Perhaps compelled by the nature of Arjuna, a man of action, or perhaps forced by the very spirit of the reformer in the Yogeshwara, the Divine Song, as it comes to us, is the most practical textbook on Self-rediscovery. The moment the Geeta-Acharya advises his disciple to develop any given mental or intellectual beauty, he always suggests a practical method by which this can actually be accomplished.
If a seeker tries to develop in himself the virtues described in the previous three stanzas — not only in his inward life but also in all his contacts with the world around him, it is certain that he, an ordinary man of the world, will thereby conserve in himself a lot of energy. This stanza describes the right application of this conserved energy in proper channels so as to profit thereby and gain a better Self-unfoldment.
UNFLINCHING DEVOTION TO ME — Concentration is the focussing of the mind upon a particular point to the exclusion of all mental excitements and agitations. This steadiness in contemplation may be destroyed by causes arising at two different points — either in the individual’s own mind or in the object contemplated upon. Unless both are steady, concentration cannot be successful. If our devotion wavers from idol to idol, then our practice of concentration will get unsteady, because the point-of-attention becomes ever-changing. Therefore, it is said that unflinching devotion towards Me, the Self, is one of the conditions necessary for steady progress and growth in Yoga.
BY THE YOGA OF NON-SEPARATION — Undivided attention and enthusiasm in the mind of the devotee is another condition that will accomplish better concentration. Otherwise the mind may revolt against its own devoted self-application, and will, either partially or wholly, wander away into its own delusory enchantments. A certain amount of steadiness of purpose is to be maintained by the mind. Wild imaginations and futile day-dreaming are the preoccupations of only a disintegrated mind.
The typical expression used here by Shri Krishna to indicate the abject and despicable vacillations of the human mind at the seat of Yoga clearly shows the force with which he wants to condemn such vacillations. He says, the mind should be “unprostituting” with its point-of-contemplation. Prostitution denotes an attitude of selling away one’s own capabilities and beauties for the sake of some paltry profit heedless of the higher bonds of faithfulness and chastity. A mind, wedded to the Lord, is a mind at faithful contemplation. The warning “not to prostitute” is indeed very powerful to express that the point-of-concentration should not be at a crowd of deities or a host of ideas, but must faithfully serve some chosen single ideal.
Similarly, the other powerful expression used in the stanza is “the Yoga of non-otherness” (Ananya-Yoga). Inspired as He is, the Yogeshwara coins a new and powerful phrase on the spur of the moment to bring a new fire into his re-interpretation of the ancient Hindu way of life and techniques of self-culture.
Such an integrated life of stable mind, and steady contemplation upon a firm ideal is impossible, unless the practitioner works in a conducive environment. This is prescribed in the two indirect advices (a) TO RESORT TO SOLITARY PLACES and (b) TO DEVLOP A DISTASTE FOR THE CROWDED SOCIETY LIFE. The more integrated the personality grows and the more maddening becomes its enthusiasm for the quest of that which is dear to its heart, the more it automatically lives alone in itself away from the noisy crowd. This is true of every thinker — be he a poet, be he a scientific research-scholar or be he a man with an acute problem. Whenever the mind is fascinated by an enchanting ideal, it loses all its contact with other preoccupations and becomes wedded faithfully to its own all-absorbing theme of interest.
Thereafter — just a poet lives in his own world, just as the scientist is a solitary man even in the market-place — the devotee also enters a cave of his own experiences and he walks alone in the world. He hates other thoughts entering his mind, and so lives alone in himself. These two terms should not be misunderstood as physical escapism into a tomb-like solitude, or as a physical aversion to the society of men.
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