Through what method can one attain highest goal?

Yogiyunjeeta satatam atmanam rahasi stitah |

Ekaki yatha chittatma nirasheera aparigrahah || 6.10 ||

"Let the YOGI try constantly to keep the mind steady, remaining in solitude, alone, with the mind and body controlled, free from hope and greed."

Shuchoudeshe prathistapya shtiramaanasam atmanah |

Nathyuchchritam naathineecham chailaajina kushottaram || 6.11 ||

"Having, in a clean spot, established a firm seat of his own, neither too high nor too low, made of a cloth, a skin and KUSHA -grass, one over the other, . . ."

Tatra ekagram manah krutwa yata chitthendriya kriyah |

Upavishyasane yunjyadhogam atma vishuddhaye || 6.12 ||

"There, having made the mind one-pointed, with the actions of the mind and the senses controlled, let him, seated on the seat, practise YOGA, for the purification of the self."

Samam kaya shirogreevam dharayan achalam sthirah |

Sampreksya naashikagram swam dhishashchan avalokayan || 6.13 ||

"Let him firmly hold his body, head and neck erect and still, gazing at the tip of his nose, without looking around."

Prashantatma vigathabhih bhrahmachari vrathesthitah |

Manas samyamya machchitho yuktha aseethamatparah || 6.14 ||

"Serene-minded, fearless, firm in the vow of BRAHMACHARYA, having controlled the mind, thinking on Me and balanced, let him sit, having Me as the Supreme Goal."

Yum jannevam sath atmanam yogi niyathamaanasah |

Shanthim nirvanaparamaam math samsthama adhigachchathi || 6.15 ||

"Thus, always keeping the mind balanced, the YOGI, with his mind controlled, attains to the Peace abiding in Me, which culminates in total liberation (NIRVANA orMOKSHA) ."

My understanding:

Here Krishna Paramatma is telling Yogi that, it is only through constant practice of mediation, one can attain highest goal in spirituality and not by any other shortcut routes. Everybody has to struggle to get success. Only through the real experiences, one can get wisdom. One should do constant practice of controlling the desires and hopes. Krishna is giving some steps for self-development, for attaining the Supreme Goal.

1. First one is Sitting in Solitude: for beginners, it is needed to sit in solitude to get concentration. But it does not mean that mediation can only be practiced in the jungles or in the caves or in the corner of the house. It only means that, the seeker should withdraw his mind from his outside world. One is having full desires and constantly meditating upon the sense-objects, cannot gain any solitude, even in forest. Self-control is not possible, unless we know how to free ourselves from the "eager to possess", and "anxieties in saving, hoarding and protecting what we possess". In the first step, the seeker is asked to sit steadily on his clean seat, because physical movements contributes to the shattering of mental concentration and inner equipoise. So seat should also be comfortable. This step is all about getting awareness of gross body.

2. After establishing on the perfect seat, the seeker should practice Yoga. For that, he should make the mind single-pointed. In initial stages, mind becomes very confused and disturbed when it gets, the inner forces of its own imaginations or the outward pull by the hallucinations of the sense-organs. If these two are blocked, then mind becomes single-pointed, by its own nature. Through steady and regular meditation, mind become pure and steady, then the Consciousness, comes to rediscover Its own Real Nature.

3. In this step, Krishna is adding more details to the technique of meditation. The meditator should firmly hold his body in such a fashion that his vertebral column is completely erect. The head and neck should be erect in this posture, which is perpendicular to the horizontal seat upon which the Yogi is firmly settling himself. The body should be held relaxed and mind should be of tension free. Now the seeker should gaze at the tip of his nose. This does not mean that he should, with half-opened eyes, turn towards the tip of his own nose. But, he should have his attention, as though turned towards the tip of the nose, so that his concentration may not be dissipated and his mind may not wander all around.

4. When the meditator practiced meditation for certain period of time, he comes to experience a peace in his mind. As the Yogin slowly and steadily gets unwound from his sensuous vasanas, he gets realeased from his mental cruel nature. A state of complete deatachment from the mind's courtings of the external world-of-obejcts, which is called Brahmacharya(wandering in Brahma-Vichara), is reached now. Brahmacharya is not ONLY the control of the sex-impulses but is also the practice of self-control in all avenues of sense-impulses and sense-satisfactions. The human mind must have one field or another to engage itself in. Unless it is given some inner field to meditate upon, it will not be in a position to retire from its extrovert pre-occupations. Thus Krishna is giving instruction to meditator that, "Let him sit in Yoga having Me as his Supreme Goal".

5. When all above details are worked out by anyone, that individual becomes a man steadfast both in his physical and in his subtler life and thereby he comes to realize his own Infinite, Eternal, Blissful and quite Nature, the Self. When one, well established in these necessary physical self-controls and essential mental and intellectual habits, sits meditating upon the Truth in all secrecy, he is a true seeker striving on the right path to achieve and aquire the highest that is possible in life. When a meditator controls his mind and constantly keeps his mind away from its agitations, he can easily and surely reach the Supreme.The term 'always' (Sada) should not be misunderstood as suggesting that the practitioner should live, criminally neglecting all his duties towards his home and the world around himself. Here the term 'always' only connotes "a duration of constant and consistent inner silence," during one's meditation. When the meditator has come to the moment of perfect silence within, he comes to experience, at first, a peace that is unknown in the world without. In fact in the last stage of fulfilment in meditation, the meditator 'awakens' to his status of Self-hood.

[Reference: Swami Chinmayananda's commentary]