[In a different entry, I presented meditation instruction omitting mention of Krishna. In the first excerpt below, I restore those omitted lines, which probably indicate that devotion to Krishna has produced a sense that Krishna is felt as an internal presence by meditators. Passages in the Gita suggests that Krishna, Atman (“Self”) are different ways of interpreting experience of meditative bliss.]
Having set in a clean place a firm seat for himself
that is neither too high nor too low…
Sitting there on the seat, making his mind one pointed,
controlling the activity of his mind and senses,
let him practice yoga for the purification of the self…
Let him sit harmonized, his thoughts on Me [Krishna], absorbed in Me.
Thus…the yogin attains to peace,
the supreme bliss, that abides in Me.” (Ch. 6, 10-15)
Krishna said: Nothing exists higher than Me.
All this (universe) is strung on Me like jewels on a string.
I am the taste in the waters.
I am the light in the moon and the sun…
I am the pure fragrance in earth and the brilliance in fire;
I am the life in all beings.
Know Me to be the eternal seed of all beings.
I am the intellect of the intelligent,
the splendor of the splendid…
And of all beings that are…
know that these are from Me alone.
But I am not in them, they are in Me. (ch. 7, 7-12)
He who always thinks of Me and not of something else,
for him, who is a yogin ever disciplined, I am easy to obtain.
Having come to Me,
these great-souled men do not attain rebirth,
the place of sorrow and impermanence,
for they have reached the highest perfection.
From the world of Brahma downwards,
all worlds are reborn,
but having come to Me there is no rebirth.(ch. 8, 14-16)
By Me, in My unmanifested form, all this world is pervaded.
All beings rest in Me but I do not rest in them…
My Self, which is the source of beings,
sustains all beings but does not rest in them.
Just as the great wind, blowing everywhere,
abides in the ether, so all beings abide in Me. (ch. 9, 4-5)
Arjuna said:
Those devotees who are always disciplined and honor you,
and those who worship the Imperishable
and the Unmanifest –
which of these are more learned in yoga?
Krishna said:
Those who, fixing their mind on Me,
worship Me with complete discipline
and with supreme faith,
them I consider to be the most learned in yoga.
But those who worship the Imperishable,
the Undefinable, the Unmanifested,
the Omnipresent, the Unthinkable, the Immovable,
the Unchanging, the Constant,
And have restrained all their senses,
and are equal-minded and rejoice in the welfare of all beings
they also obtain Me.
The difficulty of those whose minds
are fixed on the Unmanifested is much greater;
the goal of the Unmanifested
is hard for the embodied to attain. (Ch. 12, 1-12)
[This last verse gives part of the rationale for Krishna-bhakti: Embodied beings like ourselves find it difficult to focus on the unmanifest Brahman, and can relate more easily to an embodied divinity like Krishna.]
