96 THE PATH OF PERFECTION

kleso ‘dhikataras tesam
avyaktasakta-cetasam
avyakta hi gatir duhkham

dehavadbhir avapyate |
‘‘For those whose minds are attached to the .unmanifested, CHAPTER EIGHT
impersonal feature of the Supreme, advancement is very
troublesome. To make progress in that discipline is always difficult Failure and Success in Yoga

for those who are embodied.”

In the temple, the devotee tries to concentrate on the form of
Krsna. Concentrating on nothingness, on void, is very difficult,
and naturally the mind is very flickering. Therefore instead of con-
centrating 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 Krsna, it must be thinking of maya. 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 con-
stantly on the form of Visnu, and that is called samadhi. In Krsna
consciousness, the mind is controlled by engaging it constantly in
the transcendental loving service of the Lord. Unless one is
engaged in Krsna consciousness, he cannot steadily control the
mind. A Krsna conscious person easily achieves the result of yoga
practice without separate endeavor, but a yoga practitioner cannot
achieve success without becoming Krsna conscious.

Suppose I give up my business, my ordinary occupation, and
begin to practice yoga, real yoga, as explained herein by Lord Sri
Krsna. 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 uvaca
ayatih sraddhayopeto
yogac calita-manasah
aprapya yoga-samsiddhim
kam gatim krsna 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-gita. The basic principle of self-realization is knowing
that ‘Iam 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-gita: the living entity is not this material body but some-
thing 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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