Revatīnandana: Yes. Because all of our attention is lodged in the mind and the senses, and we are lost to ourselves. So any kind of self-realization process means that you have to control the mind and senses or you cannot be self-situated. Beyond being situated in the self, there may be more, but that's the first point. That's the basic point of yoga.
Student (2): Where does Kṛṣṇa fit into it? Where does Kṛṣṇa fit into the yoga?
Prabhupāda: Hmm?
Revatīnandana: He wants to know . . . if being self-situated is one thing, then where does Kṛṣṇa enter into the system? That's his question.
Prabhupāda: Self-situated . . . when you are self-situated . . . just like in the water you are taking bath in a pool. Something has fallen on the water. Suppose your key has fallen. Now you'll have to find out. You are just trying to settle up the water and see where is the key. So when your mind and senses are controlled, then you can talk of Kṛṣṇa. Before that you cannot talk.
Because Kṛṣṇa is missing, with uncontrolled mind, senses, you cannot capture Kṛṣṇa. That is not possible. The same example: When the water is agitated, you cannot see where your things have fallen. You have to wait to make the water calm and quiet. Then you'll see, "Here is my key."
Student (2): What are the ways in which . . .
Prabhupāda: You come here. Take this.
Student (2): How can we get to Kṛṣṇa? How do you get to Kṛṣṇa?
Prabhupāda: Sixth Chapter, the practice of yoga. The process.
Pradyumna: Should I read from the beginning?
Prabhupāda: Hmm. You read. Read.
Pradyumna: "To practice yoga . . ."
- śucau deśe pratiṣṭhāpya
- sthiram āsanam ātmanaḥ
- nāty-ucchritaṁ nātinīcaṁ
- cailājina-kuśottaram
- tatraikāgraṁ manaḥ kṛtvā
- yata-cittendriya-kriyaḥ
- upaviśyāsane yuñjyād
- yogam ātma-viśuddhaye
- (BG 6.11-12)
"To practice yoga, one should go to a secluded place . . ."
Prabhupāda: Now, first of all you have to find out secluded place. yoga practice is not possible in a hotel or in a public place. It is not possible. You have to find out a secluded place. First condition. Then?
Pradyumna: ". . . and should lay kuśa grass on the ground and then cover it with a deerskin and a soft cloth."
Prabhupāda: Then there is process of making the āsana, deerskin, kuśāsana, then cloth. You have to sit down in that āsana. Āsana, dhyāna, dhāraṇā, prāṇ . . . then?
Pradyumna: "The seat should neither be too high nor too low."
Prabhupāda: Yes, everything is there. "It should not be too high nor too low." Then?
Pradyumna: "And should be situated in a sacred place."
Prabhupāda: A sacred place. Just like formerly, those who were practicing yoga, they were going to Gaṅgotri, where the Ganges is coming down, in the Himalaya, in the Haridwar, in a secluded, sacred place. These are the condition, first condition. So where you are getting these condition fulfilled? You cannot practice yoga in a hotel or in a club. That is not possible.
Student (2): How do you decide whether a place is sacred or not?
Pradyumna: How do you decide whether a place is sacred or not? How do you tell?
Revatīnandana: What is a sacred place?
Prabhupāda: Sacred place, generally we take as a lonely place, solitary place. If it is not solitary, it is not sacred.
Student (2): Is sacred the same as solitary?
Prabhupāda: Yes. They used to sit down in the Himalaya where the Ganges is coming. That is a sacred place. If you go simply on the Ganges side on the bank of the Ganges, Yamunā, you will find immediately purified your mind. Immediately. Or on a seaside where there is nobody disturbing. These are sacred places. Then?
Pradyumna: "The yogī should then sit on it very firmly."
Prabhupāda: Then yogī has to sit down very firmly like this. Yes, straight, perpendicularly. Then?
Pradyumna: "And should practice yoga by controlling the mind and the senses."
Prabhupāda: Then he has to practice meditation for controlling the mind and the senses. First of all āsana, place, sacred place; now, āsana, secluded place, alone. That is stated. These are the yogic process.(break)
Student (3): What do you mean by control your mind, I mean, control your senses? If your senses are controlled, can you see anything you wish or hear anything you wish? Or taste anything you wish?
Prabhupāda: (aside:) Just explain what is control, mind and senses.
Revatīnandana: Well, controlling, being in control of your mind and senses, means that whatever destination you fix up with your intelligence—you understand, you want a particular result—then if you are in control of your mind and senses, then it means that it won't disturb you.
Prabhupāda: First of all . . . first of all thing is the, what is the aim of practicing yoga? So to achieve that end, that purpose, you have to control the mind, because mind is very flickering, going here, there, there, there. So first of all you must know what is the purpose of practicing yoga, why you should practice yoga. So in order to achieve that goal, you have to concentrate your mind, and therefore you have to control the mind going here and there. That is control. Mind business is acceptance and rejecting. This is mind's business. Immediately I accept, "It is very good"; again, next moment, "No, no, it is not good. Reject it." This is called flickering mind.