Bhagavad Gita · 18.33 · Yoga through the Perfection of Renunciation and Surrender·33 of 78
धृत्या यया धारयते मनःप्राणेन्द्रियक्रियाः।योगेनाव्यभिचारिण्या धृतिः सा पार्थ सात्त्विकी ॥
dhṛityā yayā dhārayate manaḥ-prāṇendriya-kriyāḥ
yogenāvyabhichāriṇyā dhṛitiḥ sā pārtha sāttvikī
Sanskrit recitation
Knowledge, work, and the worker · 18.29–18.40 · Teaching
Translation
The unwavering firmness, through which Yoga restrains the functions of the mind, life-force, and senses—that firmness, O Arjuna, is Sattvic (pure).
Meaning
When firmness is awakened in the mind, the activities of the mind, the lifeforce and the senses are brought under control. The senses are withdrawn into the mind. The Prana and the Apana pass into the Sushumna Nadi.Yoga Samadhi or concentration of the mind. You cannot restrain the mind, the lifeforce and the senses by mere firmness. You can control them only by firmness which is ever accompanied by concentration of the mind.When the mind, the lifeforce and the senses are curbed by unwarvering firmness, they cannot run towards external sensual objects, they cannot do any mischief, they cannot move in ways which are opposed to the scriptures, they will be absorbed into their respective causes and their outgoing tendencies will be totally checked.This firmness is not repression or suppression, but an intelligent sublimation and inner transformation.
After Swami Sivananda
Knowledge, work, and the worker· 18.29–18.40→
Teachers usually read this idea across several verses together, one shared reflection covers the whole unit.
- 18.29Hear thou the threefold division of intellect and firmness, according to the Gunas, as I declare them fully and distinctly, O Arjuna.
- 18.30The intellect which knows the path of work and renunciation, what should be done and what should not be done, fear and fearlessness, bondage and liberation—that intellect is Sattvic (pure), O Arjuna.
- 18.31That by which one wrongly understands dharma and adharma, and also what ought to be done and what ought not to be done—that intellect, O Arjuna, is rajasic (passionate).
- 18.32That intellect, O Arjuna, which is enveloped in darkness and sees Adharma as Dharma and all things perverted, is Tamasic (dark).
18.33The unwavering firmness, through which Yoga restrains the functions of the mind, life-force, and senses—that firmness, O Arjuna, is Sattvic (pure).
- 18.34But that, O Arjuna, by which one holds fast to Dharma (duty), enjoyment of pleasures, and earning of wealth, on account of attachment and desire for reward—that firmness, O Arjuna, is Rajasic (passionate).
- 18.35That firmness, O Arjuna, by which a stupid man does not abandon sleep, fear, grief, despair, and conceit, is Tamasic.
- 18.36And now, O Arjuna, hear from Me of the threefold pleasure, in which one rejoices through practice and surely comes to the end of pain.
- 18.37That which is like poison at first but in the end like nectar—that happiness is declared to be sattvic, born of the purity of one's own mind due to self-realization.
- 18.38That happiness which arises from the contact of the senses with the objects, which is initially like nectar but eventually like poison, is said to be Rajasic.
- 18.39That happiness which at first, as well as in the end, deludes the self, and which arises from sleep, indolence, and heedlessness—that is declared to be Tamasic.
- 18.40There is no being on earth or in heaven among the gods that is liberated from the three qualities born of Nature.
Word-by-word→
- sā
- that
- yayā
- which
- yogena
- through Yog
- indriya
- senses
- manaḥ
- of the mind
- pārtha
- Arjun, the son of Pritha
- prāṇa
- life-airs
- kriyāḥ
- activities
- dhārayate
- sustains
- dhṛityā
- by determining
- sāttvikī
- in the mode of goodness
- dhṛitiḥ
- determination
- avyabhichāriṇyā
- with steadfastness
Related verses
- 3.33Even a wise man acts in accordance with his own nature; beings will follow their nature;…
- 3.34Attachment and aversion for the objects of the senses abide in the senses; let no one come…
- 6.1The Blessed Lord said: He who performs his bounden duty without depending on the fruits of…
- 18.14The body, the doer, the various senses, the different functions of various kinds, and the…