Sanskrit
धृत्या यया धारयते मनःप्राणेन्द्रियक्रियाः । योगेनाव्यभिचारिण्या धृतिः सा पार्थ सात्त्विकी ॥ ३३ ॥
dhṛtyā yayā dhārayate manaḥprāṇendriyakriyāḥ yogenāvyabhicāriṇyā dhṛtiḥ sā pārtha sāttvikī
Translation
The unwavering firmness by which, through Yoga, one restraineth the activity of the mind, of the life breaths and of the sense-organs, that firmness, O Partha, is pure.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Sattvic dhriti, firmness or resolve, is the unwavering steadiness, achieved through yoga, that restrains the activity of mind, breath, and senses together. This is one of the few verses in the passage that names a method rather than just a trait — yoga as disciplined practice is explicitly credited as the mechanism producing this kind of resolve, tying the abstract guna-typology back to the concrete meditative technique chapter 6 laid out in detail. Sāttvic dhṛti holds mind, breath, and senses steady by unswerving yoga — the “lamp in a windless place” (BG 6.19) as a quality of firmness rather than of the mind itself.
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Word by word
- dhṛtyā yayā dhārayateधृत्या यया धारयते
- the firmness by which one holds (dhṛtyā + yayā + dhārayate)
- manaḥprāṇendriyakriyāḥमनःप्राणेन्द्रियक्रियाः
- the workings of mind, breath, and senses (manaḥ-prāṇa-indriya-kriyāḥ)
- yogenāvyabhicāriṇyāयोगेनाव्यभिचारिण्या
- by unswerving yoga (yogena + avyabhicāriṇyā)
- dhṛtiḥ sā pārtha sāttvikīधृतिः सा पार्थ सात्त्विकी
- that firmness, O Pārtha, is sāttvic (dhṛtiḥ + sā + pārtha + sāttvikī)
Commentary
Site Commentary
The word translated unwavering here, avyabhicharini, shares its root with the term used elsewhere for marital fidelity, not straying. Sattvic resolve isn’t described as raw willpower or grit; it’s described as a kind of faithfulness, holding mind, breath, and senses to one committed direction the way a vow holds a person to one commitment rather than several competing ones.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
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Lessons
Personal
- Treat your discipline as fidelity to one direction rather than as sheer willpower — ask whether you're staying loyal to the practice you chose, not just gritting your teeth through whichever one is in front of you today.
Professional
- Evaluate a team's discipline on a chosen strategy as fidelity to that direction, not chasing every new priority that appears, rather than as raw hours logged; the first predicts follow-through, the second doesn't.
Family & Social
- Commitment in a relationship looks less like one grand gesture of willpower and more like sustained fidelity to a shared direction over time — measure it by the staying, not the intensity of any single effort.
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