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Meditation Is The Practise Of Focusing The Mind On One Thing While Keeping It Under The Guidance Of The Intellect

शनै: शनैरुपरमेद्बुद्ध्या धृतिगृहीतया |
आत्मसंस्थं मन: कृत्वा न किञ्चिदपि चिन्तयेत् ||6. 25||

śhanaiḥ śhanair uparamed buddhyā dhṛiti-gṛihītayā
ātma-sansthaṁ manaḥ kṛitvā na kiñchid api chintayet|| 6.25||

Shloka Translation
BG – Ch. 6- Ver. 25:

Slowly but steadily withdraw (the mind) through the intellect, with firm resolve and regularity. After you’ve established your mind in the self, don’t think about anything else.

Explanation

The intellect’s belief about the impermanence of the world and the eternality of one’s relationship with God gives one the power of discrimination. Using the brain, one must progressively stop engaging in sensory activities. This is referred as the control of the mind and senses from racing toward the sense things. it does not happen overnight. It will be accomplished by progressive and consistent exercise.

The mind enjoys being occupied. It jumps from one thought to the next at incredible speeds. When we remove the mind from the senses, it becomes restless since it can no longer chase after sense objects. Shri Krishna instructs us to use our intellect to control our thoughts. We can use the intellect to withdraw the mind during meditation. We require a mind that has studied and heard about the everlasting essence. Any idea other than “I am the self” has no place in meditation, it understands. When an undesired thought arises, we should utilise our intellect to gently but forcefully move our concentration away from it and back to the main concept of “I am the creator.”

According to Shri Krishna, this procedure could take weeks, months, or even years. As a result, he instructs us to accomplish it “shanaih shanaih,” meaning slowly and steadily, with tremendous patience and endurance. “I am the self” should be a continual idea in our minds. There should be no other thoughts besides this one. When the mind wanders, we must not believe that we have failed and get discouraged. We should slowly return the mind to the one core concept.

When done correctly, we may generate a great deal of energy that radiates from our personality. This “tapas,” or energy, was always present within us, but it used to escape through our minds and sense organs.

Verse & what we can learn

Meditation is the practise of focusing the mind on a single thought without allowing it to wander into other thoughts while being guided by the intellect. The progressive nature of the practise is emphasised. Maintain a focus on the Self. Nothing else comes to mind. When the mind is free of craving for material things, it sits still and obeys the intellect’s commands. In order to succeed in any field, you must apply yourself consistently.

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 are 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.

In the Next verses, Shri Krishna tells Arjuna more about mind.

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