Dhyana Yoga
Dhyana Yoga • 47 verses
Krishna teaches the practice of meditation (dhyana) in detail — the right posture, the right environment, the right inner attitude. He describes the highest state of meditation (samadhi) and addresses Arjuna's concern about what happens to an earnest practitioner who fails to reach perfection in one lifetime.
Chapter Overview
This is the practical chapter. Where to sit, how to sit, what to eat, how much to sleep.
Krishna is specific. A clean spot, not too high, not too low. Spine and head steady. Gaze soft. Then he adds the part that saves people from failing early: this is not for the person who eats too much or too little, sleeps too much or too little. Yoga is for the moderate.
The mind is the difficulty, and Arjuna says so plainly — it is restless, turbulent, strong, as hard to hold as the wind. Krishna does not argue. He agrees it is hard, and says it is done anyway, by practice and by letting go, repeated.
Then the question everyone eventually asks: what if I try and do not get there? Krishna's answer is that nothing is wasted. No one who does good comes to a bad end. Effort carries over — you begin the next life further along than you began this one, drawn on by what you already built.
Key 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||
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||
Do thou, O Arjuna, know Yoga to be that which they call renunciation; no one verily becomes a Yogi who has not renounced thoughts.
आरुरुक्षोर्मुनेर्योगं कर्म कारणमुच्यते | योगारूढस्य तस्यैव शमः कारणमुच्यते ||६-३||
ārurukṣormuneryogaṃ karma kāraṇamucyate . yogārūḍhasya tasyaiva śamaḥ kāraṇamucyate ||6-3||
For a sage who wishes to attain to Yoga, action is said to be the means; for the same sage who has attained to Yoga, inaction (iescence) is said to be the means.
यदा हि नेन्द्रियार्थेषु न कर्मस्वनुषज्जते | सर्वसङ्कल्पसंन्यासी योगारूढस्तदोच्यते ||६-४||
yadā hi nendriyārtheṣu na karmasvanuṣajjate . sarvasaṅkalpasaṃnyāsī yogārūḍhastadocyate ||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.
उद्धरेदात्मनात्मानं नात्मानमवसादयेत् | आत्मैव ह्यात्मनो बन्धुरात्मैव रिपुरात्मनः ||६-५||
uddharedātmanātmānaṃ nātmānamavasādayet . ātmaiva hyātmano bandhurātmaiva ripurātmanaḥ ||6-5||
One should raise oneself by one's Self alone; let not one lower oneself; for the Self alone is the friend of oneself, and the Self alone is the enemy of oneself.