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. Hover 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.
You finish the presentation, then keep refreshing the email thread for praise. Or you stop chasing the praise and feel your shoulders drop. This verse names that release.
Did you like this verse?
It shifts attention from achievement and stimulation to non-clinging presence.
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
On Kurukshetra, Arjuna is frozen, and Krishna is teaching 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.
Why this verse still matters
You finish the presentation, then keep refreshing the email thread for praise. Or you stop chasing the praise and feel your shoulders drop. This verse names that release.
“There is relief in not being owned by wanting or doing.”
Explore related themes: vairagya (51 verses), dhyana (31 verses), indriya (19 verses)