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Chapter 6 of 18

ध्यानयोग Dhyāna Yoga The Windless Place

Chapter 6: The Windless Place

47 verses

The mind is trained the way anything is trained, by returning to the practice on the days it does not work.

Chapter 6 is the Gita's technical chapter, and it is oddly comforting. After nine verses on the disposition it wants, it turns to furniture: a seat neither too high nor too low, in a clean place, spread with cloth and deerskin and grass. Then posture. Then the least quoted useful verse in the book — not for one who eats too much, and not for one who does not eat at all.

Its own definition of yoga, when it finally arrives, is a negative one: the parting from union with pain. And its central instruction assumes failure. Wherever the mind wanders off, draw it back from there and settle it again — not prevent it wandering, which is what makes the method usable indefinitely.

Then Arjuna makes the best objection in the book. The mind is restless, turbulent, strong and stubborn, and holding it is like holding the wind. Krishna agrees, and answers in two words: practice, and dispassion.

And then Arjuna asks the question nobody asks — what happens to someone who tries and does not get there? Eight verses go to answering it, and the answer includes the most consoling line in the Gita, delivered in the register of a parent speaking to a child.

6.1Not the one who lights no fireKrishna speaks1 of 47

अनाश्रितः कर्मफलं कार्यं कर्म करोति यः
स संन्यासी च योगी च न निरग्निर्न चाक्रियः

anāśhritaḥ karma-phalaṁ kāryaṁ karma karoti yaḥ
sa sannyāsī cha yogī cha na niragnir na chākriyaḥ

One who does the work that must be done without depending on its fruit — that one is both a renouncer and a practitioner of yoga; not the one who lights no fire and does nothing.

The chapter opens by taking a title away from someone.

The renouncer is the one who does the necessary work without depending on its fruit — not the one who lights no fire and does nothing.

Chapter 5 argued this; here it is stated as a definition, and with an edge. Withdrawal is being explicitly denied the name it usually claims.

Word by wordśhrī-bhagavān uvācha — the Supreme Lord said · anāśhritaḥ — not desiring · karma-phalam — results of actions · kāryam — obligatory · karma — work · karoti — perform · yaḥ — one who · saḥ — that person · sanyāsī — in the renounced order · cha — and · yogī — yogi · cha — and · na — not · niḥ — without · agniḥ — fire · na — not · cha — also · akriyaḥ — without activity

Chapter 6 · The Windless Place · ← → to move, d for depth

All 47 verses

  1. 6.1 अनाश्रितः कर्मफलं कार्यं कर्म करोति यः Not the one who lights no fire
  2. 6.2 यं संन्यासमिति प्राहुर्योगं तं विद्धि पाण्डव Renunciation is yoga
  3. 6.3 आरुरुक्षोर्मुनेर्योगं कर्म कारणमुच्यते Action, then stillness
  4. 6.4 यदा हि नेन्द्रियार्थेषु न कर्मस्वनुषज्जते Established in it
  5. 6.5 उद्धरेदात्मनाऽऽत्मानं नात्मानमवसादयेत् Lift yourself by yourself
  6. 6.6 बन्धुरात्माऽऽत्मनस्तस्य येनात्मैवात्मना जितः Friend or enemy, the same self
  7. 6.7 जितात्मनः प्रशान्तस्य परमात्मा समाहितः Steady in heat and cold
  8. 6.8 ज्ञानविज्ञानतृप्तात्मा कूटस्थो विजितेन्द्रियः Content in what is realised
  9. 6.9 सुहृन्मित्रार्युदासीनमध्यस्थद्वेष्यबन्धुषु Friend, enemy, stranger alike
  10. 6.10 योगी युञ्जीत सततमात्मानं रहसि स्थितः Sit alone, owning nothing
  11. 6.11 शुचौ देशे प्रतिष्ठाप्य स्थिरमासनमात्मनः Cloth, deerskin, kusha grass
  12. 6.12 तत्रैकाग्रं मनः कृत्वा यतचित्तेन्द्रियक्रियः Making the mind one-pointed
  13. 6.13 समं कायशिरोग्रीवं धारयन्नचलं स्थिरः Body, head and neck straight
  14. 6.14 प्रशान्तात्मा विगतभीर्ब्रह्मचारिव्रते स्थितः Serene, and fearless
  15. 6.15 युञ्जन्नेवं सदाऽऽत्मानं योगी नियतमानसः The peace that is release
  16. 6.16 नात्यश्नतस्तु योगोऽस्ति न चैकान्तमनश्नतः Not too much, not none
  17. 6.17 युक्ताहारविहारस्य युक्तचेष्टस्य कर्मसु The slayer of sorrow
  18. 6.18 यदा विनियतं चित्तमात्मन्येवावतिष्ठते Resting in the self alone
  19. 6.19 यथा दीपो निवातस्थो नेङ्गते सोपमा स्मृता A lamp in a windless place
  20. 6.20 यत्रोपरमते चित्तं निरुद्धं योगसेवया Seeing the self by the self
  21. 6.21 सुखमात्यन्तिकं यत्तद्बुद्धिग्राह्यमतीन्द्रियम् Beyond the senses
  22. 6.22 यं लब्ध्वा चापरं लाभं मन्यते नाधिकं ततः No other gain greater
  23. 6.23 तं विद्याद् दुःखसंयोगवियोगं योगसंज्ञितम् The parting from pain
  24. 6.24 सङ्कल्पप्रभवान्कामांस्त्यक्त्वा सर्वानशेषतः Restraining on every side
  25. 6.25 शनैः शनैरुपरमेद् बुद्ध्या धृतिगृहीतया Little by little
  26. 6.26 यतो यतो निश्चरति मनश्चञ्चलमस्थिरम् Draw it back and settle it
  27. 6.27 प्रशान्तमनसं ह्येनं योगिनं सुखमुत्तमम् Restlessness stilled
  28. 6.28 युञ्जन्नेवं सदाऽऽत्मानं योगी विगतकल्मषः Touching Brahman
  29. 6.29 सर्वभूतस्थमात्मानं सर्वभूतानि चात्मनि The self in all beings
  30. 6.30 यो मां पश्यति सर्वत्र सर्वं च मयि पश्यति Never lost to me
  31. 6.31 सर्वभूतस्थितं यो मां भजत्येकत्वमास्थितः However such a person lives
  32. 6.32 आत्मौपम्येन सर्वत्र समं पश्यति योऽर्जुन Seeing others as yourself

Arjuna said

  1. 6.33 योऽयं योगस्त्वया प्रोक्तः साम्येन मधुसूदन Arjuna does not see how
  2. 6.34 चञ्चलं हि मनः कृष्ण प्रमाथि बलवद्दृढम् As hard as holding the wind

The Blessed One said

  1. 6.35 असंशयं महाबाहो मनो दुर्निग्रहं चलं Practice and dispassion
  2. 6.36 असंयतात्मना योगो दुष्प्राप इति मे मतिः Hard, and not impossible

Arjuna said

  1. 6.37 अयतिः श्रद्धयोपेतो योगाच्चलितमानसः What about the one who fails?
  2. 6.38 कच्चिन्नोभयविभ्रष्टश्छिन्नाभ्रमिव नश्यति Like a scattered cloud
  3. 6.39 एतन्मे संशयं कृष्ण छेत्तुमर्हस्यशेषतः No one else can cut it

The Blessed One said

  1. 6.40 पार्थ नैवेह नामुत्र विनाशस्तस्य विद्यते No good is ever lost
  2. 6.41 प्राप्य पुण्यकृतां लोकानुषित्वा शाश्वतीः समाः Born again well placed
  3. 6.42 अथवा योगिनामेव कुले भवति धीमताम् Or into a family of practice
  4. 6.43 तत्र तं बुद्धिसंयोगं लभते पौर्वदेहिकम् The understanding returns
  5. 6.44 पूर्वाभ्यासेन तेनैव ह्रियते ह्यवशोऽपि सः Carried on without willing it
  6. 6.45 प्रयत्नाद्यतमानस्तु योगी संशुद्धकिल्बिषः Perfected across many births
  7. 6.46 तपस्विभ्योऽधिको योगी ज्ञानिभ्योऽपि मतोऽधिकः Greater than the ascetic
  8. 6.47 योगिनामपि सर्वेषां मद्गतेनान्तरात्मना And of all of those

Where this sits

Chapter 6 against the whole of it: who is speaking, verse by verse, and how much of the book this chapter is.

Who speaks across the whole Gita, with chapter 6 marked. The Windless Place runs from verse 234 to 280 of 701. Chapter 1: Arjuna's Despair — 47 verses Chapter 2: The Eternal — 72 verses Chapter 3: Action — 43 verses Chapter 4: The Lineage of Knowing — 42 verses Chapter 5: The Unwetted Leaf — 29 verses Chapter 6: The Windless Place — 47 verses Chapter 7: The Thread — 30 verses Chapter 8: The Two Paths — 28 verses Chapter 9: The Simple Offering — 34 verses Chapter 10: The Glories — 42 verses Chapter 11: The Cosmic Form — 55 verses Chapter 12: Devotion — 20 verses Chapter 13: The Field and Its Knower — 35 verses Chapter 14: The Three Strands — 27 verses Chapter 15: The Inverted Tree — 20 verses Chapter 16: Two Natures — 24 verses Chapter 17: Three Kinds of Faith — 28 verses Chapter 18: Release — 78 verses

The argument so far

  1. Chapter 1 Arjuna's nerve fails on the field, and the question that opens the book is not a spiritual one but a practical one he cannot answer.
  2. Chapter 2 The first answer is that Arjuna is not the body he is afraid of losing, and that grief for what cannot die is grief misplaced.
  3. Chapter 3 Withdrawing from action is not available to anyone alive; what is available is acting without gripping the result.
  4. Chapter 4 Action, knowledge and Krishna himself all have a deeper structure than they appear to, and knowing it is what makes action free.
  5. Chapter 5 What has to be renounced is attachment rather than activity — the leaf in water, unwetted.