Chapter 6, Verse 4
यदा हि नेन्द्रियार्थेषु न कर्मस्वनुषज्जते | सर्वसङ्कल्पसंन्यासी योगारूढस्तदोच्यते ||६-४||
yadā hi nendriyārtheṣu na karmasvanuṣajjate . sarvasaṅkalpasaṃnyāsī yogārūḍhastadocyate ||6-4||
Meaning
6.4 When a man is not attached to the sense-objects or to actions, having renounced all thoughts, then he is said to have attained to Yoga.
Word-by-Word Meaning
Explanation & Commentary
Having named the goal as yogarudha in the previous verse, Krishna now defines exactly what it means to be 'established in yoga'. The mark is twofold detachment: the mind no longer clings to indriya-arthas, the objects the senses chase, nor to the actions themselves. Such a person has become a sarva-sankalpa-sannyasi — one who has renounced not this or that desire, but all self-willed intentions at their root.
The key word is sarva, 'all'. It is easy to drop a few cravings while quietly nursing others; true establishment in yoga is the release of the very habit of grasping. This is not lifeless indifference but freedom — the mind, no longer pulled outward by sense-objects or inward by private projects, rests luminous in itself. The doer still acts, but nothing sticks. That non-clinging quietude is the signature of the yogarudha.
💡 Key Takeaway
You are established in yoga when nothing — neither pleasures nor projects — has a grip on your mind anymore.
Related Verses
श्रीभगवानुवाच | अनाश्रितः कर्मफलं कार्यं कर्म करोति यः | स संन्यासी च योगी च न निरग्निर्न चाक्रियः ||६-१||
śrībhagavānuvāca . anāśritaḥ karmaphalaṃ kāryaṃ karma karoti yaḥ . sa saṃnyāsī ca yogī ca na niragnirna cākriyaḥ ||6-1||
6.1 The Blessed Lord said He who performs his bounden duty without depending on the fruits of his actions he is a Sannyasi and a Yogi; not he who is without fire and without action.
यं संन्यासमिति प्राहुर्योगं तं विद्धि पाण्डव | न ह्यसंन्यस्तसङ्कल्पो योगी भवति कश्चन ||६-२||
yaṃ saṃnyāsamiti prāhuryogaṃ taṃ viddhi pāṇḍava . na hyasaṃnyastasaṅkalpo yogī bhavati kaścana ||6-2||
6.2 Do thou, O Arjuna, know Yoga to be that which they call renunciation; no one verily becomes a Yogi who has not renounced thoughts.
तं विद्याद् दुःखसंयोगवियोगं योगसंज्ञितम् | स निश्चयेन योक्तव्यो योगोऽनिर्विण्णचेतसा ||६-२३||
taṃ vidyād duḥkhasaṃyogaviyogaṃ yogasaṃjñitam . sa niścayena yoktavyo yogo.anirviṇṇacetasā ||6-23||
6.23 Let that be known by the name of Yoga, the severance from union with pain. This Yoga should be practised with determination and with an undesponding mind.