CHAPTER SEVEN

Yoga for the Modern Age

arjuna uvaca
yo ‘yam yogas tvayda proktah
samyena madhusudana
etasyaham na pasyami
cafcalatvat sthitim sthiram

‘*Arjuna said: O Madhusiidana, 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 astariga-yoga system ex-
pounded herein by Lord Sri Krsna. It has already been explained
that one must sit in a certain way and concentrate the mind on the
form of Visnu seated within the heart. According to the astanga-
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 Visnu
within the heart, and then become absorbed in that form. There
are eight processes in this astariga-yoga system, but herein Arjuna
says quite frankly that this astdrga-yoga system is very difficult.
Indeed, he says that it ‘appears impractical and unendurable to
me.”’

Actually, the astanga-yoga system is not impractical, for were it
impractical, Lord Krsna would not have taken so much trouble to
describe it. It is not impractical, but it appears impractical. What

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