Chapter 6

आत्मसंयमयोग

The Path of Meditation (Ātmasaṃyamayoga)

Krishna teaches that the mind can be your best friend or your worst enemy, and describes how to sit, breathe and settle into meditation. When Arjuna says the mind is as hard to hold as the wind, Krishna agrees and gives the answer: steady practice and gentle detachment.

Lift yourself by your own effort; balance and practice tame the mind.

6.1अनाश्रितः कर्मफलं कार्यं कर्म करोति यः।Krishna says: the one who does the work that ought to be done, without leaning on its results, is truly a renunciate and a yogi. Merely giving up the sacred fire or giving up activity does not make someone one.
6.2यं संन्यासमिति प्राहुर्योगं तं विद्धि पाण्डव।Krishna tells Arjuna: what people call renunciation, know that to be yoga. No one becomes a yogi without letting go of selfish planning and scheming for personal gain.
6.3आरुरुक्षोर्मुनेर्योगं कर्म कारणमुच्यते।For the seeker who wants to climb to yoga, action is said to be the means. For the same person, once established in yoga, calm and stillness become the means.
6.4यदा हि नेन्द्रियार्थेषु न कर्मस्वनुषज्जते।A person is said to have reached yoga when they are no longer attached to the objects of the senses or to their actions, and have let go of all self-driven wanting and planning.
6.5उद्धरेदात्मनाऽऽत्मानं नात्मानमवसादयेत्।Lift yourself up by your own effort; do not let yourself sink down. For you alone are your own friend, and you alone are your own enemy.
6.6बन्धुरात्माऽऽत्मनस्तस्य येनात्मैवात्मना जितः।For one who has mastered the mind by the self, the self is a friend. But for one who has not, that same self behaves like an enemy.
6.7जितात्मनः प्रशान्तस्य परमात्मा समाहितः।For one who has conquered the self and is at peace, the higher Self stays steady and settled in cold and heat, pleasure and pain, honour and insult alike.
6.8ज्ञानविज्ञानतृप्तात्मा कूटस्थो विजितेन्द्रियः।The yogi who is content with knowledge and lived understanding, unshaken, in control of the senses, and who sees a lump of earth, a stone and gold as equal, is called steady in yoga.
6.9सुहृन्मित्रार्युदासीनमध्यस्थद्वेष्यबन्धुषु।Even higher is the one who keeps an equal mind toward well-wishers, friends, enemies, neutral people, mediators, the hateful, relatives, the good and even the wrongdoers.
6.10योगी युञ्जीत सततमात्मानं रहसि स्थितः।A yogi should constantly practise focusing the mind, staying in a quiet place, alone, with mind and body restrained, free from cravings and from clinging to possessions.
6.11शुचौ देशे प्रतिष्ठाप्य स्थिरमासनमात्मनः।In a clean place, one should set up a firm seat for oneself, neither too high nor too low, covered with kusha grass, a deerskin and a cloth, one over the other.
6.12तत्रैकाग्रं मनः कृत्वा यतचित्तेन्द्रियक्रियः।Sitting on that seat, making the mind one-pointed and keeping thoughts, senses and actions under control, one should practise yoga to purify oneself.
6.13समं कायशिरोग्रीवं धारयन्नचलं स्थिरः।Holding the body, head and neck straight and still, steady, one should gaze toward the tip of one's own nose without looking around in other directions.
6.14प्रशान्तात्मा विगतभीर्ब्रह्मचारिव्रते स्थितः।Calm, free of fear, firm in the vow of self-restraint, controlling the mind, one should sit absorbed in Me, with Me as the highest goal.
6.15युञ्जन्नेवं सदाऽऽत्मानं योगी नियतमानसः।Practising in this way, always keeping the mind disciplined, the yogi reaches the peace that rests in Me, the supreme peace of liberation.
6.16नात्यश्नतस्तु योगोऽस्ति न चैकान्तमनश्नतः।Krishna tells Arjuna: yoga is not for one who eats too much or one who eats far too little, nor for one who sleeps too much or one who stays awake too much.
6.17युक्ताहारविहारस्य युक्तचेष्टस्य कर्मसु।For one who is balanced in eating and recreation, balanced in effort at work, and balanced in sleep and waking, yoga becomes the remover of sorrow.
6.18यदा विनियतं चित्तमात्मन्येवावतिष्ठते।When the well-disciplined mind rests in the Self alone, free from longing for any object of desire, then a person is said to be established in yoga.
6.19यथा दीपो निवातस्थो नेङ्गते सोपमा स्मृता।Like a lamp in a windless place that does not flicker: that is the image used for the disciplined mind of a yogi practising focus on the Self.
6.20यत्रोपरमते चित्तं निरुद्धं योगसेवया।In that state, the mind, held still by the practice of yoga, comes to rest. There, seeing the Self through the self, one finds contentment within.
6.21सुखमात्यन्तिकं यत्तद्बुद्धिग्राह्यमतीन्द्रियम्।There one knows a boundless joy that is grasped by the intellect and lies beyond the senses. Established in it, one never moves away from the truth.
6.22यं लब्ध्वा चापरं लाभं मन्यते नाधिकं ततः।Having gained it, one thinks no other gain is greater. Established in it, one is not shaken even by heavy sorrow.
6.23तं विद्याद् दुःखसंयोगवियोगं योगसंज्ञितम्।Know that this state, called yoga, is the cutting off of union with sorrow. This yoga should be practised with firm resolve and a mind that does not lose heart.
6.24सङ्कल्पप्रभवान्कामांस्त्यक्त्वा सर्वानशेषतः।Giving up completely all desires born of the mind's imagining, and drawing back the whole group of senses from every side by the mind alone,
6.25शनैः शनैरुपरमेद् बुद्ध्या धृतिगृहीतया।one should become still gradually, little by little, with an intellect held firm by patience. Settling the mind in the Self, one should think of nothing else.
6.26यतो यतो निश्चरति मनश्चञ्चलमस्थिरम्।Wherever the restless, unsteady mind wanders off, from there one should bring it back and place it under control in the Self alone.
6.27प्रशान्तमनसं ह्येनं योगिनं सुखमुत्तमम्।Supreme happiness comes to the yogi whose mind is fully at peace, whose restless passion has calmed, who is free of wrongdoing and has become one with Brahman (the ultimate reality).
6.28युञ्जन्नेवं सदाऽऽत्मानं योगी विगतकल्मषः।Practising in this way constantly, the yogi, freed from impurities, easily enjoys the boundless joy of contact with Brahman (the ultimate reality).
6.29सर्वभूतस्थमात्मानं सर्वभूतानि चात्मनि।One whose mind is joined in yoga sees the Self present in all beings and all beings in the Self, seeing the same everywhere.
6.30यो मां पश्यति सर्वत्र सर्वं च मयि पश्यति।Krishna says: whoever sees Me everywhere and sees everything in Me, I am never lost to them, and they are never lost to Me.
6.31सर्वभूतस्थितं यो मां भजत्येकत्वमास्थितः।The yogi who, settled in oneness, worships Me as present in all beings, lives in Me, whatever their way of life may be.
6.32आत्मौपम्येन सर्वत्र समं पश्यति योऽर्जुन।Krishna tells Arjuna: the highest yogi is one who, comparing others with oneself, sees their pleasure and pain as equal to one's own.
6.33योऽयं योगस्त्वया प्रोक्तः साम्येन मधुसूदन।Arjuna says to Krishna: this yoga of evenness that you have described, I do not see how it can last steadily, because the mind is so restless.
6.34चञ्चलं हि मनः कृष्ण प्रमाथि बलवद्दृढम्।Arjuna says: Krishna, the mind is restless, turbulent, powerful and stubborn. I think controlling it is as hard as controlling the wind.
6.35असंशयं महाबाहो मनो दुर्निग्रहं चलं।Krishna replies: no doubt, Arjuna, the mind is restless and hard to control. But it can be held through steady practice and detachment.
6.36असंयतात्मना योगो दुष्प्राप इति मे मतिः।Krishna says: in My view, yoga is hard to reach for one whose mind is not restrained. But one who has self-control and keeps striving can reach it by the right means.
6.37अयतिः श्रद्धयोपेतो योगाच्चलितमानसः।Arjuna asks: Krishna, what becomes of a person who has faith but does not strive enough, whose mind wanders away from yoga before reaching its fulfilment?
6.38कच्चिन्नोभयविभ्रष्टश्छिन्नाभ्रमिव नश्यति।Arjuna asks: having slipped from both paths, without a firm footing and confused on the way to Brahman (the ultimate reality), does such a person perish like a scattered cloud?
6.39एतन्मे संशयं कृष्ण छेत्तुमर्हस्यशेषतः।Arjuna says: Krishna, please remove this doubt of mine completely. There is no one other than you who can clear it away.
6.40पार्थ नैवेह नामुत्र विनाशस्तस्य विद्यते।Krishna replies: Arjuna, there is no ruin for such a person, neither in this world nor in the next. No one who does good ever comes to a bad end, my friend.
6.41प्राप्य पुण्यकृतां लोकानुषित्वा शाश्वतीः समाः।The one who fell from yoga reaches the worlds of the virtuous, lives there for very many years, and is then born into a family of pure and prosperous people.
6.42अथवा योगिनामेव कुले भवति धीमताम्।Or else such a person is born into a family of wise yogis. A birth like this is very rare to find in the world.
6.43तत्र तं बुद्धिसंयोगं लभते पौर्वदेहिकम्।There, Arjuna, that person regains the understanding developed in the previous life, and from that point strives even harder toward perfection.
6.44पूर्वाभ्यासेन तेनैव ह्रियते ह्यवशोऽपि सः।By the force of that earlier practice, one is carried forward almost without choice. Even one who simply wishes to know yoga goes beyond mere rituals of scripture.
6.45प्रयत्नाद्यतमानस्तु योगी संशुद्धकिल्बिषः।But the yogi who strives with sincere effort, cleansed of faults and perfected over many births, then reaches the supreme goal.
6.46तपस्विभ्योऽधिको योगी ज्ञानिभ्योऽपि मतोऽधिकः।Krishna says: the yogi is greater than those who practise austerities, greater even than the learned, and greater than those who perform rituals. So, Arjuna, be a yogi.
6.47योगिनामपि सर्वेषां मद्गतेनान्तरात्मना।Krishna says: of all yogis, the one who, full of faith, worships Me with the inner self absorbed in Me, I consider the most deeply united with Me.