In this age of quarrel, chanting Krishna's holy names is the only practical path to perfection and self-realization.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Bhagavad-gītā 7.1 University of Florida — July 29, 1971, Gainesville 710729BG-GAINESVILLE [36:30 Minutes] Bg-07.01_710729BG-GAINESVILLE Prabhupāda: ...yogaṁ yuñjan mad-āśrayaḥ asaṁśayaṁ samagraṁ māṁ yathā jñāsyasi tac chṛṇu [Bg. 7.1] Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, speaking about the topmost form of yoga system. In the Sixth Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā He has explained the general haṭha-yoga system. Please remember that we are preaching this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement on the authority of Bhagavad-gītā. It is nothing manufactured. [dog barking] [pause] Whose dog? He may go away.
[laughter] So this bhakti-yoga system is authorized, and if you want to know about God, then you have to adopt this bhakti-yoga system. Because in the Sixth Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā it is concluded that the topmost yogī is he who is always thinking of Kṛṣṇa within himself. yoginām api sarveṣāṁ mad-gatenāntar-ātmanā śraddhāvān bhajate yo māṁ sa me yuktatamo mataḥ [Bg. 6.47] When Kṛṣṇa recommended the yoga system, aṣṭāṅga-yoga system... Aṣṭāṅga means eightfolded, different states of elevation: yama, niyama, āsana, prāṇāyāma, pratyāhāra, samādhi, like that. Dhyāna, dhāraṇā.
So the first step of yoga system, as recommended by Kṛṣṇa, the supreme authority, is one has to select a very secluded place and sacred place. The aṣṭāṅga-yoga meditation cannot be performed in a fashionable city. It is not possible. One has to first of all select a nice place, sacred place. In India, therefore, those who are very serious to practice yoga system, they go to Himalaya, Haridwar.
That is also Himalaya. Very secluded place. They remain there alone, and very restricted process of eating, sleeping; there is no question of mating. So those rules and regulation are very strict, and unless you follow, simply if you make a show of gymnastic, that is not perfection of yoga. Yoga means indriya-saṁyama, to control the senses.
If you allow your senses unrestrictedly, and if you make a show of yoga practice, that is not successful. It will never be successful. So you have to select a nice place, sacred place. Then you have to sit right-angular, and you have to close your eyes half, not full, and see on the tip of your nose. You cannot change your āsana.
There are so many rules and regulations which is not possible at the present moment. What to speak of at the present moment—even five thousand years ago, when circumstances of the world was different, and a personality like Arjuna, who was talking with Kṛṣṇa face to face... Just imagine what is his position. Arjuna belonged to the royal family. He was a great warrior and intimate friend of Kṛṣṇa, and constantly living with Him.
He, after hearing this process of yoga, aṣṭāṅga-yoga, he said, "My dear Kṛṣṇa, it is not possible for me." He flatly said, admitted, that "For me, these rules and regulation and practice and controlling the mind is not possible." He flatly denied. So we have to think: five thousand years ago a personality like Arjuna, he expressed his inability to practice this aṣṭāṅga-yoga system, and what to speak of us? Therefore the conclusion is that in this age, when people are very short-living... At least, in India the average duration of life is thirty-five years. In your country it may be more than that, but actually, as your grandfather lived for one hundred years, you cannot live.