A declaration · calming in mood · a little context helps
“Yoga begins when neither pleasure nor action can hook you.”
When one no longer clings to sense pleasures or to actions, that person is called established in yoga, having renounced all intentions.
The verse in reading order — each Sanskrit word with its meaning beneath. Tap a word to focus on it.
Read literallywhen) हि (indeed) न (not) इन्द्रियार्थेषु (in sense objects) न (not) कर्मसु (in actions) अनुषज्जते (clings · renouncer of all intentions · established in yoga) तदा (then) उच्यते (is called
A person is truly steady in yoga when neither pleasures nor actions hook the mind, and all intentions have been let go.
Krishna speaks this verse, on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, in the chapter titled "Dhyana Yoga" (The Yoga of Meditation).
Verse 4 sits in Chapter 6 of the Bhagavad Gita — Dhyana Yoga, "The Yoga of Meditation". The chapter has 47 verses in total.
A newly retired engineer still drafts plans for projects nobody asked for and feels lost without a deadline. Krishna's yogi is free of that grip: neither pleasures nor tasks hook the mind, and intentions have been let go.
Did you like this verse?
Yogarudha, Krishna's word for established in yoga, describes one hooked neither by sense objects nor by actions.
What this verse means
A person is truly steady in yoga when neither pleasures nor actions hook the mind, and all intentions have been let go.
Context & commentary
Krishna teaches him how to become inwardly steady. After saying that practice leads toward stillness, Krishna now names the state: a person who no longer clings to pleasures or actions is established in yoga.
What it looks like today
A newly retired engineer still drafts plans for projects nobody asked for and feels lost without a deadline. Krishna's yogi is free of that grip: neither pleasures nor tasks hook the mind, and intentions have been let go.
“Steadiness comes when neither pleasures nor tasks grip the mind.”
Explore related themes: vairagya (51 verses), dhyana (31 verses), indriya (19 verses)