Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan

Let us look at the recommended process here

Bg 8.12

sarva-dvārāṇi saṁyamya
mano hṛdi nirudhya ca
mūrdhny ādhāyātmanaḥ prāṇam
āsthito yoga-dhāraṇām

Word for word: 

sarva–dvārāṇi — all the doors of the body; saṁyamya — controlling; manaḥ — the mind; hṛdi — in the heart;nirudhya — confining; ca — also; mūrdhni — on the head; ādhāya — fixing; ātmanaḥ — of the soul; prāṇam — the life air; āsthitaḥ — situated in; yoga–dhāraṇām — the yogic situation.

Translation: 

The yogic situation is that of detachment from all sensual engagements. Closing all the doors of the senses and fixing the mind on the heart and the life air at the top of the head, one establishes himself in yoga.

So sarva-dvārāṇi saṁyamya, dvārā here refers to the senses, the senses are like doors for the consciousness to go out and for external object to come and affect the consciousness so sarva-dvārāṇi saṁyamya, one brings the dvara under control saṁyamya, and after one does that mano hṛdi nirudhya ca, one gets the mind to fix on the heart, we have discussed earlier what is the difference between the mind and the heart, the heart doesn’t refer to the biological organ that pumps blood, heart refers to the seat of emotion, and the seat of emotion is the soul, so fix the mind on heart means concentrate on the atma tattva, wherever our mind is there our thoughts are, fix the mind on the heart that means fix the mind on the inner most realty that is atma, mūrdhny ādhāyātmanaḥ prāṇam, and then we get the Prana, mūrdhny ādhāyātmanaḥ, mūrdhny means in the head then what happens, āsthito yoga-dhāraṇām, āsthito, one is situated like this yoga-dhāraṇā, this is yogic situation. So Krishna is talking here about the practice of Yoga and He is talking first as Pratyahara, sarva-dvārāṇi saṁyamya, we remember eight stages Yam, Niyam, Asan, Pranayam, fifth is Pratyahara. So sarva-dvārāṇi saṁyamya refers to Pratyahara, and then after that there is Dharana, Dhyana, Samadhi the progressive stages to move forward, so Krishna is talking about Dharana, yoga Dharana, so one will prepare on that ultimate attainment of Samadhi by doing Pratyahara and then turning inwards, so first shut out the senses Krishna is talking about the external physical dwara sarva-dvārāṇi saṁyamya, then inwards He talks about mano hṛdi nirudhya ca, keep the mind on the heart the atma, the atma tattva then raise the prana to the adhyatma, the mūrdhny, that means the head area and then āsthito yoga-dhāraṇām, one becomes situated in yoga in this way.

End of transcription.