Gita, Chapter 6, and Yoga
My Friday night Gita classes have finally arrived at the sixth chapter. This being a yoga ashram, people are generally most interested in what this chapter, known variously as dhyāna-yoga (the most authentic name, it seems, as it is given by Shankara and Sridhara) or abhyāsa-yoga . I have also seen it called ātma-saṁyama-yoga (based on 4.27ff, where the first descriptions of aṣṭāṅga-yoga are given). Madhusudana calls it adhyātma-yoga . Since this chapter's topics parallel most closely what is found in Patanjali, it has a great deal of appeal, and always did for me also when I first contacted the Gita. My first lecture was last Friday, and it was mostly spent discussing the last verse of chapter 5 and the first 3 of chapter 6. The use of the word yoga in the Gita is quite different from the way people generally understand it these days. Tilak has gone to some pains to show that the primary meaning is "stratagem" or "device." Certainly "means" ha...