Bhagwad Gita - Post 75

Verse 10

Yogee yunjeeta satatam

Aatmaanam rahasi sthitah;

Ekaakee yatachittaatmaa

Niraasheeraparigrahah.

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.

  

A yogi is a person who is attempting to practice yoga, and a yogi is one who is established in yoga. 

Aloneness being our friend — living in a secluded place and not in a place of disturbance or noise — we try to collect ourselves into ourselves. 

We collect our energies, muster the forces of the mind and the senses, and try to be more and more in ourselves instead of being more and more in the objects of sense. This is the meaning of this half-verse: yogī yuñjīta satatam ātmānaṁ rahasi sthitaḥ. 

Ekāki: We should sit alone in a secluded place for meditation, unbefriended, unknown. 

The analogy of milk and water can help elucidate this point. If milk is poured into water, it cannot retain its undiluted identity, for water naturally mixes with it. 

However, if the milk is kept separate from water and converted into yogurt, and then the yogurt is churned to extract butter, the butter becomes immiscible.

Our mind is like the milk and the world is like water. In contact with the world, the mind gets affected by it and becomes worldly. 

However, an environment of seclusion, which offers minimal contact with the objects of the senses, becomes conducive for elevating the mind and focusing it upon God. 

Once sufficient attachment for God has been achieved, one can challenge the world, “I will live amidst all the dualities of Maya but remain untouched by them.”

Yatacittātmā: Bringing about a union of the mind and the intellect and the Self, so that there is no disparity among the thoughts of the mind or the understandings of the intellect or the yearnings of the soul. 

They must be in a state of balance. Such a state of attaining balance is yatacittātmā. Ekākī yatacittātmā: Being alone to oneself and united in mind, intellect and spirit. 

Nirāśīr aparigrahaḥ: Expecting nothing from the world outside, having no desires for anything in the world is nirāśīḥ; and aparigrahaḥ means expecting no gifts from anybody. 

When we have abandoned things, we may not expect gifts to come from different sources — and actually gifts will come, as that is the law of action and reaction. 

The more we renounce things; the more are things abundantly poured on us. 

The more we try to renounce the world, the more it will try to pursue us and become our friend and be with us. 

Therefore, it is said that when we are desire less, we should not expect any recompense or remuneration for our desire less-ness. 

Expecting to obtain something as a result of being desire less is another kind of desire and, therefore, the desire to receive something because of our desire less-ness has also to be given up. 

Love.