Bhagavad Gita · 6.2 · Path of Meditation·2 of 47
यं संन्यासमिति प्राहुर्योगं तं विद्धि पाण्डव।न ह्यसंन्यस्तसङ्कल्पो योगी भवति कश्चन ॥
yaṁ sannyāsam iti prāhur yogaṁ taṁ viddhi
pāṇḍava na hyasannyasta-saṅkalpo yogī bhavati kaśhchana
Sanskrit recitation
Who is truly a yogi · 6.1–6.9 · Teaching
Translation
Do you, O Arjuna, know that Yoga is what they call renunciation; no one indeed becomes a Yogi who has not renounced their thoughts.
Meaning
Sankalpa is the working of the imagining faculty of the mind that makes plans for the future and guesses the results of plans so formed. No one can become a Karma Yogi who plans and schemes and expects fruits for his actions. No devotee of action who has not renounced the thought of the fruits of his actions can become a Yogi of steady mind. The thought of the fruits will certainly make the mind unsteady.Lord Krishna eulogises Karma Yoga here because it is the means or an external aid (Bahiranga Sadhana) to Dhyana Yoga. Karma Yoga is a steppingstone to Dhyana Yoga. It leads to the Yoga of Meditation in due course. In order to encourage the practice of Karna Yoga it is stated here that Karma Yoga is Sannyasa. (Cf.V.4)
After Swami Sivananda
Who is truly a yogi· 6.1–6.9→
Teachers usually read this idea across several verses together, one shared reflection covers the whole unit.
- 6.1The 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.
6.2Do you, O Arjuna, know that Yoga is what they call renunciation; no one indeed becomes a Yogi who has not renounced their thoughts.
- 6.3For a sage who wishes to attain to Yoga, action is said to be the means; for the same sage who has attained Yoga, inaction is said to be the means.
- 6.4When a person is not attached to the sense-objects or to actions, having renounced all thoughts, then they are said to have attained Yoga.
- 6.5One should raise oneself by one's own self alone; let not one lower oneself; for the self alone is one's own friend, and the self alone is one's own enemy.
- 6.6The Self is the friend of the self of him by whom the Self has been conquered; but to the unconquered self, this Self stands in the position of an enemy, like an external foe.
- 6.7The Supreme Self of him who is self-controlled and peaceful remains balanced in cold and heat, pleasure and pain, as well as in honor and dishonor.
- 6.8The Yogi who is satisfied with the knowledge and wisdom of the Self, who has conquered the senses, and to whom a clod of earth, a piece of stone, and gold are all the same, is said to have attained Nirvikalpa Samadhi.
- 6.9He who is of the same mind towards the good-hearted, friends, enemies, the indifferent, the neutral, the hateful, the relatives, the righteous, and the unrighteous, excels.
Word-by-word→
- hi
- certainly
- na
- not
- iti
- thus
- tam
- that
- yam
- what
- yogam
- yog
- yogī
- a yogi
- viddhi
- know
- bhavati
- becomes
- prāhuḥ
- they say
- sanyāsam
- renunciation
- asannyasta
- without giving up
- kaśhchana
- anyone
- pāṇḍava
- Arjun, the son of Pandu
- saṅkalpaḥ
- desire
Related verses
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- 3.7But whoever, controlling the senses by the mind, O Arjuna, engages himself in Karma Yoga…
- 3.30Renouncing all actions in Me, with the mind centered on the Self, free from hope and…