Stabilising the Mind in God: The Twelfth Chapter of the Bhagavadgita: 3. Swami Krishnananda.

Gajendra Moksham, the power of Surrender!

Sri Venkatesha Stotram

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Friday 14, November 2025, 17:50.
Article
Scriptures
Stabilising the Mind in God: The Twelfth Chapter of the - Bhagavadgita: 3.
Swami Krishnananda
(Spoken on June 26, 1983)
Post-3.

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Be seated in a single posture, whatever be your comfortable posture. Sit, if possible, at the same time. If not, if you are a busy person, sit at any other time also when it is convenient, but for a uniform duration. If it is half an hour, let it be half an hour every day. If it is more, whatever the time be, stick to that duration. And tell the mind that now you are going to unite yourself, commune yourself with what is finally meaningful in this world. All meaning and all value, whatever is of any worth and significance in this world, is summed up and concentrated in this thing that you are now going to meditate upon: “Thus, my dear mind, do not hop like a grasshopper here and there because of recognition of meaning, value, or significance in things in the world. I am telling you that all these are present here. That is the focus point, the concentrated centre of all the values that you can imagine as worthwhile in this world. It is the seabed of the ocean and of all the rivers of value that you can think of in the world. Therefore, stupid mind, go not hither and thither. If you think there are values in the world, okay, granted, there are also values in the world. But they are originally present in that with which you are now trying to commune yourself. Even these values and meanings and significances in life are reflections of that original value. Stupid mind, these beauties and joys, glamours and perfections of life in the world which attract you so much are shadows cast by the original, and if the shadows can pull you to such an extent, with such force, what is the power of the original if you contact it? If the shadow is so beautiful, attractive and tasty a dish to the senses, what will be the taste of that original which casts this dark shadow of the world?”

Tell this to the mind every day. Go on harping this tune again and again: “You are going to commune yourself with that in which you will find the whole world concentrated. The whole world is concentrated there.” When you go on telling this again and again, you are doing abhyasa. This is practice. Do this every day, and think nothing else. This is called ananya chintana, brahma abhyasa. Practise the presence of God in a manner convenient to you according to your own predilection and in accordance with the choice you have made of your notion of God the Almighty.

“Even this is difficult,” says the mind. So the great teacher Sri Krishna says, abhyāsepy asamarthosi matkarmaparamo bhava, madartham api karmāṇi kurvan siddhim avāpsyasi: “If this also is not possible, take to other ways which are concerned with Me.” Interpreters of the Bhagavadgita vary in their opinion of the meaning of these words matkarma, etc. Madhusudana Saraswati, one of the greatest exponents of the Bhagavadgita, is of the opinion that here matkarma should be understood as 'devotion to God'. The first way he considers as a prescription of jnana yoga, and the second way as the yoga of the will, identified sometimes with the raja yoga of Patanjali. The third way, says Madhusudana in his commentary, is an indication towards devotion.

According to this commentator on the Bhagavadgita, Madhusudana Saraswati, matkarma is śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam arcanaṁ vandanaṁ dāsyaṁ sakhyam ātma-nivedanam (Bhagavata 7.5.23). Śravaṇaṁ: Hearing the glories of God. Wherever satsanga is held, go and listen to these upadeshas of Mahatmas, listen to the Bhagavata Katha, and listen to the glories of God wherever they are sung, in whatever way. And kīrtanaṁ is singing names by means of musical accompaniments or even otherwise. Smaraṇaṁ is something like japa, going on reciting His mantra, His formula, His name inwardly, rotating His name in the mind again and again as remembrance of God. Pāda-sevanam arcanaṁ are some special ways of adoration of God which also have been understood in different ways. Some feel that pada-sevana is attending to the feet of God Himself. Who can touch the feet of God? People say only Mahalakshmi can serve the feet of Narayana, Durga Bhagavati Ma can serve Lord Siva, etc. Mankind cannot practise this method. This is one way of understanding this method of worship, pada-sevana. But others are of the opinion as all the heads in the universe are the heads of the Mahapurusha only, and all the feet are his only. Sahasrapāt (P.S. 1) says the Purusha Sukta: Service of humanity also is service of God. Service of the feet of all humanity. That means to say, the dedication of yourself for the welfare of all is also understood as equivalent to pada-sevana, though in a highly orthodox, mystical sense people think it is adoration of Narayana in Vaikuntha only.

Archana is daily worship as you do in the temples. With shodasa upachara, the sixteen methods of ritualistic performance, you adore God Almighty as present here in His archa avatara, in His images, in His murtis, in His idols, as we have in the temples or places of holy worship.

Vandanaṁ is offering prayer:

“O Lord of mercy and love…” as you pray. You may pray, “Father, Thou art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name,” and so on, or you may have your own prayers where you open up your heart before the only thing that is before you. It is a confession that you are making before the Holy Father, the Ultimate Being. “My Lord, You know what I am. If I have sinned, pardon me. I shall not commit this mistake again. Ignorant child that I am, I might have gone wrong in many a way. It is the benignancy of the Almighty that Thou art to excuse me for my faults. I promise that in future I shall try my best not to commit this mistake. Thou art all.” Thus is prayer, vandana.

Dasya is utter surrender, 

comparable to the attitude of Hanuman to Sri Rama, where you are a servant of God. This aspect of the servanthood of the devotee in respect of God the Almighty is emphasised very much in Vaishnava schools, especially in the School of Madhva. Also in Sri Vaishnava parlance they say, “I am only an appendage, an attribute, a quality, something that I attach to Him, and He is almighty. He is the original. He is the organism, and I am that which is appended to Him. So dasya is the feeling of utter dependence on Him, as there is no other alternative.

Sakhyam 

is a novel attitude of devotion which places the devotee on an equal footing with God, as exemplified in Bhakti Shastras in the life of Arjuna and his companionship with Sri Krishna. He is your friend and philosopher and guide. He is always with you, and He is at your beck and call because He is your friend. You can call upon Him at any moment for His succour. Just now He is there to assist you, help you, take care of you and do anything for you. That is the meaning of a friend. A friend in need is a friend indeed, and He is a friend in need; therefore, He is a friend indeed. God is a friend, and nobody else can be regarded as a real friend in this world. Every friend will leave you one day or the other for some reason or the other. Here is a friend who will not leave you. He will be with you till your doom and till the end of your consecrated salvation.

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Continues

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