Verses 6.20-25

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of verses 6.20-25:

यत्रोपरमते चित्तं निरुद्धं योग-सेवया ।
यत्र चैवात्मनात्मानं पश्यन्न् आत्मनि तुष्यति ॥ २० ॥
सुखम् आत्यन्तिकं यत् तद् बुद्धि-ग्राह्यम् अतीन्द्रियम् ।
वेत्ति यत्र न चैवायं स्थितश् चलति तत्त्वतः ॥ २१ ॥
यं लब्ध्वा चापरं लाभं मन्यते नाधिकं ततः ।
यस्मिन् स्थितो न दुःखेन गुरुणापि विचाल्यते ॥ २२ ॥
तं विद्याद् दुःख-संयोग-वियोगं योग-संज्ञितम् ।
स निश्चयेन योक्तव्यो योगोऽनिर्विण्ण-चेतसा ॥ २३ ॥
सङ्कल्प-प्रभवान् कामांस् त्यक्त्वा सर्वान् अशेषतः ।
मनसैवेन्द्रिय-ग्रामं विनियम्य समन्ततः ॥ २४ ॥
शनैः शनैर् उपरमेद् बुद्ध्या धृति-गृहीतया ।
आत्म-संस्थं मनः कृत्वा न किञ्चिद् अपि चिन्तयेत् ॥ २५ ॥

yatroparamate cittaṃ niruddhaṃ yoga-sevayā |
yatra caivātmanātmānaṃ paśyann ātmani tuṣyati || 20 ||
sukham ātyantikaṃ yat tad buddhi-grāhyam atīndriyam |
vetti yatra na caivāyaṃ sthitaś calati tattvataḥ || 21 ||
yaṃ labdhvā cāparaṃ lābhaṃ manyate nādhikaṃ tataḥ |
yasmin sthito na duḥkhena guruṇāpi vicālyate || 22 ||
taṃ vidyād duḥkha-saṃyoga-viyogaṃ yoga-saṃjñitam |
sa niścayena yoktavyo yogo'nirviṇṇa-cetasā || 23 ||
saṅkalpa-prabhavān kāmāṃs tyaktvā sarvān aśeṣataḥ |
manasaivendriya-grāmaṃ viniyamya samantataḥ || 24 ||
śanaiḥ śanair uparamed buddhyā dhṛti-gṛhītayā |
ātma-saṃsthaṃ manaḥ kṛtvā na kiñcid api cintayet || 25 ||

yatra–when; uparamate–becomes detached from material enjoyment; cittam–the mind; niruddham–being controlled; yoga-sevayā–through the practice of yoga;yatra–when; ca–and; eva–certainly; ātmanā–through the mind; ātmānam–the soul; paśyan–incessantly beholding; ātmani–in the soul; tuṣyati–one becomes satisfied; sukham–happiness; ātyantikam–limitless (and eternal); yat–which; tat–that; buddhi-grāhyam–perceived through the intelligence; ati-indriyam–transcendental to the senses; vetti–one understands; yatra–in such a stage; na–never; ca–and; eva–certainly; ayam–this (yogī); sthitaḥ–being so situated; calati–falls; tattvataḥ–from his svarūpa; yam–which; labdhvā–having obtained;ca–and; aparam–other; lābham–gain; manyate–he considers; na–no; adhikam–greater; tataḥ–than that; yasmin–in which; sthitaḥ–being situated; na–not; duḥkhena–suffering; guruṇā–by the greatest (terrible);api–even; vicālyate–he is overcome, or deviated; tam–that; vidyāt–one should understand; duḥkha-saṃyoga–from association with suffering; viyogam–which dissociates one; yoga-saṃjñitam–in the name of yoga; saḥ–that; niścayena–with determination (according to the words of sādhu and śāstra); yoktavyaḥ–should be practised; yogaḥ–yoga; anirviṇṇa-cetasā–and by undeviating consciousness; saṅkalpa-prabhavān–born of desire; kāmān–desires; tyaktvā–having abandoned; sarvān–all; aśeṣataḥ–completely; manasā–through the mind; eva–certainly;indriya-grāmam–the group of senses; viniyamya–regulating; samantataḥ–on all sides; śanaiḥ śanaiḥ–very gradually; uparamet–one should detach; buddhyā–through intelligence; dhṛti-gṛhītayā–achieved through conviction; ātma-saṃstham–situated in the ātma;manaḥ–the mind; kṛtvā–having fixed (the mind); na kiñcit–of nothing else; api–at all; cintayet–one should think.

In that state of yoga called samādhi, the yogī’s mind is controlled by the practice of yoga. He becomes detached from the sense objects and is satisfied within as he gradually perceives the self through the medium of the purified mind. In that state, the yogī experiences eternal bliss through his pure intelligence, which is transcendental to the realm of the senses. Being thus established, he never deviates from his intrinsic form, and upon attaining that bliss of the self, he considers there to be no greater acquisition. When situated on that platform, he does not become perturbed even by the greatest of miseries. Know that state to be devoid of any contact with the duality of mundane happiness and misery. This yoga should be performed with full patience of mind, having completely given up all whimsical desires and, with the mind controlling the senses in all directions, one should follow with determination the instructions of the scriptures and saintly personalities. One should make his intelligence resolute and determined and gradually become detached by establishing the mind in the self and by not thinking of anything else.

Commentary: Sārārtha-Varṣiṇī Ṭīkā

(By Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura; the innermost intention of the commentary named ‘the shower of essential meanings’)

The word yoga in the verse nātyaśnatas tu yogo ’sti (Gītā 6.16) and in other verses means samādhi. This samādhi is of two types, namely samprajñāta–in which one is conscious of the difference between knowledge, the object of knowledge and the knower, and asamprajñāta–in which no such difference is perceived. Samprajñāta has various divisions such as logical argument (savitarka) and philosophical research (savicāra). What is spontaneous, or asamprajñāta-samādhi-yoga? To answer this, Śrī Bhagavān is speaking three-and-a-half verses beginning here with the word yatroparamate. When one attains samādhi, the heart, or mind (citta), becomes fully detached from sense objects, having no contact with them because one has achieved self-restraint (niruddha). This is confirmed in Patañjali’s Yoga-sūtra: “yogaś citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ–when the tendency of the mind and heart (citta-vṛtti) is fully restrained from sense enjoyment and absorbed in the blissful realization of the self and Paramātmā, it is called yoga.”

The qualified yogī realizes Paramātmā by his purified mind, and he remains satisfied with that alone. This is his blissful state, samādhi, which is attained by an intellect that has become qualified to experience the self and Paramātmā. That is because that state is beyond the senses and beyond the happiness attained by the senses’ contact with the sense objects. Wherever this yogī lives, he does not deviate from the nature of his soul. Therefore, after attaining this blissful state, he considers the pursuit of anything else to be insignificant. Even if he has contact with misery, he does not experience it. This is yoga, and only this yoga can be called samādhi. A yogī should not lament, “After so long I still have not attained perfection, so for what purpose did I undergo all this pain?” Rather, within his mind, he should maintain firm patience. “Whether perfection comes in this life or in the next, I will continue to endeavour. Why should I become impatient?”

In this regard, Śrī Gauḍapāda, Śaṅkarācārya’s parama-gurudeva, has given the example of vowing to dry up the ocean by taking out a drop at a time with the tip of a piece of kuśa grass. Similarly, by untiring, determined endeavour, a person can control the mind.

There is a story to exemplify this. Once a bird laid her eggs on the shore of an ocean, but the waves carried the eggs away. The bird resolved to dry up the ocean, and with her beak she began to remove water, drop by drop. Other birds came to convince her that her endeavour was futile, but she was not deterred. By chance, Śrī Nārada came to that place and he also tried to convince the bird to stop, but the bird took a vow in his presence: “I will not rest until I dry up the ocean, whether it is in this life or in the next.” Merciful Nārada then sent Garuḍa to help her. When Garuḍa heard that the ocean had carried away the eggs of someone in his own caste, he began to dry up the ocean by fanning it with his wings. The terrified ocean immediately returned the eggs to the bird.

Similarly, it is certain that when a person begins the process of yoga, jñāna or bhakti with faith in such scriptural statements, Śrī Bhagavān will definitely bless his enthusiastic endeavour.

In the two verses beginning with the word saṅkalpa, Śrī Bhagavān is explaining the initial and ultimate activities of a person engaged in such yoga. Abandoning all material desires (Gītā 6.24) is the initial act, and not worrying about anything at all, as spoken in the Gītā (6.25), is the final act.

Commentary: Sārārtha-Varṣiṇī Prakāśikā-vṛtti

(By Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja; the explanation that illuminates the commentary named Sārārtha-varṣiṇī)

Words cannot describe the happiness that manifests in the yogī’s pure heart when he attains perfection in yoga, and his heart becomes cleansed by samādhi. This can only be realized when one’s mind is purified.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says, “In this way, by the practice of yoga, the mind gradually becomes detached from sense enjoyment and free from being controlled by mundane objects. At that time, the stage of samādhi manifests. In that state, the mind becomes qualified to realize and experience Paramātmā, thus it realizes the happiness born from that union. Patañjali Muni’s philosophical literature is the only bona fide literature on aṣṭāṅga-yoga. Because commentators do not understand its factual meaning, they say that, according to those who propound Vedāntablissful conscious state of the self is actual liberation. This is illogical because if one experiences bliss in the kaivalya stage of impersonal monism, then there is duality: the experience itself and the person experiencing it. Therefore kaivalya (oneness) is not possible at all. But these commentators do not understand that Patañjali Muni never stated this.

In his concluding verse he has said:

puruṣārtha-śūnyānāṃ guṇānāṃ pratiprasavaḥ
kaivalyaṃ svarūpa-pratiṣṭhā vā citi-śaktir iti

Yoga-sūtra (3.34)

The function of the real self (cit-dharma) awakens when one is free from the four goals of human life–religiosity (dharma), economic development (artha), sense gratification (kāma) and liberation (mokṣa)–and when the modes of material nature do not cause any worldly disturbance. This state is called kaivalya (oneness). In this state one becomes situated in one’s own svarūpa. It is then called citi-śakti.

“If we deeply deliberate on this, it becomes clear that Patañjali Muni does not accept that the functions of the self are annihilated in its ultimate state;rather, he accepts that at that stage no transformation or perversion of its actual function takes place. Citi-śakti means ‘spiritual nature’. When there are no perverse transformations in the proper functioning of the self, then the true nature of the self awakens. When that state of the self is in contact with the material energy, it is called ātma-guṇa-vikāra, the transformation of the constitutional function of one’s self due to contact with material nature. If these perverse transformations are removed, then bliss, which is an intrinsic characteristic of the ātmā, will awaken. This is the opinion of Patañjali.

“Ānanda awakens when one is free from any perversion caused by the material modes of nature, and it is blissful in nature. It is the supreme goal of yoga. Later, it will be explained that this and nothing else is called bhakti.

“Samādhi is of two types: samprajñāta (where one is conscious of the difference between knowledge, the object of knowledge and the knower) and asamprajñāta (where this knowledge is absent). Samprajñāta-samādhi has many divisions such as savitarka (argument) and savicarana (philosophical research). But asamprajñāta-samādhi is of one type only. In the state of asamprajñata-samādhi, one attains eternal bliss, which is devoid of any contact of the senses with their sense objects through the intelligence, which has become qualified to experience the bliss of the true self. The mind of the yogī does not deviate from this state of realizing eternal bliss within the self. Without attaining this state, the jīva can never achieve eternal auspiciousness merely by the practice of aṣṭāṅga-yoga. This is because if the yogī is deprived of this blissful state, then the secondary results of this practice in the form of mystic powers and so on attract his mind, and he will deviate from his topmost objective: the blissful state of samādhi. Due to such obstacles, one fears many inauspicious occurrences in the practice of this aṣṭāṅga-yoga, such as degradation and deviation. In bhakti-yoga, however, there is no such danger. This will be explained later on.

“The yogī does not consider any other bliss to be superior to the bliss achieved in samādhi. In other words, while maintaining his life, he experiences temporary happiness through the senses’ contact with their sense objects, but he considers this to be completely insignificant. Even at the time of death, while tolerating the extreme pain of an accident or bodily miseries, he enjoys the bliss of samādhi, which is the only object of his search. Being unmoved by all these pains, he still does not give up his supremely blissful state. He understands that these miseries will not stay for long; they will disappear soon enough. If there is a delay or any obstacle in achieving the result of yoga, he does not become frustrated and give up his practice. With great endeavour, he continues his yoga practice until he attains the result.

“The first duty of one on the path of yoga is to follow yama, niyama, āsana, prāṇāyāma and so on and to completely abandon desires that are born from an attraction to attaining mystic siddhis. In addition, with the help of the purified mind, the yogī should control his senses. He should gradually learn renunciation with intelligence acquired from following the limb of yoga called dhāraṇā (concentration of the mind). This renunciation is called pratyāhāra (withdrawal of the senses from the sense objects). He should achieve ātma-samādhi (fixed concentration on the self) by completely controlling his mind through the processes of dhyāna, dhāraṇā and pratyāhāra. In the final state, his mind should be devoid of any mundane thoughts, and while wondering how to maintain his body, he should not become attached to it. This is the ultimate duty of the yogī.”