ध्यानयोग

Dhyana yoga is the path of settling the mind within. The tradition connects it with the teaching of chapter 6, where the yogi is called better than the ascetic, the one with only scriptural knowledge and the one who only performs rites (6.46-47). Meditation here does not mean chasing a special experience; it is the practice of bringing the mind back again and again until it is steady.

The Gita admits the restlessness of the mind openly. Verse 12.9 says that if the mind cannot be held steady, one should seek the goal through repeated practice. A wandering mind is therefore no proof of unfitness; it is where practice begins.

Verse 12.12 calls meditation better than knowledge, and then renunciation of the fruit of action better still, with peace following immediately. One reading is that meditation bears its fruit only when the inner grip on results has loosened. This is why dhyana yoga is practised as discipline and patience, not as a contest or an achievement.

The method of meditation belongs to chapter 6 and its own topic; here it is simply the path of regular practice among the four.