Yoga (योग)

This teaching set forth to thee is in accordance with the Sâñkhya; hear it now according to the Yoga, imbued with which teaching, O Pârtha, thou shalt cast away the bonds of action.

In this there is no loss of effort, nor is there transgression. Even a little of this knowledge protects from great fear.

The determinate Reason is but one-pointed, O joy of the Kurus; many-branched and endless are the thoughts of the irresolute.

For them who cling to pleasure and lordship, whose minds are captivated by such teaching, is not designed this determinate Reason, on contemplation steadily bent.

The Vedas deal with the three attributes; be thou above these three attributes, O Arjuna; beyond the pairs of opposites, ever steadfast in purity, careless of possessions, full of the Self.

All the Vedas are as useful to an enlightened Brâhmana as is a tank in a place covered all over with water.

Thy business is with the action only, never with its fruits; so let not the fruit of action be thy motive, nor be thou to inaction attached.

Perform action, O Dhananjaya, dwelling in union with the divine, renouncing attachments and balanced evenly in success and failure: equilibrium is called yoga.

Far lower than the Yoga of Discrimination is action, O Dhananjaya. Take thou refuge in the Pure Reason; pitiable are they who work for fruit.

United to the Pure Reason one abandoneth here both good and evil deeds; therefore cleave thou to yoga; yoga is skill in action.

The Sages, united to the Pure Reason, renounce the fruit which action yieldeth, and, liberated from the bonds of birth, they go to the blissful seat.

When thy mind shall escape from this tangle of delusion, then thou shalt rise to indifference as to what has been heard and shall be heard.

When thy mind, bewildered by the Scriptures, shall stand immovable, fixed in contemplation, then shalt thou attain unto yoga.

In this world there is a twofold path, as I before said, O sinless one: that of yoga by knowledge, of the Sâñkhyas; and that of yoga by action, of the Yogis.

But who, controlling the senses by the mind, O Arjuna, with the organs of action without attachment, performeth yoga by action, he is worthy.

This imperishable yoga I declared to Vivasvân; Vivasvân taught it to Manu; Manu to Ikshvâku told it.

This, handed on down the line, the King-Sages knew. This yoga by great efflux of time decayed in the world, O Parantapa.

Verily there is no purifier in this world like wisdom; he that is perfected in yoga finds it in the Self in due season.

He who hath renounced actions by yoga, who hath cloven asunder doubt by wisdom, who is ruled by the Self, actions do not bind him, O Dhananjaya.

Therefore, with the sword of the wisdom of the Self cleaving asunder this ignorance-born doubt dwelling in thy heart, be established in yoga. Stand up, O Bhârata.

Renunciation of actions Thou praisest, O Krishna, and then also yoga. Of the two which one is the better? That tell me conclusively.

Renunciation and yoga by action both lead to the highest bliss; of the two, yoga by action is verily better than renunciation of action.

Children, not sages, speak of the Sânkhya and the Yoga as different; he who is duly established in one obtaineth the fruits of both.

That place which is gained by the Sânkhyas is reached by the Yogîs also. He seeth, who seeth that the Sânkhya and the Yoga are one.

But without yoga, O mighty-armed, renunciation is hard to attain to; the yoga-harmonised Muni swiftly goeth to the Eternal.

He who is harmonised by yoga, the self purified, Self-ruled, the senses subdued, whose Self is the Self of all beings, although acting he is not affected.

Yogis, having abandoned attachment, perform action only by the body, by the mind, by the Reason, and even by the senses, for the purification of the self.

The harmonised man, having abandoned the fruit of action, attaineth to the eternal Peace; the non-harmonised, impelled by desire, attached to fruit, are bound.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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 self, harmonised by yoga, seeth the Self abiding in all beings, all beings in the Self; everywhere he seeth the same.

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;

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?

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.

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.

With the mind clinging to me, O Pârtha, performing yoga, refuged in Me, how thou shalt without doubt know Me to the uttermost, that hear thou.

With the mind not wandering after aught else, harmonised by continual practice, constantly meditating, O Pârtha, one goeth to the Spirit supreme, divine.

He who thinketh upon the Ancient, the Omniscient, the All-Ruler, minuter than the minute, the supporter of all, of form unimaginable, refulgent as the sun beyond the darkness,

In the time of forthgoing, with unshaken mind, fixed in devotion, by the power of yoga drawing together his life-breath in the centre of the two eyebrows, he goeth to this Spirit, supreme, divine.

All the gates closed, the mind confined in the heart, the life-breath fixed in his own head, concentrated by yoga,

He who constantly thinketh upon Me, not thinking ever of another, of him I am easily reached, O Pârtha, of this ever-harmonised Yogî.

That time wherein going forth Yogîs return not, and also that wherein going forth they return, that time shall I declare to thee, O prince of the Bhâratas.

Knowing these paths, O Pârtha, the Yogi is nowise perplexed. Therefore in all times be firm in yoga, O Arjuna.

Thus shalt thou be liberated from the bonds of action, yielding good and evil fruits; thyself harmonised by the yoga of renunciation, thou shalt come unto Me when set free.

He who knows in essence that sovereignty and yoga of Mine, he is harmonised by unfaltering yoga; there is no doubt thereof.

To these, ever harmonious, worshipping in love, I give the yoga of discrimination by which they come unto Me.

Some by meditation behold the Self in the self by the Self; others by the Sânkhya Yoga, and others by the Yoga of Action;

And he who serveth Me exclusively by the Yoga of devotion, he, crossing beyond the qualities, he is fit to become the Eternal.

The relinquisher pervaded by purity, intelligent and with doubts cut away, hateth not unpleasurable action nor is attached to pleasurable.

The unwavering firmness by which, through Yoga, one restraineth the activity of the mind, of the life breaths and of the sense-organs, that firmness, O Partha, is pure.

Renouncing mentally all works in Me, intent on Me, resorting to the yoga of discrimination, have thy thought ever on Me.