meditation.

The Gita shows that there is no better path than devotion to God to overcome ahamkara and to gain His grace. The beauty of the Gita is that all types of seekers are included, and a variety of methods offered to practise meditation by which God can be attained, pointed out Swami Tejomayananda in a discourse.

Krishna makes it clear that meditation is crucial in spiritual pursuit and that there is no better way than yoga to keep the mind under check and to hold the senses under control. Vedic seers have shown the path to the attain the Akshara Brahman, the imperishable; and this is the path earnestly sought by those in whom all attachments are gone for good and who lead austere and disciplined lives.

The yogic practices such as yama, cultivating moral values, niyama, regular habits of study and worship, asana, postures for meditation, pranayama, practice of breath control, pratyahara, controlling the senses, dharana, concentration, dhyana, meditation, etc,are necessary for chitta suddhi. Only then is concentration and meditation possible, when the attention of the mind is held in one’s heart. Then the Lord extols the Pranava mantra, the Omkara as most suitable for meditation as it represents both the form and essence of the Supreme Brahman.

To those who may find these paths difficult, the Lord says that He is easily available to one who always remembers Him and forever thinks of Him. The Gopis never practised the yogic disciplines; they were only drawn to the form and presence of the Lord and always absorbed in God.

It is said that once when Narada visited Brindavan, he found a Gopi who told him that she was trying hard to divert her mind from Krishna since she is unable to do any other work. Such total absorption in God is what sages steeped in meditation strive to attain.