees friend, foe, stranger, kin, the righteous and the sinner with truly equal eyes — that one excels.
6.11 A clean spot, a firm seat — grass, skin, cloth in layers — not too high, not too low: this is where practice begins.
6.12 There on the seat — mind made one-pointed, senses restrained — practise yoga for the purification of the self.
6.13 Hold body, neck, head erect and still — gaze toward the nose-tip, not looking around: the posture of meditation.
6.16 Yoga fails for those who eat or fast to excess — and equally for those who sleep too much or too little. Regulate.
6.17 Regulate food, recreation, effort and sleep — and yoga becomes the destroyer of all pain.
6.25 Gradually, gradually — with patience gripping the intellect — settle the mind into the Self and think of nothing at all.
6.28 The yogi, constantly engaging thus and freed from taint, attains infinite bliss of Brahman-contact — with ease.
6.36 Yoga is hard for the uncontrolled self — but for the self-controlled one striving by right means, it is attainable.
6.38 Fallen from both worlds, without support — does the wandering yogi simply perish, like a torn cloud, O mighty-armed?
6.39 O Krishna — cut this doubt of mine completely, without remainder. No one other than You can resolve what I am asking.
6.42 Or: born into a family of wise yogis — rarer still, the most auspicious birth this world can offer.
8.8 Whoever meditates on the supreme divine Puruṣa with undivided mind — through practice-yoga — goes to Him.
8.9 Meditate on the Ancient Seer — omniscient, subtler than the atom, sustainer of all, sun-colored, beyond darkness.
8.12 Close all nine gates, hold mind in heart, fix prāṇa in the head — the body's yoga posture for final departure.
8.23 At the time of departure, yogis travel one of two paths — one from which they do not return, one from which they do.
8.25 Smoke, Night, dark fortnight, six months of the Southern sun — by this path the yogi attains the moon and returns.
8.27 Knowing both paths, no yogi is deluded. Therefore, O Arjuna, be steadfast in yoga at all times.
8.28 Transcending Vedic merit, sacrifice, austerity, and charity — the yogi knowing this reaches the primordial Supreme.
10.17 How shall I always meditate on You, O Yogin — in what manifestations should I think of You, O Bhagavān?
11.4 If You think me capable of seeing it, O Lord of Yogins — show me Your imperishable, all-pervading Self.
11.47 Through My own yogic power I showed you this radiant, infinite, primeval cosmic form — which no one else has ever seen!
12.12 Jñāna beats abhyāsa, dhyāna beats jñāna — but karma-phala-tyāga beats all; from tyāga, peace follows at once!
13.9 Dispassion toward sense-objects, no ego, and clearly seeing birth-death-age-disease as painful — this is jñāna!
13.25 Four paths to see the Self: meditation / Sāṃkhya yoga / karma yoga / following tradition — all valid.
13.31 When the yogi sees all diversity resting in the One and spreading from that One alone — he becomes Brahman.
14.12 Greed, restless activity, and longing surge — know that rajas is predominant and karma-saṅga is binding.
15.5 Free from pride, moha, attachment and desire, the dvandva-unbound, undeluded ones reach the imperishable goal.
15.11 Striving yogins with refined selves see the jīva within; those unrefined, even striving, do not see it.
17.14 Bodily tapas: honouring Devas/dvija/guru/wise; purity, straightforwardness, brahmacarya, non-injury.
18.33 Sāttvic dhṛti: unswerving through yoga, holds fast the activities of mind, prāṇa, and senses.
18.52 Frequenting solitude, eating lightly, restraining speech-body-mind, always in dhyāna-yoga, fully in vairāgya —