Absorption In The Supreme

As soon as the mind is fixed on Krsna, one becomes perfectly situated under His personal control and follows His dictations. The effect of controlling the mind by meditation is that it brings one under the control of Paramatma, or Supersoul, but because this position is at once reached by one in Krsna consciousness, a devotee of the Lord is unaffected by the dualities of the material world, namely distress and happiness, heat and cold, etc. This state is practical samadhi or absorption in the Supreme.

Still, if one is determined to follow the more difficult astahga-yoga system, starting with the ninth verse and continuing through the eighteenth, the means by which this yoga is practiced are given. First one must consider the well-wisher, friend and enemy, the envious, pious and the sinner all on the same level, with indifference and impartiality. Then he must concentrate his mind on the Supreme Self. He must go to a secluded place and be free from all desires and feelings of possessiveness. These are some of the preliminary prescriptions for controlling the mind. Unless the mind is controlled, there is no possibility of meditation. Unless one can do away with possessiveness, for instance, there will be desire, and the mind cannot attain equilibrium, without which it is impossible to see the Supersoul within. Krsna may be realized in different ways-as impersonal Brahman, as localized Paramatma, or as Bhagavan, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. A person who is fully in Krsna consciousness is always engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, and as such he knows the Lord as the Supreme Person who possesses all opulences, including the Paramatma and impersonal features, or His localized expansion and bodily effulgence respectively. So his knowledge is called perfect because it is complete. But the meditator who knows Krsna as Paramatma, and the impersonalist who knows Krsna as the Supreme Brahman or brahma-jyoti are also indirectly Krsna conscious. But to be directly Krsna conscious is more perfect, just as one who possesses a million dollars is wealthier than the man who possesses one dollar. A dollar is a dollar, that is so; so qualitatively the man with one dollar is as good as the man with a million dollars, but quantitatively they are not the same. Only a fool would say they are. Similarly, we may have knowledge of the infinite particles of Krsna's energy, but until we have perfect knowledge of the Supreme Source of all, Krsna, our knowledge is not perfect. So the personalist has full knowledge of Krsna and all His multi-energies, but the impersonalist or the meditating yogi know Krsna in part only. Nevertheless, in the Sixth Chapter here one is encouraged to pursue this path in order to come to the ultimate goal, Krsna. But it is specifically stated that the mind must be focused on the Supreme, Krsna. Unless one thinks of Krsna, meditation is not possible.

Perfect concentration of the mind on the Supreme is called samadhi or trance, but this condition is never possible when there is possessiveness. Srila Rūpa Gosvami puts it this way: "When one is not attached to anything, but at the same time accepts everything in relation to Krsna, one is rightly situated above possessiveness. On the other hand, one who rejects everything without knowledge of its relationship to Krsna is not as complete in his renunciation." (Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu) A person who simply rejects certain things may be making some progress in the sense that he is preventing further entanglement in material existence, but his renunciation is incomplete. But a Krsna conscious person from the very beginning engages everything in the service of Krsna. Therefore he has completed his course in perfect knowledge. A Krsna conscious person well knows that everything belongs to Krsna, and thus he is always free from feelings of personal possessiveness. As such, he has no hankering for anything on his own personal account; therefore a person in Krsna consciousness is the perfect yogi.