Sanskrit
स्पर्शान्कृत्वा बहिर्बाह्यांश्चक्षुश्चैवान्तरे भ्रुवोः । प्राणापानौ समौ कृत्वा नासाभ्यन्तरचारिणौ ॥
sparśān kṛtvā bahir bāhyāṃś cakṣuś caivāntare bhruvoḥ prāṇāpānau samau kṛtvā nāsābhyantaracāriṇau
Translation
Having external contacts excluded, and with gaze fixed between the eyebrows; having made equal the outgoing and ingoing breaths moving within the nostrils;
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
This is the Gita’s first concrete meditation instruction, and it reads like a technical manual rather than philosophy: external contacts shut out, the gaze fixed at the point between the eyebrows, and prāṇa and apāna, the outgoing and ingoing breaths, deliberately equalized. Prāṇāyāma is being described here without yet being named, three verses before chapter 6 opens its own, far more detailed treatment of the same territory. This verse is best read as chapter 6’s advance trailer rather than a complete technique in itself, since it stops short of specifying a posture, a duration, or a place to practice. The material here is picked up and expanded in BG 6.10–BG 6.14: sense-withdrawal, a fixed gaze, evened breath. Chapter 5 sketches the technique; chapter 6 supplies the seat, the place, and the caution about excess.
Study deeper
Word by word
- sparśān kṛtvā bahir bāhyāṃśस्पर्शान् कृत्वा बहिः बाह्यांश्
- shutting out external contacts (sparśān + kṛtvā + bahiḥ + bāhyān)
- cakṣuś caivāntare bhruvoḥचक्षुश् चैवान्तरे भ्रुवोः
- the gaze [fixed] between the brows (cakṣuḥ + ca + eva + antare + bhruvoḥ)
- prāṇāpānau samau kṛtvāप्राणापानौ समौ कृत्वा
- making the in- and out-breaths even (prāṇa-apānau + samau + kṛtvā)
- nāsābhyantaracāriṇauनासाभ्यन्तरचारिणौ
- moving within the nostrils (nāsā-abhyantara-cāriṇau)
Commentary
Site Commentary
There’s no transitional sentence here — the chapter simply drops, without announcement, from twenty-six verses of philosophical argument into pure technical instruction: gaze fixed, breath equalized. That abruptness is itself informative. The text seems to trust that once the philosophical case for inward-directed happiness has actually landed (verses 21-24), the natural next question is entirely practical — how, mechanically, is it done — and it answers without pausing to justify the change of register.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- Once you're actually convinced of why a practice matters, don't linger looking for more reasons — move straight to the mechanical how; the abrupt shift this verse makes, from argument to instruction, is often exactly the right move once the why has genuinely landed.
Professional
- Once your team is bought into the reasoning behind a process change, resist over-explaining the why any further — shift immediately to the concrete mechanics of how it's actually done, the way this verse cuts straight from argument to technique without transition.
Family & Social
- Once someone you're guiding genuinely understands why something matters, stop re-explaining the reasoning and move to showing them exactly how it's done — belaboring the why after it's already landed usually just delays the useful part.
Ask yourself
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