Meena is thirty-eight. She works in an office and has two children at home. Somewhere she read that the way to God is to sit quietly and meditate. So she sat for ten minutes each morning. But within five minutes her mind had wandered into the day's list: the tiffin, the meeting, the bills. After a week she stopped. A weight stayed behind: I could not even do this.
The Gita answers that weight. The Lord knows that not every mind will stay. So He gives not one step but four. At the top the mind and intellect rest in Him, and then three times He says: if you cannot do that, do this. The last step is so simple that anyone can take it. If you begin at the bottom, you are on the same road.
The top step
The first step is that actions are offered to the Lord, He is the aim, and both mind and intellect rest in Him (Gita 12.6–7). The Lord makes two promises. He becomes the deliverer of such a devotee before long (Gita 12.7), and the devotee lives in Him, without doubt (Gita 12.8). This is the way when the mind really does stay.
If the mind will not stay
The Lord goes on to Arjuna, knowing that for many people the first step is not so direct. So He gives three more:
अभ्यासयोगेन ततो मामिच्छाप्तुं धनञ्जय ॥ १२.९ ॥
abhyāsa-yogena tato mām ichchhāptuṁ dhanañjaya || 12.9 ||
O Arjuna, if you are unable to fix your mind steadily on Me, then seek to reach Me through the discipline of repeated practice. Krishna is realistic about the restless mind. If immediate, steady absorption is not possible, then the way forward is to practise again and again, patiently drawing the mind back to the Lord.
मदर्थमपि कर्माणि कुर्वन्सिद्धिमवाप्स्यसि ॥ १२.१० ॥
mad-artham api karmāṇi kurvan siddhim avāpsyasi || 12.10 ||
If you are unable even to practise repeatedly, then be devoted to working for Me. By performing all your actions for My sake, you will also attain perfection. Krishna now offers an even more accessible path: if disciplined practice is hard, let your ordinary actions, carried out as service to the Lord, become your spiritual path.
सर्वकर्मफलत्यागं ततः कुरु यतात्मवान् ॥ १२.११ ॥
sarva-karma-phala-tyāgaṁ tataḥ kuru yatātmavān || 12.11 ||
If you are unable even to do this, then, taking refuge in union with Me, and with a disciplined mind, give up the fruits of all your actions. Krishna now offers the most basic step: even if one cannot work consciously for the Lord, one can still act and release attachment to the results.
Take them in order. If you cannot keep the mind steady, practise: each time it runs off, bring it back to the Lord (Gita 12.9). If practice too is beyond you, do your own work for the Lord, and by such work you will reach perfection (Gita 12.10). And if even that cannot be done, loosen your hold on the fruit of all your actions, taking the Lord as your shelter and keeping the mind in check (Gita 12.11).
The Lord says "if you cannot" three times. He does not scold a restless mind. Each step comes with His own promise.
Where peace comes
In verse 12 the Lord says that peace follows at once when the fruit of action is given up (Gita 12.12). So the step that was easiest is also the most direct door to peace. It is not a small thing.
What this does not say
- It does not say the lower step is less loved. The Lord Himself gave every step.
- It does not say to give up work. The second and third steps are work.
- It does not say to stop caring how things turn out. Do the work with full effort; what is loosened is the grip on the result, not the work (Gita 2.47).
- It does not say you must climb before you are ready. You walk from where you are.
You can remember the Lord while you work
Many people think: first finish the work, then remember God. The Lord tells Arjuna otherwise. Remember Me at all times, and do your duty too; with mind and intellect given to Me you will come to Me alone (Gita 8.7). Remembering and working go together. Meena can keep one name in mind while she packs the tiffin. No separate hour is needed.
What to do the moment the mind runs off
The sixth chapter answers this directly. Wherever the restless mind wanders, hold it back and bring it back (Gita 6.26). There is no scolding in this and no defeat. The returning is the practice. If the mind ran off ten times and you brought it back ten times, you practised ten times. What Meena took for her failure was the practice itself.
On a day of deep tiredness
The Lord also says that yoga comes to the one who is balanced in food, rest, work, sleep and waking (Gita 6.17). Proper sleep and rest are part of the same discipline. On the morning when sitting did not happen, do not carry its weight to bed. Tomorrow you simply return.
Meena's next week
Take Meena again. She put aside the long sitting for now. She kept three minutes. Whenever her mind ran off, she brought it back to one name of the Lord. That was practice.
At the office, before her first task, she said inwardly: this is for Him. And in the evening, instead of lying awake over how the meeting had gone, she handed that result to Him. In a week nothing big had changed. But she went home carrying less of the day.
A practice for today
Ask yourself honestly which step you stand on today: the mind rests, it must be brought back, the work can be done for Him, or only the result can be let go. Then do just that. Choose one task today and give it to the Lord. When it is done, say inwardly: I did the work, the fruit is His.
Questions readers ask
Which step should I start from?
From the one that is truly possible for you today. The Lord placed each step after "if you cannot", so you do not first have to master the higher one (Gita 12.9–11).
Is giving up the fruit devotion if I forget God?
The step is to be done taking the Lord as your shelter (Gita 12.11), so it is the smallest form of turning toward Him. And it brings peace, which makes the next steps easier (Gita 12.12).
Does giving up the fruit mean not caring about results?
No. Full effort in the work is your right; holding on to the result is not (Gita 2.47). Work hard, then let the result go.
Will I always stay on the lowest step?
Not necessarily. On this path no beginning is lost (Gita 2.40), and with practice understanding ripens within in time (Gita 4.38). The lower steps stay with you, but you also move on with them.
Going deeper
Each verse in order is in the detailed reading; the hard questions and the streams of commentators are in the deeper reading. The offering of work is taken up in Offering All Actions. The step before this one, that turning to the Lord is never too late, is in Even the Worst Offender.