Speaker: Śrī Kṛṣṇa
यदा हि नेन्द्रियार्थेषु न कर्मस्वनुषज्जते ।
सर्वसङ्कल्पसंन्यासी योगारूढस्तदोच्यते ॥४॥
yadā hi nendriyārtheṣu
na karmasv anuṣajjate
sarva-saṅkalpa-sannyāsī
yogārūḍhas tadocyate
Word for word (synonyms)
- yadā
- when
- hi
- certainly
- na
- not
- indriya-artheṣu
- in sense gratification
- na
- never
- karmasu
- in fruitive activities
- anuṣajjate
- does necessarily engage
- sarva-saṅkalpa
- all material desires
- sannyāsī
- renouncer
- yoga-ārūḍhaḥ
- elevated in *yoga*
- tadā
- at that time
- ucyate
- is said to be
Translation
A person is said to have attained to yoga when, having renounced all material desires, he neither acts for sense gratification nor engages in fruitive activities.
Defined in the Gītā
Yoga
What is yoga?
Be steadfast in yoga, O Arjuna. Perform your duty and abandon all attachment to success or failure. Such evenness of mind is called yoga.
Renunciation
What is real renunciation?
The Supreme Lord said, To give up the results of all activities is called renunciation [tyāga] by the wise. And that state is called the renounced order of life [sannyāsa] by great learned men.
Purport
When a person is fully engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, he is pleased in himself, and thus he is no longer engaged in sense gratification or in fruitive activities. Otherwise, one must be engaged in sense gratification, since one cannot live without engagement. Without Kṛṣṇa consciousness, one must be always seeking self-centered or extended selfish activities. But a Kṛṣṇa conscious person can do everything for the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa and thereby be perfectly detached from sense gratification. One who has no such realization must mechanically try to escape material desires before being elevated to the top rung of the yoga ladder.
What this verse teaches
Two levels of Aṣṭāṅga-yoga – beginning stage (ārurukṣa) and advanced stage (ārūḍha)
Śrīla Prabhupāda lectures 3
- Bhagavad-gītā 6.1–4 1966-09-02 · New York
- Bhagavad-gītā 6.4–12 1966-09-05 · New York
- Bhagavad-gītā 6.2–5 [Sāṅkhya Yoga System] 1969-02-14 · Los Angeles
Bhagavad-gītā As It Is by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda © The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International.