tatraikāgraṁ manaḥ kṛitvā yata-chittendriya-kriyaḥ
upaviśhyāsane yuñjyād yogam ātma-viśhuddhaye
samaṁ kāya-śhiro-grīvaṁ dhārayann achalaṁ sthiraḥ
samprekṣhya nāsikāgraṁ svaṁ diśhaśh chānavalokayan
Seated firmly, the yogi should strive to purify the mind by focusing it in meditation with one pointed concentration, controlling all thoughts and activities. He must hold the body, neck, and head firmly in a straight line, and gaze at the tip of the nose, without allowing the eyes to wander.
Bhagavad Gītā 6.13
In this verse and those preceding it, Krisna instructs Arjuna on seated meditation. Here he is told not just how to hold his body but also his gaze. Modern day practitioners will recognise nasagre dristi, one of nine specific “looking places” which form part of the Tristhana : a meditation technique applied to asana practice by focusing on “three places of attention” (posture, breath and gaze - point).
Is Krishna describing asana in these verses? It is not mentioned directly but these instructions explicitly reference using the body to help purify the mind. The asana described is very simple but there is much ritual around it. In the preceding verses Arjuna is told to find a place neither too high nor too low, and to line his “seat” with hay and a deerskin. Later texts like the Hatha Yoga Pradipika contained even more details on how to create a special place for practice. Today we can do something similar. We can go to a yoga shala - physically removing ourselves from the distractions outside - or we can create something like it at home by silencing the phone and lighting a candle or incense. In such a space we might sit or we might move. In the age of the Gita humans were not as sedentary as their twenty first century descendants. As a reluctant Ksatriya, Arjuna would not have relished standing around in Virabadrasana (if it even existed back then). The point of asana is not the perfection of complex or challenging postures. Asana invites us to set aside a time and a place for our bodies and our minds, in the search for our true selves.