Verse 46 — Sitting for Contemplation (Samadhi Abhyasa)

Seated in an undisturbed place, quieting the senses from all sense-objects, holding the body steady and unmoving, calming the mind of all its oscillations — established in steady meditation and withdrawn from all other yoga-means — one should steadily contemplate the one Self, the spring of life within. [Verse 46]

Nididhyasana can be done many ways — repeated hearing, reading, writing, teaching (all "OPD treatment"). This verse describes the most concentrated form: seated Vedantic meditation (Samadhi Abhyasa), the "ICU treatment," using the framework of Chapter 6 of the Bhagavad Gita.

The steps

Step	Sanskrit	What to do
1. Be seated	Asina	A steady, comfortable posture
2. Withdraw the senses	Uparata-indriya	Pull the senses back from their objects
3. Restrain the mind	Vinirjita-atma	Deliberately withdraw the mind from external fields
4. Purify the inner space	Vimala-antahshaya	Clear the mind of disturbing emotions
5. Contemplate	Vibhavaye	Deliberately dwell on your true nature

Become a "renunciate" for fifteen minutes

flowchart LR
    A[Snap all relations<br/>for 15 minutes] --> B[Keep only:<br/>Guru, Shastra, Ishvara]
    B --> C[A withdrawn, available mind]

Key idea. For the duration of the practice, become a temporary sannyasi — set down every corporate and family relationship for fifteen minutes, keeping only your connection to the teacher, the teaching, and the Lord.

Handing over the emotions

Before you can dwell on the Self, the mind must be calm. The text gives a strikingly simple, effective technique:

Look into your mind. Is any anxiety, fear, or worry present? Every disturbance is rooted in an attachment. So verbalise a surrender: "O Lord, for these fifteen minutes, please take away my emotions. I am handing all my disturbances to you. Now I am relaxed." Stating it brings the mind to calm — it simply works.

Before	After
Vinirjita-atma — a withdrawn mind	100% available to hold a Vedantic thought
Vimala-ashaya — a cleared mind	Relaxed, calm, stress-free

Meditation is thinking, not blankness

An essential correction: Vedantic meditation is not an attempt to stop all thought. It is deliberate, right thinking:

Ordinary thinking	Vedantic meditation
Ignorance-based	Knowledge-based
"I am limited, I lack..."	"I am pure, full, unbound..."

You deliberately entertain positive, true thoughts about yourself — "I am pure awareness; I am complete; my peace does not depend on the world changing." You may use a name of the Lord (e.g. "Om Nama Shivaya") as a stepping-stone, coming to the silence between repetitions, and in that silence invoke the teaching.

That "silence" is not mere blankness. Blankness is known — and whatever is known is illumined by consciousness. So the silence is pervaded by consciousness, and that consciousness is your nature — undisturbable, unpollutable, like space that no dirt can stain. Turn your attention to that silent awareness. Verse 47 gives the actual content of this meditation: dissolving the world into yourself.