CHAPTER SEVEN
Yoga  for the Modern Age
arjuna uvāca  
 yo 'yaṁ yogas tvayā proktaḥ  
 sāmyena madhusūdana  
 etasyāhaṁ na paśyāmi  
 cañcalatvāt sthitiṁ sthirām
“Arjuna said: O Madhusūdana, the system of  yoga  which You have summarized appears impractical and unendurable to me, for the mind is restless and unsteady.” (Bg. 6.33)
This is the crucial test of the eightfold  aṣṭānga-yoga  system expounded herein by Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. It has already been explained that one must sit in a certain way and concentrate the mind on the form of Viṣṇu seated within the heart. According to the  aṣṭānga-yoga  system, first of all one has to control the senses, follow all the rules and regulations, practice the sitting posture and the breathing process, concentrate the mind on the form of Viṣṇu within the heart, and then become absorbed in that form. There are eight processes in this  aṣṭānga-yoga  system, but herein Arjuna says quite frankly that this  aṣṭānga-yoga  system is very difficult. Indeed, he says that it “appears impractical and unendurable to me.”
Actually, the  aṣṭāṅga-yoga  system is not impractical, for were it impractical, Lord Kṛṣṇa would not have taken so much trouble to describe it. It is not impractical, but it  appears  impractical. What
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