622
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 3, Ch. 15]
follow the standard method. The real  yoga-mārga  process is to control the senses, sit in a solitary and sanctified place and meditate on the four-handed form of Nārāyaṇa, decorated as described in this chapter as He appeared before the four sages. This Nārāyaṇa form is Kṛṣṇa's expansion; therefore the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement which is now spreading is the real, topmost process of  yoga  practice.
Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the highest  yoga  performance by trained devotional  yogīs . Despite all the allurement of  yoga  practice, the eight kinds of  yogic  perfections are hardly achievable by the common man. But here it is described that the Lord, who appeared before the four sages, is Himself full of all eight of those perfections. The highest  yoga-mārga  process is to concentrate the mind twenty-four hours a day on Kṛṣṇa. This is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The  yoga  system, as described in  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  and  Bhagavad-gītā  or as recommended in the Patañjali  yoga  process, is different from the nowadays practiced  haṭha-yoga  as it is generally understood in the Western countries. Real  yoga  practice is to control the senses and, after such control is established, to concentrate the mind on the Nārāyaṇa form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Lord Kṛṣṇa is the original Personality of Godhead, and all the other Viṣṇu forms—with four hands decorated with conch, lotus, club and wheel—are plenary expansions of Kṛṣṇa. In  Bhagavad-gītā  it is recommended that one should meditate upon the form of the Lord. To practice concentration of the mind, one has to sit with the head and the back in a straight line, and one must practice in a secluded place, sanctified by a sacred atmosphere. The  yogī  should observe the rules and regulations of  brahmacarya —to strictly live a life of self-restraint and celibacy. One cannot practice  yoga  in a congested city, living a life of extravagancy, including unrestricted sex indulgence and adultery of the tongue.  Yoga  practice necessitates controlling the senses, and the beginning of sense control is to control the tongue. One who can control the tongue can also have control over the other senses. One cannot allow the tongue to take all kinds of forbidden food and drink and at the same time advance in the practice of  yoga . It is a very regrettable fact that many unauthorized so-called  yogīs  come to the Western countries and exploit people's inclination towards  yoga  practice. Such unauthorized  yogīs  even dare to say publicly that one can indulge in the habit of drinking and at the same time practice meditation.
Five thousand years ago Lord Kṛṣṇa recommended  yoga  practice to Arjuna, but Arjuna frankly expressed his inability to follow the stringent rules and regulations of the  yoga  system. One should be very practical in every field of activities and should not waste his valuable time in practicing useless gymnastic feats in the name of  yoga . Real  yoga  is to search out the