अध्यात्मयोग
Adhyātma Yoga — The Yoga of Self-Subdual
Krishna gives Arjuna a detailed manual for meditation practice — a clean quiet seat, controlled posture, gaze fixed at the nose-tip, moderation in eating and sleep — building toward the mind's mastery over itself and the vision of the Self abiding equally in all beings. When Arjuna objects that the restless mind makes this goal unreachable, Krishna concedes the difficulty but insists it is attainable through practice (abhyasa) and dispassion (vairagya); when Arjuna then asks what becomes of one who strives sincerely but dies before perfecting the discipline, Krishna assures him that no effort toward the good is ever lost, carrying forward across rebirths until the goal is reached.
About this chapter
Chapter 6 is the Gita’s meditation manual — the one place it slows down to give posture, seat, diet, and a technique for the wandering mind. It opens by finishing chapter 5’s argument: the sannyāsin and the yogī are the same person, “one who does the work that ought to be done without leaning on its fruit” (BG 6.1) — not the ascetic who has merely put down the ritual fire.
Self as friend, self as enemy
Before the technique comes its precondition: “lift the self by the Self; do not let the self sink” (BG 6.5). The lower and higher self are the same word; which is friend and which enemy depends only on whether the one has been conquered by the other (BG 6.6). The mark of success is even vision — across heat and cold, honour and dishonour (BG 6.7), across clod, stone, and gold (BG 6.8), and across friend, stranger, and foe alike (BG 6.9).
Setting the seat
Verses 10–14 are the procedure the figure below lays out: a clean place, a firm seat neither high nor low, body-head-neck aligned, an unmoving gaze, breath and senses stilled, the mind fixed “on Me” (BG 6.14). The rule is moderation, not austerity: yoga is “not for one who eats too much, nor one who eats nothing at all” (BG 6.16). The trained mind is “a lamp in a windless place” (BG 6.19); the method for getting there is śanaiḥ śanaiḥ, by slow degrees, returning the mind “from wherever it wanders” (BG 6.25–BG 6.26).
Arjuna’s objection, and the unfinished yogi
Arjuna answers the lamp with a counter-image — the mind is not the flame, it is the wind, and “as hard to hold” (BG 6.34). Krishna concedes the point “without doubt,” then names the grip: practice and dispassion (BG 6.35). Arjuna’s last question is the chapter’s most human — what becomes of someone who has faith, tries, and fails? Krishna’s answer is unusually tender (he calls Arjuna tāta, “my child”): no sincere effort is lost. The one fallen from yoga is reborn well, keeps “the link with understanding from the former body,” and resumes the climb (BG 6.41–BG 6.45). The chapter closes by naming the highest yogi of all: the one who worships “with faith, the inner self gone to Me” (BG 6.47) — the bridge into chapter 7.
How the chapter moves
- v1–9Renouncer and yogi are one; self as friend or enemy — The sannyāsin and yogi name the same person. Lift the self by the Self; whichever has conquered decides friend or enemy. The test is even vision — toward opposites, toward clod and gold, toward all people.
- v10–17Setting the seat — the meditation procedure — Solitude, a firm seat, aligned posture, steadied gaze, breath and senses stilled, mind fixed 'on Me.' The rule is moderation in food, sleep, and effort — not austerity.
- v18–32The state, and how it is reached — The trained mind is a lamp in a windless place. Reached slowly, returning the mind whenever it wanders. Its fruit: the Self seen in all beings and all beings in the Self — the highest yogi seeing everyone by his own measure.
- v33–36Arjuna's objection: the mind is like the wind — Arjuna disputes not the goal but its feasibility. Krishna concedes the mind is restless and hard to curb — then names the two-handed grip: practice and dispassion.
- v37–47The one who falls from yoga — What of the earnest failure? No effort is lost: reborn well, he regains the understanding built before and strives on. Among all yogis, the faithful devotee is the most fully yoked.
The place and the seatBG 6.11
- A clean, solitary placeśucau deśe — alone, expecting nothing, owning little (6.10)
- A firm seat, neither high nor lowcloth over deerskin over kuśa grass (6.11)
- The mind made one-pointedekāgraṃ manaḥ — for self-purification, not for powers (6.12)
Posture, gaze, and objectBG 6.13
- Body, head, and neck held level and stillsamaṃ kāya-śiro-grīvaṃ, acalaṃ (6.13)
- Gaze fixed at the nose-tip, not rovingeyes open on one point, looking outward at nothing (6.13)
- Breath and senses stilled; the mind fixed 'on Me'manaḥ saṃyamya mac-cittaḥ — serene, fearless (6.14)
Concept map for this chapter
He that performeth such action as his duty, independently of the fruit of action, he is an ascetic, he is a Yogi, not he that is without fire, and without rites.
That which is called renunciation, know thou that as yoga, O Pandava; nor doth any one become a Yogi with the formative will unrenounced.
For a Sage who is seeking Yoga, action is called the means; for the same Sage, when he is enthroned in yoga, serenity is called the means.
When a man feeleth no attachment either for the objects of sense or for actions, renouncing the formative will, then, he is said to be enthroned in yoga.
Let him raise the self by the Self and not let the self become depressed; for verily is the Self the friend of the self, and also the Self the self's enemy;
The Self is the friend of the self of him in whom the self by the Self is vanquished; but to the unsubdued self the Self verily becometh hostile as an enemy.
The higher Self of him who is Self-controlled and peaceful is uniform in cold and heat, pleasure and pain, as well as in honour and dishonour.
The Yogi who is satisfied with wisdom and knowledge, unwavering, whose senses are subdued, to whom a lump of earth, a stone and gold are the same, is said to be harmonised.
He who regards impartially lovers, friends, and foes, strangers, neutrals, foreigners and relatives, also the righteous and unrighteous, he excelleth.
Let the Yogi constantly engage himself in yoga, remaining in a secret place by himself, with thought and self subdued, free from hope and greed.
In a pure place, established on a fixed seat of his own, neither very much raised nor very low, made of a cloth, a black antelope skin, and kusha grass, one over the other;
There, having made the mind one-pointed, with thought and the functions of the senses subdued, steady on his seat, he should practise yoga for the purification of the self.
Holding the body, head and neck erect, immovably steady, looking fixedly at the point of the nose, with unseeing gaze,
The self serene, fearless, firm in the vow of the Brahmachari, the mind controlled, thinking on Me, harmonised, let him sit aspiring after Me.
The Yogi ever united thus with the Self, with the mind controlled, goeth to Peace, to the supreme Bliss that abideth in Me.
Verily yoga is not for him who eateth too much, nor who abstaineth to excess, nor who is too much addicted to sleep, nor even to wakefulness, O Arjuna.
Yoga killeth out all pain for him who is regulated in eating and amusement, regulated in performing actions, regulated in sleeping and waking.
When his subdued thought is fixed on the Self, free from longing after all desirable things, then it is said, "he is harmonised."
As a lamp in a windless place flickereth not, to such is likened the Yogi of subdued thought, absorbed in the yoga of the Self.
That in which the mind finds rest, quieted by the practice of yoga: that in which he, seeing the Self by the Self, in the Self is satisfied;
That in which he findeth the supreme delight which the Reason can grasp beyond the senses, wherein established he moveth not from the Reality;
Which, having obtained, he thinketh there is no greater gain beyond it; wherein, established, he is not shaken even by heavy sorrow;
That should be known by the name of yoga, this disconnection from the union with pain. This yoga must be clung to with a firm conviction and with undesponding mind.
Abandoning without reserve all desires born of the imagination, by the mind curbing in the aggregate of the senses on every side,
Little by little let him gain tranquillity, by means of Reason controlled by steadiness; having made the mind abide in the Self, let him not think of anything.
As often as the wavering and unsteady mind goeth forth, so often reining it in, let him bring it under the control of the Self.
Supreme joy is for this Yogi whose mind is peaceful, whose passion-nature is calmed, who is sinless and of the nature of the Eternal.
The Yogi who thus, ever harmonising the self, hath put away sin, he easily enjoyeth the infinite bliss of contact with the Eternal.
The self, harmonised by yoga, seeth the Self abiding in all beings, all beings in the Self; everywhere he seeth the same.
He who seeth Me everywhere, and seeth everything in Me, of him will I never lose hold, and he shall never lose hold of Me.
He who, established in unity, worshippeth Me abiding in all beings, that Yogi liveth in Me, whatever his mode of living.
He who, through the likeness of the Self, O Arjuna, seeth equality in everything, whether pleasant or painful, he is considered a perfect Yogi.
This yoga which Thou hast declared to be by equanimity, O Madhusudana, I see not a stable foundation for it, owing to restlessness;
For the mind is verily restless, O Krishna; it is impetuous, strong and difficult to bend. I deem it as hard to curb as the wind.
Without doubt, O mighty-armed, the mind is hard to curb and restless; but it may be curbed by constant practice and by dispassion.
Yoga is hard to attain, methinks, by a self that is uncontrolled; but by the Self-controlled it is attainable by properly directed energy.
He who is unsubdued but who possesseth faith, with the mind wandering away from yoga, failing to attain perfection in yoga, what path doth he tread, O Krishna?
Fallen from both, is he destroyed like a rent cloud, unsteadfast, O mighty-armed, deluded in the path of the Eternal?
Deign, O Krishna, to completely dispel this doubt of mine; for there is none to be found save Thyself able to destroy this doubt.
O son of Prithâ, neither in this world nor in the life to come is there destruction for him; never doth any who worketh righteousness, O beloved, tread the path of woe.
Having attained to the worlds of the pure-doing, and having dwelt there for immemorial years, he who fell from yoga is reborn in a pure and blessed house;
Or he may even be born into a family of wise Yogis; but such a birth as that is most difficult to obtain in this world.
There he recovereth the characteristics belonging to this former body, and with these he again laboureth for perfection, O joy of the Kurus.
By that former practice he is irresistibly swept away. Only wishing to know yoga, even the seeker after yoga goeth beyond the Brahmic world;
But the Yogi, labouring with assiduity, purified from sin, fully perfected through manifold births, he reacheth the supreme goal.
The Yogi is greater than the ascetics; he is thought to be greater than even the wise; the Yogi is greater than the men of action; therefore become thou a Yogi, O Arjuna!
And among all Yogis, he who, full of faith, with the inner Self abiding in Me, adoreth Me, he is considered by Me to be the most completely harmonised.