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The Lord said:
1. It is the man who undertakes prescribed ritual action, without depending on the results of that action, who is a renouncer and a yogin, not he who has not installed the ritual fire and undertakes no ritual action.
2. Know, Pandava, that what they call renunciation is in fact yogic discipline; no one at all becomes a yogin unless he has renounced the intention to obtain a particular result.
3. For the sage who aspires to yogic discipline action is said to be the means; for that man who has already attained yogic discipline quiescence is said to be the means.
4. For when a man has renounced all intention to obtain a particular result, and clings neither to actions nor to the objects of the senses, he is said to have attained yogic discipline.
5. A man should raise up the self by the self, he should not drag the self down; for the self is the self’s only ally, and the self is the self’s only enemy.
6. For the man whose self has been conquered by the self, the self is the ally of the self; but for the man whose self has not been conquered, the self stands antagonistically, like an opponent.
7. For the man who has conquered his self and become calm, the supreme self is as firmly concentrated in heat, in cold, in pleasure and pain, as in honour and disgrace.
8. He whose self is satisfied with knowledge and insight, aloof, his senses subdued, to whom a clod of earth, a stone, and a bar of gold are the same, is called disciplined, a yogin.
9. The man who has the same mental attitude towards friends, allies, enemies, neutrals, arbiters, the hateful, and kinsmen – wards the good and the evil alike – is set apart.
10. A yogin should always discipline himself, remaining solitary, his self and thought restrained, desireless and possessionless.
11. Having established a fixed position for himself in an undefiled place, neither too high nor too low, and covered with a cloth, a skin, or grass,
12. Sitting there, having made the mind one-pointed, he whose sense activities and thoughts are controlled, should practise yoga to purify the self.
13. Firm, motionless, holding body, head, and neck in a straight line, focusing on the tip of his own nose, not looking around him,
14. Tranquil, free from fear, locked in a vow of chastity, controlling his mind, his thought on me, disciplined, he should sit intent on me.
15. So continually disciplining himself, the yogin whose mind is controlled attains to the tranquility whose furthest point is nirvana, and rests in me.
16. Yoga is not for the over-eater, Arjuna, nor for him who does not eat at all; it is not for him in the habit of oversleeping, nor for him who keeps himself awake.
17. But for him whose food and recreation are properly disciplined, whose exertions are channelled in activities, who is disciplined in his sleeping and waking, there is the yoga which destroys suffering.
18. When his controlled thought concentrates on the self alone, free from longing for any desirable objects, then he is called yogically disciplined.
19. “Like an unflickering lamp stationed in a draught-proof place” – that is the familiar simile for the yogin whose thought is controlled, practising the discipline of the self.
20. When thought ceases, checked by the practice of yoga, and a man, seeing the self in the self, is satisfied with himself,
21. When he knows that infinite bliss which is to be had by the intelligence beyond the senses, established in which he does not wave in the least from the way things really are,
22. And having gained which, he believes there is nothing superior to it, then grounded in it, he is not touched even by the deepest suffering.
23. He should know it is that disjunction from union with suffering which is called “yoga”; that yoga is to be practised with determination and an undaunted mind.
24. Comprehensively renouncing desires, which are born out of the intention to produce a particular result, totally restraining the collection of the senses by the mind alone,
25. He should come to rest gently and gradually, with the intelligence held fast; and having fixed the mind in the self, he should not think of anything at all.
26. Wheresoever the wandering and unsteady mind strays, restraining it, he shall bring it back from that place to control in the self alone.
27. For supreme bliss comes to the yogin whose mind has grown calm, whose passion is stilled, who has become Brahman, without taint.
28. So continually disciplining himself, the stainless yogin easily attains to endless bliss, which is the touch of Brahman.
29. The man whose self is disciplined in yoga, whose perception is the same everywhere, sees himself in all creatures and all creatures in himself.
30. For the man who sees me in everything and everything in me, I am not lost for him and he is not lost for me.
31. That yogin grounded in oneness, who honours me as being in all creatures, whatever his mode of life otherwise, exists in me.
32. That yogin is considered supreme, Arjuna, who by analogy with his own self sees the same thing everywhere, whether pleasurable or painful.
Arjuna said:
33. Since everything is unstable, I cannot sett the permanent foundation of this yoga that you have called “sameness”, Slayer of Madhu.
34. For the mind is unsteady, Krishna, tormenting, powerful, unyielding; it is as difficult to restrain as the wind, I suppose.
The Lord said:
35. Without doubt, Great Arm, the mind is hard to control and unsteady, but by repeated practice, Son of Kunti, and by cultivating indifference to passion, it can be held in check.
36. I agree that it is difficult to achieve yogic discipline if you lack self-restraint, but for the man who strives and is self-controlled there are means by which it can be achieved.
Arjuna said:
37. Krishna, what path does a man take who is not an ascetic, who possesses faith, yet whose mind has wandered away from discipline without attaining perfection in yoga?
38. Perhaps, fallen from both, he is destroyed, like a detached cloud, great-armed Krishna – a man without foundation, uncertain on the path of Brahman.
39. You must completely dispel my doubt, Krishna, for surely only you can dispel this doubt.
The Lord said:
40. Partha, neither in this world nor another is he destroyed; for no one who does good treads an evil path, my friend.
41. Having attained the worlds that are made by merit, and having dwelt there for countless years , the man who has fallen from yogic discipline is born into a fortunate and pure family.
42. Or rather he is born into a family of learned yogins, although it is very hard to attain such a birth in this world.
43. There he resumes that connection with the intelligence which was his in his former body, and then he strives even more for perfection, Son of Kuru.
44. For even when he is not consciously in control, he is sustained precisely by his previous practice. Even the person who just has a desire to know yoga goes beyond the word-Brahman.
45. But striving with great effort, the yogin whose defilement has been purified is perfected through many lives, and then he attains the highest goal.
46. The yogin is superior to mortifiers of the flesh; he is considered superior even to men of knowledge; the yogin is superior to those engaged in action. Therefore, be a yogin, Arjuna!
47. Moreover, of all yogins it is the one possessing faith, who shares in me, with his inner self given over to me, whom I consider to be the most disciplined.