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THE PATH OF PERFECTION
klešo 'dhikataras teṣām avyaktāsakta-cetasām avyaktā hi gatir duḥkhaṁ deḥavadbhir avāpvaṭe
“For those whose minds are attached to the unmanifested, impersonal feature of the Supreme, advancement is very troublesome. To make progress in that discipline is always difficult for those who are embodied.”
In the temple, the devotee tries to concentrate on the form of Kṛṣṇa. Concentrating on nothingness, on void, is very difficult, and naturally the mind is very flickering. Therefore instead of concentrating on the void, the mind searches out something else. The mind must be engaged in thinking of something, and if it is not thinking of Kṛṣṇa, it must be thinking of  māyā . Therefore, pseudomeditation on the impersonal void is simply a waste of time. Such a show of  yoga  practice may be materially lucrative, but useless as far as spiritual realization is concerned. I may open a class in yogic meditation and charge people money for sitting down and pressing their nose this way and that, but if my students do not attain the real goal of  yoga  practice, they have wasted their time and money, and I have cheated them.
Therefore one has to concentrate his mind steadily and constantly on the form of Viṣṇu, and that is called  samādhi . In Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the mind is controlled by engaging it constantly in the transcendental loving service of the Lord. Unless one is engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he cannot steadily control the mind. A Kṛṣṇa conscious person easily achieves the result of  yoga  practice without separate endeavor, but a  yoga  practitioner cannot achieve success without becoming Kṛṣṇa conscious.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Failure and Success in Yoga.
Suppose I give up my business, my ordinary occupation, and begin to practice  yoga , real  yoga , as explained herein by Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Suppose I practice, and somehow or other I fail; I cannot properly complete the process. What, then, is the result? This is Arjuna's very next question.
arjuna uvāca  
 ayatiḥ śraddhayopeto  
 yogāc calita-mānasaḥ  
 aprāpya yoga-saṁsiddhiṁ  
 kāṁ gatiṁ kṛṣṇa gacchati
“Arjuna said: What is the destination of the man of faith who does not persevere, who in the beginning takes to the process of self-realization but who later desists due to worldly-mindedness and thus does not attain perfection in mysticism?” (Bg. 6.37)
The path of self-realization, of mysticism, is described in the  Bhagavad-gītā . The basic principle of self-realization is knowing that “I am not this material body but am different from it, and my happiness is in eternal life, bliss, and knowledge.” Before arriving at the point of self-realization, one must take it for granted that he is not this body. That lesson is taught in the very beginning of  Bhagavad-gītā : the living entity is not this material body but something different, and his happiness is in eternal life.
Clearly, this life is not eternal. The perfection of  yoga  means attaining a blissful, eternal life full of knowledge. All  yoga  systems
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