A Contented Heart: Preparing the Mind for Meditation
Bhagavad Gita Ch. 6 v. 8-9
The five states of mind, the three gunas, sattvic living, and steadfast practice prepare the mind for successful meditation.
Contents
The Quiet Mind and the Practice of Meditation
Recognizing the Grace That Draws Us to Meditation
Meditation Is a Practice, Not an Experiment
Understanding the Mind and the Three Gunas
Preparing the Mind Through the Way We Live
The Greatest Treasure of a Contented Heart
PODCAST EPISODE: The Contented Heart - The Foundation of Meditation
The Way of Meditation begins with an important insight: success in meditation is supported by the way we live, the quality of mind we cultivate, and the degree to which our understanding has awakened.
Chapter 6 of the Bhagavad Gita gradually leads us toward specific instruction in meditation. Yet before Lord Krishna explains the technique, he describes the qualities of an accomplished yogi—one who is steadfast in right action, clear understanding, surrendered devotion, and equanimity.
For someone new to meditation, this can seem daunting. Many people are drawn to meditation precisely because the mind is restless, reactive, or troubled. We hope meditation will help us become peaceful. Yet these opening verses appear to say that a peaceful mind is necessary for successful meditation.
Which comes first: the calm mind or meditation?
They are inseparably related. Meditation helps calm and clarify the mind, while the way we live prepares the mind to meditate. We begin wherever we are, supported by grace, and gradually bring our whole life into harmony with the awakening we seek.
The Quiet Mind and the Practice of Meditation
The Bhagavad Gita verse 6.7 describes one who has attained self-mastery:
“When one has conquered one’s lower self and has attained to the calm of self-mastery, their Supreme Self abides ever concentrated. They are at peace in cold and heat, in pleasure and pain, in honor and dishonor.”
Such a person has a serene mind, remains absorbed in awareness of the Supreme Self, and is no longer continually disturbed by the pairs of opposites. Heat and cold, pleasure and pain, praise and blame, honor and dishonor may still arise, but the mind remains steady.
Many of us approach meditation because we are not yet established in that serenity. We want relief from mental agitation, emotional reactivity, sorrow, and the pressure of circumstances. We sense that meditation may offer a way to discover peace.
Then we encounter descriptions of an accomplished yogi and wonder how we are supposed to begin.
It is a little like seeking a first job and being asked about previous job experience. How do we gain experience without first being given the opportunity to work? In a similar way, how do we develop a calm mind without meditation, and how do we meditate successfully without a calm mind?
The answer is that we begin with the desire to meditate and allow that desire to lead us forward.
"Scattered mind comes together by meditation. One-pointed mind unties the knot of ignorance, and wisdom dawns."
—Baba Hari Dass, Path to Enlightenment
Recognizing the Grace That Draws Us to Meditation
It is useful to remember what first drew us to meditation and what continues to bring us to practice. What hope did meditation awaken within you? What did you sense it might provide?
Perhaps you were looking for peace, relief from stress, freedom from sorrow, clearer insight into how to live, deeper knowledge of reality, or an experience of God. Perhaps you longed for a happiness that would not disappoint you or disappear when circumstances changed.
The Bhagavad Gita teaches that these searches are ultimately quests for God because the divine reality is the source of the peace, freedom, wisdom, and lasting happiness we seek.
Even when meditation is initially approached as a remedy for stress rather than as a conscious search for spiritual realization, the attraction to meditation is still evidence that grace is active in our life. Divine grace continually works to free us from limitation and sorrow.
The prompting to meditate arises from the soul’s innate inclination to be known, realized, and expressed. When we feel drawn to make time for meditation, that movement is not ours alone. The supportive influence of grace is already guiding us toward greater freedom and fulfillment.
This is helpful to remember when maintaining a regular meditation schedule feels difficult amid the responsibilities of household life. We are not struggling forward without support. The soul itself is calling us inward. Once we recognize what has drawn us to meditation and acknowledge the activity of grace, we are prepared to begin—or to continue—with the steadfast dedication necessary for success.
Meditation is a Practice, Not an Experiment
People sometimes say, “I tried meditation,” meaning they practiced briefly and concluded that it did not work for them.
Yet meditation is not something we merely try. We meditate, or we do not. Some sittings are peaceful and clear, while others reveal restlessness, dullness, or distraction. Every sincere practice gives us useful information.
Meditation shows us the condition of the mind. It also reveals where we may have become overly involved, attached, or disturbed in daily life. In this way, meditation functions like an inner thermostat. It lets us know when the heat of circumstances has unsettled us and where adjustments may be needed.
The mind is the instrument we use to meditate. Its capacity to focus and remain aware makes meditation possible. At the same time, meditation gives us insight into the mind and eventually allows us to transcend identification with it.
We use the mind to go beyond the mind.
Understanding the Mind and the Three Gunas
Yoga philosophy offers a practical understanding of the mind—what it is, how it functions, and how its changing qualities influence our experience.
The mind is understood as a subtle manifestation of nature. Like all of nature, it is comprised of three primary qualities, or gunas:
• Sattva: luminosity, clarity, harmony, and receptivity
• Rajas: activity, restlessness, movement, and agitation
• Tamas: inertia, heaviness, darkness, and dullness
All three gunas are continually present and always changing in proportion. Their changing mixture affects the mental field and influences how we feel, perceive, think, and act. This understanding is liberating because it shows us that we are not helpless victims of our current state of mind. Once we recognize which quality is predominating, we can make constructive adjustments through our environment, diet, activity, rest, thoughts, relationships, and spiritual practice.
According to yoga philosophy, the mind itself is not conscious. Consciousness belongs to our essential spiritual nature. The light of divine consciousness shines into the mental field, illumining it and making cognition, awareness, and discernment possible.
The gunas either make the mind receptive to this light or obscure it. Sattva allows consciousness to shine through with greater clarity. Rajas agitates and scatters the mind. Tamas veils and dulls awareness.
By observing the qualities active in our own mental field, we begin to understand why we may feel inspired and clear at one time, restless at another, and heavy or unmotivated at another.
The Five States of Mind
Yoga philosophy identifies five primary states of mind according to the predominating guna and the mind’s capacity for concentration. These states describe both the condition in which we may arrive at meditation and the gradual transformation made possible through practice.
The Stupefied Mind
The first state is called mudha, the stupefied or dull mind. It is primarily influenced by tamas guna. When tamas predominates, the mental field feels heavy, inert, burdened, or clouded. Motivation is low. We may know that meditation, exercise, uplifting study, or nourishing food would be helpful, yet we do not feel inclined toward any of them.
This is the “couch potato” state of mind. We may sit with a remote control or scroll endlessly through a phone without sufficient clarity even to decide what we want to watch. The mind lacks the presence necessary to make a beneficial choice.
Food choices made in this state are often tamasic as well—highly processed, lacking vitality, and consumed without awareness. The quality of what we take in then reinforces the dullness already present in the mind.
The Restless Mind
The second state is kshipta, the restless or scattered mind, primarily influenced by rajas guna. Here the mind is active, disturbed, and unsteady. Attention jumps rapidly from one thing to another. We want to go somewhere, do something, acquire something, solve something, or plan what comes next.
The mind may be worried or troubled, and the body may feel unable to sit still. Concentration is difficult because awareness is continually drawn outward by activity, desire, and stimulation. A mind dominated by rajas does not easily settle into meditation. It is continually moving toward the next object, thought, plan, or concern.
The Distracted Yet Emerging Mind
The third state is vikshipta, the distracted mind in which sattva is beginning to arise. Tamas and rajas are still present. The mind may become sleepy or distracted, but there is also a growing capacity to focus. This is generally the condition in which meditation can begin.
We sit with the intention to meditate. Attention rests briefly on the chosen focus and then wanders away. We notice, return, and begin again.
This state is familiar to almost every meditator. The capacity to concentrate is present, though it is easily lost. There is no reason for discouragement. Perseverance furthers. Each time we return the wandering attention, sattva increases and the mind becomes more receptive to the light of consciousness.
The One-Pointed Mind
The fourth state is ekagra, the one-pointed mind. Here sattva predominates. We can establish attention and hold it steadily. The mind becomes clear, calm, and concentrated.
In this state, the capacity for savikalpa samadhi arises—superconscious meditation in which awareness is absorbed in a subtle object of contemplation. This can lead toward nirvikalpa samadhi, complete absorption in the essential Self, where direct Self-knowledge is revealed.
The Fully Restrained Mind
The final state is niruddha, the completely restrained or unwavering mind. The mental field is no longer conditioned by the gunas. It is fully open to and absorbed in supreme consciousness. The fluctuations that ordinarily fragment awareness have ceased, and consciousness rests in its own nature.
Baba Hari Dass expressed this progression beautifully in Path to Enlightenment:
“Scattered mind comes together by meditation. One-pointed mind unties the knot of ignorance and wisdom dawns.”
Preparing the Mind Through the Way We Live
The Gita informs us that the mind must possess at least some degree of sattvic clarity before meditation can begin. This is true when we first enter the path, and it is true each day. The mind we bring to meditation has been shaped by how we have lived. What we eat, how we rest, the conversations we engage in, the media we consume, the company we keep, and the thoughts we cultivate all influence the gunas in the mental field.
This is why yogis are attentive to lifestyle. The aim is not rigidity or self-denial. It is to create conditions that support clarity, peace, and receptivity to divine consciousness. Superconscious meditation is inseparable from superconscious living.
The entire life participates in the preparation of the mind.
The Greatest Treasure of a Contented Heart
The Bhagavad Git verse 6.8, translated by Paramahansa Yogananda, describes the steadfast yogi:
“He is said to be a steadfast yogi whose heart, through knowledge and realization, is filled with satisfaction, who, having conquered his senses, never vacillates, and to whom a clod, a stone, and gold are all the same.”
The steadfast yogi possesses both knowledge and realization. There is clear understanding of the nature of reality, and that truth has been directly experienced. From this knowledge and realization comes contentment.
The heart is no longer propelled by rajas guna, continually looking for more. There is awareness of one’s inherent completeness and recognition of the divine presence expressing through all of life.
Your greatest treasure is a contented heart—a heart opened by knowledge and direct experience of truth. Give up battling with the senses and their insatiable appetites. Let go of struggling against the changes inherent in nature. Remain steadfast in prayer and meditation. Never lose sight of the One, and peace will accompany you.
We often put tremendous effort into arranging circumstances and trying to control the changing conditions of life. The steadfast yogi places attention elsewhere: on remembering the truth of being and the divine reality within all that changes.
S. Radhakrishnan explained that the yogi is yukta, joined or established in yoga, when concentrating on the Supreme beyond the changes of the world. Such a yogi is satisfied through knowledge and experience of the reality behind appearances and therefore remains equal-minded amid the events of this changing world.
Retreat to the Cave of the Heart
This teaching does not ask us to ignore the world or withdraw from our responsibilities. It invites us to retreat to the cave of the heart. From that inward sanctuary, we engage the world with insight born of realization. We discover peace within and then bring that peace into our relationships, work, and service.
Swami Sri Yukteswar taught:
“Self-realization is not selfish realization.”
The Self within us is the Self of all. We do not discover inner peace merely to remain privately satisfied. We realize peace so that it may flow through us into the world. The contented heart becomes a blessing because it is no longer continually seeking, grasping, competing, or withholding. It becomes available to serve.
Seeing the One in All
The Bhagavad Gita verse 6.9, translated by Paramahansa Yogananda, continues:
“One who has equal regard for well-wishers, friends and foes, for those who are related or indifferent, for the impartial and the malicious, and even for the righteous and the unrighteous, that one stands supreme.”
Equal regard does not mean that we fail to discern the difference between helpful and harmful behavior, wisdom and ignorance, or righteousness and unrighteousness. It means that beneath the outer differences, we do not lose sight of the one divine reality present in all.
We may encounter those who please us and those who disappoint us, those who support us and those who oppose us. The steadfast yogi remains anchored in the One.
Roy Eugene Davis translated the verse in this way:
“That one who is equal-minded toward friend, companion and foe, among those who are in conflict with each other and who are related, and who is impartial among the righteous and the unrighteous, is accomplished in yoga.”
The accomplished yogi does not become inwardly divided by the divisions of the world. The heart remains established in God.
See the One in all.
Behold one reality, one life, one power, and one presence.
Do not be drawn into dispute. Keep your heart anchored in God always, and let blessings pour forth through you without thought of giving or withholding.
Resting in the Pause
The mind becomes peaceful as we learn to pause—between reaction and response, between one thought and the next, between the movement of the senses and the impulse to grasp.
Take a conscious breath.
Pause between the waves.
Pause between breaths.
Pause between the wind.
Pause between the words.
Pause between the wings of a bird in flight.
Pause between heartbeats.
There, rest without blame, shame, or judgment.
Rest in the One beyond coming and going.
The mind may begin distracted, restless, or heavy. Yet grace has already drawn us toward meditation. Through sattvic living, steadfast practice, right understanding, devotion, and selfless action, the scattered mind gradually comes together.
The heart grows content.
Awareness becomes one-pointed.
The peace we discover within becomes the peace we offer to the world.
Listen to the full podcast episode below.
Bhagavad Gita, pt 53: The Contented Heart - The Foundation of Meditation
Chapter 6, v. 8-9
What inner qualities prepare the mind for meditation? Drawing from the Bhagavad Gita and Kriya Yoga, this episode explores how contentment, equanimity, and an understanding of the mind support deeper meditation and lasting inner peace. Learn how the qualities of nature influence the mental field and how a balanced, sattvic life strengthens concentration. As the mind becomes steadier, we are better able to remain anchored in the Self and see the One in all.
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