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To Always Dwell In Divine Consciousness, One Must Focus All Thoughts On Him And Surrender Intellect To Him

मय्येव मन आधत्स्व मयि बुद्धिं निवेशय |
निवसिष्यसि मय्येव अत ऊर्ध्वं न संशय: || 12.8||

mayy eva mana ādhatsva mayi buddhiṁ niveśhaya
nivasiṣhyasi mayy eva ata ūrdhvaṁ na sanśhayaḥ|| 12.8||

Shloka Translation
BG – Ch. 12- Ver. 8:

Fix your mind on me alone, place your intellect in me alone, and you will undoubtedly dwell in me alone.

Explanation

After explaining why worshipping Him in His personal form is preferable, Shree Krishna moves on to explaining how to worship Him. He instructs Arjuna to focus his concentration on God and give his intellect to Him. Desires, attractions, and aversions are all created by the mind. The intellect’s job is to think, analyze, and discriminate.
The mind determines both Maya’s captivity and its deliverance. One is bound to the world if the mind is attached to it, and one is free if the mind is detached from it. The condition of thought determines bondage and liberty. ”

Physical devotion is insufficient; we must immerse our minds in God’s thoughts.

The reason for this is that sensory stimulation is useless without mental engagement. The mind is such an instrument that all of the senses exist in a subtle form within it. As a result, even when there is no sensory activity, the mind perceives sight, smell, taste, touch, and sound. Even without the ability to perceive, the mind has the capability to experience all perceptions.

The intellect exists beyond the mind. When we give our intellect to God, we can only set our minds on Him. When confronted with issues that are above our intellect’s capability, we seek advice from someone with higher intellect. Our intelligence is now plagued by numerous flaws. Our minds are burdened with incorrect information. We consider ourselves to be the perishable body, despite the fact that we are everlasting spirits.

Despite the fact that all things in the world are perishable, we believe they will always be with us, so we spend our days and nights accumulating them. And, despite the fact that the pursuit of sensual pleasures only leads to sadness in the long term, we continue to pursue them in the hope of finding happiness.

The seriousness of our predicament is exacerbated by the fact that our minds have been conditioned to think in this way for many lives. We will not make much progress on the divine road if we live our life according to the dictates of our intellect.

As a result, if we want to achieve spiritual achievement by connecting our minds to God, we must commit our intellect to Him and obey His commands. Surrendering one’s intellect entails thinking in accordance with the information gained from God through the scriptures and a genuine Guru.

Verse & what we can learn

Shri Krishna established four routes or yoga’s to reach Ishvara in this series of four shlokas, each one easier than the one before it. The path of jyana yoga, or understanding yoga, is described in this shloka. Shri Krishna states that the seeker should keep both his intellect and attention fixed on Ishvara at all times. When this occurs, Ishvara is assured to be attained. When one performs jyana yoga, there is no place for “sanshaya” or uncertainty about obtaining Ishvara.

Jyana yoga demands us to have only one goal: to connect with Ishvara. However, as we saw in the second chapter, our desires influence our intellect, causing us to make numerous decisions. Jyana yoga is challenging because of the several resolutions. Furthermore, our situation is such that many resolutions are not limited to the intellect.
Due to the distractions of the senses, our mental faculty, mana, is fickle to begin with. Both the intellect and the mind must be fixed on Ishvara in Jyana yoga. We can only achieve intellectual and mental peace in rare circumstances, But even that happens once in a while.

To acquire knowledge and to implement that knowledge in life one needs to be mentally and physically active and healthy and for that daily meditation is a great tool.

There are various types of meditation like Buddhist meditation, heartfulness meditation, mindfulness meditation, meditation for stress, and each meditation benefits are countless. There is also numerous meditation techniques for beginners which help in practicing daily meditation so go ahead and start your journey towards a peaceful and balanced life.

Clearly, the most common style of yoga, jyana yoga, is challenging for most of us, at least at this point in our spiritual progress. Is there anything simpler? Then comes Shri Krishna’s response next.

Let’s learn to live with “The Gita” via Meditation Affinity…