Gita Summaries: Chapters 1-11 - Vedanta

Swami Paramarthananda on Gita – Summaries of Chaps 1-11
b) Preparation for meditation:
Physical preparation and Mental preparation:
First choose a quieter or secluded place; that which is associated with spirituality. If you
meditate in the dining room you will always have thoughts of food!!!
Fix the asanam neither too high nor too low; neither too hard nor soft. The idea is that
breathing must not be disturbed. The mind and prana are interconnected. Body should
be relaxed and straight. Observe the breathing for a few moment and feel its
smoothness and evenness. Then the sense-organs need to be taken care of; concentrate
on the tip of the nose or in the middle of the eyebrows; the essence is that the eyes
should be closed or half closed and withdrawn from the external world.
Mental preparation: Even when the sense-organs the mind is capable of wandering away.
You can concentrate the mind in one way: surrender all your thoughts at the feet of the
Lord. We always worry about yoga schema; worry over past mistakes or future insecurity.
The only thing we do efficiently all the time is worry, chitta!!! These twin rakshasas —
past regrets and future anxiety— hijack our mind. The only remedy is “Surrender to the
Lord”; Please forgive me for my past mistakes and Please give me strength to face the
future. Now let me dwell on the present and meditate!!!
c) Process of meditation:
Meditation can be defined as a constant flow of similar thoughts centred on an object of
meditation. The thoughts can change but they must be centred on the object of
meditation; when unobstructed by dissimilar thoughts this is called Dhyanam. Meditation
is definitely not blankness or empty or shunyam; meditation is a mental activity.
There are 3 stages of meditation: i) Dharanam (focusing the mind on the object of
meditation), ii) Dhyanam (maintenance or retention of the mind on the object of
meditation) and iii) Samadhi (because of the above the mind is absorbed in the object of
meditation and in time without effort the mind dwells there). Samadhi is not a
mysterious state; we are all the time in samadhi; job worry, children’s worry, business
worries etc. An absorbed mind is like the glass cover placed on a flame; it protects it
from the wind. The fluttering flame becomes steady!!
d) Object of Meditation:
It can either be Saguna Ishwara; meditate on the Lord’s attributes and this is called
Upasana Dhyanam. And if you are exposed to Shravanam and Mananam then meditate on
Nirguna Brahman. Then a mysterious thing happens: the object becomes the subject
itself. The subject-object division goes away. This is Brahman meditation or
Nidhidhyasanam.
e) Obstacles to Meditation:
I) Dozing off/Nidra.
Remedies for overcoming sleep during meditation: give sufficient rest to the body; don’t
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