Meditation/ yoga and vedastras

Attraction creates affection and this is love . When the mind is concentrated to get some target it is devotion . Generally body performs its normal functioning and the balance is maintained . Pranayam or exercise helps body activities and devotion to body function through its mind is Meditation or yoga and devotion to the almighty is bhakti . The best way for yoga or meditation has been described in gita as told by krsn to arjun and assuming the soul as self . He who performs his bounden duty without depending on the fruits of his actions—he is a
Sannyasi and a Yogi, not he who is without fire and without action.
Do thou, O Arjuna, know Yoga to be that which they call renunciation; no one verily
becomes a Yogi who has not renounced thoughts!
Lord Krishna eulogises Karma Yoga here because it is a means or a
stepping stone to the Yoga of meditation. In order to encourage the practice of Karma Yoga it is
stated here that it is Sannyasa.
For a sage who wishes to attain to Yoga, action is said to be the means; for the same sage
who has attained to Yoga, inaction (quiescence) is said to be the means.
When a man is not attached to the sense-objects or to actions, having renounced all
thoughts, then he is said to have attained to Yoga.
Let a man lift himself by his own Self alone; let him not lower himself, for this self alone
is the friend of oneself and this self alone is the enemy of oneself.
The self is the friend of the self for him who has conquered himself by the Self, but to the
unconquered self, this self stands in the position of an enemy like the (external) foe.
The Supreme Self of him who is self-controlled and peaceful is balanced in cold and heat,
pleasure and pain, as also in honour and dishonour.
The Yogi who is satisfied with the knowledge and the wisdom (of the Self), who has
conquered the senses, and to whom a clod of earth, a piece of stone and gold are the same, is said to
be harmonised (that is, is said to have attained the state of Nirvikalpa Samadhi).
He who is of the same mind to the good-hearted, friends, enemies, the indifferent, the
neutral, the hateful, the relatives, the righteous and the unrighteous, excels.
Let the Yogi try constantly to keep the mind steady, remaining in solitude, alone, with
the mind and the body controlled, and free from hope and greed.

In a clean spot, having established a firm seat of his own, neither too high nor too low,
made of a cloth, a skin and kusha grass, one over the other,
There, having made the mind one-pointed, with the actions of the mind and the senses
controlled, let him, seated on the seat, practise Yoga for the purification of the self.

Let him firmly hold his body, head and neck erect and perfectly still, gazing at the tip of
his nose, without looking around.
Serene-minded, fearless, firm in the vow of a Brahmachari, having controlled the mind,
thinking of Me and balanced in mind, let him sit, having Me as his supreme goal.Thus, always keeping the mind balanced, the Yogi, with the mind controlled, attains to
the peace abiding in Me, which culminates in liberation.
Verily Yoga is not possible for him who eats too much, nor for him who does not eat at
all; nor for him who sleeps too much, nor for him who is (always) awake, O Arjuna!
Yoga becomes the destroyer of pain for him who is always moderate in eating and
recreation (such as walking, etc.), who is moderate in exertion in actions, who is moderate in sleep
and wakefulness.
When the perfectly controlled mind rests in the Self only, free from longing for the
objects of desire, then it is said: “He is united.”
Without union with the Self neither harmony nor balance nor Samadhi
is possible.
As a lamp placed in a windless spot does not flicker—to such is compared the Yogi of
controlled mind, practising Yoga in the Self (or absorbed in the Yoga of the Self).
This is a beautiful simile which Yogis often quote when they talk of
concentration or one-pointedness of mind.

When the mind, restrained by the practice of Yoga, attains to quietude, and when, seeing
the Self by the Self, he is satisfied in his own Self,
When he (the Yogi) feels that infinite bliss which can be grasped by the (pure) intellect
and which transcends the senses, and, established wherein he never moves from the Reality,
Which, having obtained, he thinks there is no other gain superior to it; wherein
established, he is not moved even by heavy sorrow,—
Let that be known by the name of Yoga, the severance from union with pain. This Yoga
should be practised with determination and with an undesponding mind.
Abandoning without reserve all the desires born of Sankalpa, and completely restraining
the whole group of senses by the mind from all sides,
The mind is so diplomatic that it keeps certain desires for its secret
gratification. So one should completely abandon all desires without reservation.

Little by little let him attain to quietude by the intellect held firmly; having made the
mind establish itself in the Self, let him not think of anything.
From whatever cause the restless, unsteady mind wanders away, from that let him
restrain it and bring it under the control of the Self alone.
Supreme bliss verily comes to this Yogi whose mind is quite peaceful, whose passion is
quieted, who has become Brahman, and who is free from sin.
The Yogi, always engaging the mind thus (in the practice of Yoga), freed from sins,
easily enjoys the infinite bliss of contact with Brahman (the Eternal).
With the mind harmonised by Yoga he sees the Self abiding in all beings and all beings
in the Self; he sees the same everywhere.
He who sees Me everywhere and sees everything in Me, he does not become separated
from Me nor do I become separated from him.
The Lord describes here the effect of oneness.
He who, being established in unity, worships Me who dwells in all beings,—that Yogi
abides in Me, whatever may be his mode of living.
He who, through the likeness of the Self, O Arjuna, sees equality everywhere, be it

pleasure or pain, he is regarded as the highest Yogi!