Chapter 6 Dhyana Yoga Verse 16

Prashaantamanasam hyenam yoginam sukhamuttamam;
Upaiti shaantarajasam brahmabhootamakalmasham.

Supreme bliss verily comes to this Yogi whose mind is quite peaceful,
whose passion is quieted, who has become Brahman, and who is free from sin.

From restlessness in the previous sloka, this sloka moves to the mind of a meditator who is at peace with himself. Lord Krishna says that supreme bliss can only come to a person who is at peace with himself or whose mind is peaceful. Here supreme bliss refers to a kind of happiness or a yogic happiness that can be felt only through the meditation. Such kind of a person will bring all his passions under control and becomes a replica of his creator such kind of person is free from all the sins that he has committed previously.

I want to focus my attention on two points in this sloka. The first one is the Supreme bliss and the second is quietening one’s passions. What is supreme bliss? It is the final step in meditation. The process of meditation starts with closing one’s eyes and focussing on a single thought and goes to the point where the that thought has the entre universe’s secrets in it. This feeling is called as Supreme bliss. Supreme bliss can’t be explained in words as it is an inexplicable feeling that can only be experienced. Very simply to put it, one single word like “Aum” carries the entire universe secrets in it. If the meditator experiences that in his meditation it is called as supreme bliss.

The other thing is how can one quieten his passions? In the previous sloka, we looked at how when targets are not met the mind becomes restless. In the same way, too much passion for something also bring restlessness. What is passion? It is an extreme desire to achieve something that exists in one’s mind. Someone says that teaching is my passion. That means he wants to dedicate his life for teaching. Then is it bad? It is not bad as long as it doesn’t make your mind restless. Teaching without getting your mind restless is different from teaching with a restless mind. A restless teacher passes on the same restlessness to his student. Not only teaching, it is applicable to anything that one does. It is good to have passion but if the passion becomes too much, mind gets affected and tends to get restless. That prevents oneself from becoming a Yogi and integrate his mind with self.