In slokas 10 to 13, there are detailed descriptions of the setting and process of meditation. The Lord describes, where the yogi must sit, how he must sit and how he should focus his mind and concentration. Then, the fourteenth verse describes the process of meditation on God. The Lord asks the yogi to keep his heart calm, be fearless, control his mind and be firm in his path, have the Lord as his supreme goal and completely surrender himself to the Lord.

Once the yogi meditates in this fashion, with full concentration, what does he achieve? This is described in the next sloka.

युञ्जन्नेवं सदात्मानं योगी नियतमानसः ।
शान्तिं निर्वाणपरमां मत्संस्थामधिगच्छति ॥६- १५॥

yuJNjannevaM sadaatmaanaM yogii niyatamaanasaH .
shaanti.n nirvaaNaparamaaM matsa.nsthaamadhigachchhati .. 6.15..

niyatamaanasaH yogi - the yogi of disciplined mind : evaM - thus : sadaa aatmaanaM yuJNjan.h - constantly applying his mind (to Me): adhigachchhati - attains: matsa.nsthaaM shaantiM - ever lasting peace abiding in me : nirvaaNaparamaaM - consisting of supreme bliss :

In this Sloka, the Lord says that the yogi who has controlled his mind and is constantly thinking about the lord attains the happiness and peace of God realization.

Once a man joined a company as the new MD. As soon as he joined, the old MD met him, gave him 3 envelopes and said, “There is a custom in our company. Every MD who leaves, gives the new MD these three envelopes. Whenever you face problems which you can’t solve, open these one by one to find the solution”. After a few months, he had some problems with the union and he did not know what to do. He then remembered the envelopes and opened the first envelope. The message read “Blame it on your predecessor”. So, he called a meeting and said that all the problems were due to the old MD and managed to satisfy the union. Then a few more months passed and again he had a major problem - this time with the sales. Having no other option, he now opened the second envelope. The message said “reorganize” and he did this and soon the problem was solved. After the first year, he ran into a very serious problem and the company fell into very difficult times. He tried a lot of things, but everything failed. Finally he opened the third envelope. The message said, “Now, it is your turn to prepare three envelopes”.

Like the old MD, the Lord also has given us detailed instructions in our practice of meditation. But all this is only up to a point. Beyond that, it is in our hands. In a lab, suppose we are doing an experiment, we are told, what are the conditions that we have to maintain. Sometimes, we need to keep the temperature or pressure constant, we need to add the ingredients in a specific manner and so on and so forth. Similarly, for success in meditation, all the conditions are prescribed in great detail by the Lord. But as He says in the beginning of the chapter, only each person can help himself. No matter whose help we take, be it our Guru or a friend or books, if we want to succeed, the ultimate effort must be ours alone. A person cannot hope to control his mind using someone else’s help. The spiritual path is a lonely one, in the sense that there cannot be anyone else to accompany us. Each of us needs to make our way, and grope through it, with the confidence and motivation only from within ourselves.

Meditation is not a part time job. One needs to constantly think about achieving God realization, if we want to succeed in it. Just as we discussed earlier, how scientists and inventors could achieve their goal only because they were constantly thinking about it at all times, so too the yogi must think about God realization at all times and should constantly strive towards it.

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