Verse 8

In plain words

And there is more—

'Yoked by the yoga of steady practice' means fixed on Me, and Me alone, the single point the mind surrenders itself to. Practice here means the same thought returning again and again, unbroken by anything else creeping in; and that unbroken practice is itself what is called yoga. A mind yoked to that yoga is one wholly given over to that single point, with no habit left in it of wandering anywhere else. A mind like that reaches the supreme Person, the one beyond whom nothing stands, the divine one dwelling in the sky, in the very disc of the sun, Pārtha — reached by someone who keeps turning his thought, again and again, toward what scripture and teacher have taught.

Close to the Sanskrit

And what more—

'Yoked by the yoga of practice': in Me, the single object to which the mind is offered, one-pointedly — abhyāsa is characterized by the repetition of similar cognitions uninterrupted by dissimilar cognitions; that very practice is 'yoga'; yoked by that, that is, engaged exclusively there, is the yogin's mind; by that — 'by the mind that goes nowhere else': it is not this mind's nature to go elsewhere, to another object, hence 'not going elsewhere'; by that mind which does not go elsewhere, one attains the supreme, unsurpassed Person, the divine one, existing in the sky, in the orb of the sun, O Pārtha, continually thinking upon Him, meditating on the teaching of scripture and teacher — this is the meaning.

In plain words

To this Arjuna asked, in doubt, “Svāmī! If good thought is to come at the end, must one strive for it from today itself? Can one not remember then, on that day?” The Paramātma perceived this and said, “Arjuna! By doubting why such good thought should begin from today, your intellect seems to have grown badly dull. Brother-in-law! He who has made the Manas joined in abhyāsa-yoga and has cast off all other thoughts is able to attain the supreme divine Puruṣa. Without making the Manas joined in abhyāsa-yoga, the thought of remembering the supreme Puruṣa will not come to you on that day; it cannot come. Perhaps you will ask again, ‘How so?’ Consider your own case. Because you practised the arts of astras and śastras from long ago, today, in this war, you can take them up and fight with the arts you have learnt. Otherwise, if you had not learnt these arts of astras and śastras from the beginning, could you take them up today and fight? Would it be possible? No. For kṣatriyas, occasions to wage war cannot fail to arise some day or other. Precisely because of this, even if kṣatriyas have no arts, or know none, they are taught the arts of war, and they must learn them.”