Adhyaya 30

Skanda relates that after hearing the procedure of Vāsudeva worship, Nārada—seeking practical attainment—asks the supreme Teacher how the mind may be restrained, admitting that mental control is difficult even for the learned and is essential if worship is to yield the desired fruit. Śrī Nārāyaṇa replies that the mind is the foremost enemy of embodied beings, and prescribes as a faultless means of pacification the steady practice of meditation on Viṣṇu (Viṣṇu-dhyāna-abhyāsa), upheld by vairāgya (dispassion) and disciplined methods. He then gives a structured compendium of aṣṭāṅga-yoga—yama, niyama, āsana, prāṇāyāma, pratyāhāra, dhāraṇā, dhyāna, and samādhi—explaining the five yamas and five niyamas (including Viṣṇu-pūjana). Defining each limb with technical clarity, he emphasizes steady breath and withdrawal of the senses, and concludes with a liberation-directed yogic departure: guiding prāṇa through inner stations, sealing the apertures, reaching the brahmarandhra, abandoning māyā-born vāsanās, and leaving the body with single-minded focus on Vāsudeva to attain the divine abode of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The chapter closes by calling this a concise summary of yoga-śāstra and urging continual worship after conquering one’s own mind.