The earliest clear references to meditation in Hindu literature are in the middle Upanishads and

the Mahabharata, which includes the Bhagavad Gita.[23][24] According to Gavin Flood, the earlier
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad refers to meditation when it states that "having becoming calm and
concentrated, one perceives the self (ātman) within oneself".[25]

A large statue in Bangalore depicting Lord Shiva meditating

Raja Yoga (sometimes simply referred to as Yoga) is one of the six orthodox (āstika) schools of
Hindu philosophy, focusing on meditation. Dhyana, or meditation, is the seventh of eight limbs
of the Raja Yoga path as expounded by Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras. Patanjali recommended
"meditation with the Lord as the object" as a part of the spiritual practices (sadhana) that leads to
samadhi, or blissful inner peace.[26] The word 'Yoga' is derived from the Sanskrit yuj, which
means "to control", "to yoke", "to unite", and refers to techniques and disciplines of asceticism
and meditation which lead to spiritual experience. The practices of Yoga help one to control the
mind and senses so the ego can be transcended and the true self (atman) experienced, leading to
moksha or liberation. Meditation in Hinduism is not confined to any school or sect and has
expanded beyond Hinduism to the West.[25]
The different types of Yoga in Hinduism are designed to appeal to varieties of personality types,
but to take the sincere practitioner to the same destinations in each case: first samadhi in which
non-dual consciousness is experienced only in meditation and then samadhi where non-dual
consciousness is experienced throughout waking activities.[27]
The influential modern proponent of Hinduism who first introduced Eastern philosophy to the
West in the late 19th century, Swami Vivekananda, describes meditation as follows:
"Meditation has been laid stress upon by all religions. The meditative state of mind is declared by the
Yogis to be the highest state in which the mind exists. When the mind is studying the external object, it
gets identified with it, loses itself. To use the simile of the old Indian philosopher: the soul of man is like
a piece of crystal, but it takes the colour of whatever is near it. Whatever the soul touches ... it has to take
its colour. That is the difficulty. That constitutes the bondage."[28