अभ्यास

Abhyasa is effort that is made again and again. As an instrument or a script is learned by doing it repeatedly, a mind is steadied in the same way.

The word is in the verses themselves. The Lord grants that the mind is restless and hard to hold, and says that it can be held by practice and by dispassion (Gita 6.35). In the twelfth chapter it is offered to the one who cannot fix the mind steadily at once: seek to reach Me through the yoga of practice (Gita 12.9). In the eighth chapter the yoga of practice is the way of the seeker whose mind goes nowhere else and keeps remembering the Supreme (Gita 8.8).

Practice goes together with dispassion. Dispassion loosens the pull that drags the mind away, and practice brings the loosened mind back to its aim again and again.

Common misreading: that practice means repeating one action like a machine, without understanding.

Better sense: practice is not despair at wandering but returning from it. The mind does not settle in a day, but each return makes the next one easier.

The everyday form of practice in karma yoga is set out in Karma Yoga in Practice.