622 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 3, Ch. 15
follow the standard method. The real yoga-marga process is to control the
senses, sit in a solitary and sanctified place and meditate on the four-handed
form of Narayana, decorated as described in this chapter as He appeared
before the four sages. This Narayana form is Krsna’s expansion; therefore
the Krsna consciousness movement which is now spreading is the real,
topmost process of yoga practice.

Krsna consciousness is the highest yoga performance by trained devo-
tional yogis. 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-marga process is to
concentrate the mind twenty-four hours a day on Krsna. This is called
Krsna consciousness. The yoga system, as described in Srimad-Bhagavatam
and Bhagavad-gita or as recommended in the Patafijali yoga process, is
different from the nowadays practiced hatha-yoga as it is generally under-
stood in the Western countries. Real yoga practice is to control the senses
and, after such control is established, to concentrate the mind on the
Narayana form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krsna. Lord
Krsna is the original Personality of Godhead, and all the other Visnu
forms—with four hands decorated with conch, lotus, club and wheel—are
plenary expansions of Krsna. In Bhagavad-gita 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 yogi 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 control-
ling 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 yogis come to the Western countries
and exploit people’s inclination towards yoga practice. Such unauthorized
yogis 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 Krsna 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
