Atha Chittam Samadhatum

Krishna knows the human mind. Not everyone can lock their attention on the divine in one attempt. So He offers the second rung: if you cannot hold your mind steady in Me, then try to reach Me through abhyasa yoga — the yoga of repeated practice. Bring the mind back, again and again and again.

Anyone who has learned to ride a bicycle understands this. You fall. You get up. You try again. Slowly, balance comes — not because someone handed it to you, but because you kept showing up. That is abhyasa yoga. The mind wanders away from Krishna; you bring it back. It wanders again; you bring it back again. Over time, the wandering shortens and the steadiness deepens.

This is the second rung of the practice ladder. The first (12.8) was to fix mind and intellect directly in Krishna. The second (12.9) is to strive through repeated practice. The third step arrives in 12.10.

The word 'abhyasayoga' carries weight across the Gita. In Chapter 6 (verse 6.35), Krishna told Arjuna 'abhyasena tu Kaunteya' — through practice, O son of Kunti. The principle is the same: persistence is itself a form of devotion.