---
title: "Verse 06.06-10 | Bhagavad-Gita: 06 - The Yoga of Contemplation - v1.4"
heading: "Bhagavad-Gita: Chapter 06"
subheading: "= 06.06-10 ="
updated: "2025-09-29T00:00:00+00:00"
words: 
url: https://ananda.icu/trans/bg/06/06-10
description: "The sixth chapter of Bhagavad-Gita explores dhyana-yoga, the path of union through contemplative practice. It discusses the state and effects of yoga, literally union, and the practices and path of the yogi, the contemplator on a quest for that union."
...


🔎︎

bandhur ātmātmanas tasya
   yenātmaivātmanā jitaḥ |
anātmanas tu śatrutve
   vartetātmaiva śatruvat ||6||[↪](/trans/bg/06/6)
The self is the friend of the self for one
who has conquered the self with the self;
But enmity is there in the one not-as-self —
for him the self remains an enemy indeed.
Notes: When the mind has been tamed, with the self cleansed from its enmeshment in finite conditions, this refined self is the friend of the yogi — a luminous and resourceful collaborator in the great work of unification. For the one dwelling not-as-self, there is enmity both internal and interactive. Internal, with endless conflicting and self-defeating desires, and external, where other sentient beings are inherently at odds with the agendas of the fractured self. For one who has mastered the self, however, there is an ancient and ever-present friend within every vessel of embodied consciousness.

jitātmanaḥ praśāntasya
   paramātmā samāhitaḥ |
śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkheṣu
   tathā mānāpamānayoḥ ||7||[↪](/trans/bg/06/7)
For the conqueror of self in highest peace,
the supreme self has been consummated;
In cold and heat, in happiness and distress,
and thus also in honor and disgrace.
Notes: Here _paramātmā_ or the "supreme self" refers to the unconditioned consciousness present in all sentient beings, the underlying witness of all cognitive processes, or the collective and omnipresent manifestation of super-awareness. When the finite self has been conquered and the causal shell enveloping our consciousness has been shattered, the individual yogi abides peacefully as the localized manifestation of this universal consciousness. Such perennial tranquility, resulting from ascension into self-union, with the transcendence of finity and consummation of the supreme self, is unphased by the inevitable oscillations of duality in the physical, emotional, and self-conceiving spheres of our living experience.

jñāna-vijñāna-tṛptātmā
   kūṭastho vijitendriyaḥ |
yukta ity ucyate yogī
   sama-loṣṭāśma-kāñcanaḥ ||8||[↪](/trans/bg/06/8)
Self-satisfied in knowledge and realization,
established at the summit, senses conquered;
This connected one is called a yogi,
Equipoised to clay, rocks, and gold.
Notes: Clay is soft and malleable; rocks are hard and unyielding; and gold is versatile, adaptable, precious, and sought after. Abiding at the summit of self-realization, free of the polarizations born of desire and aversion, every material substance is relegated to a plane of utilitarian neutrality. All things ever are just as they are, each with their respective natural and practical functions. Some of them may be supportive and may be engaged when they fall within our natural allotment, yet none of it is required for ascending into the realization of self-integration and unity. Thus the yogi remains equipoised, independent, sovereign, and impervious to the affects of the world of substances.

suhṛn-mitrāry-udāsīna-
   madhyastha-dveṣya-bandhuṣu |
sādhuṣv api ca pāpeṣu 
   sama-buddhir viśiṣyate ||9||[↪](/trans/bg/06/9)
Well-wishers, allies, enemies, the neutral,
mediators, the disliked, and friends;
The saints and the sinners even,
equally conceived - this is more eminent.
Notes: The previous verse reviews equal vision and valence in relation to inanimate substances. In here, the same stance is related to interactive living beings, established in positive, negative, and neutral relations in the social sphere. An outstanding yogi remains impartial when faced with each of these classes of beings, regardless of how they present themselves, without self-rooted discrimination in perception and interaction. The equanimous yogi relates to all sentient beings from a self-dereferenced baseline of awareness, not leveraging them for personal achievement and gratification, but rather acts in service of their authentic needs and the ultimate well-being of the conscious collective.

yogī yuñjīta satatam
   ātmānaṁ rahasi sthitaḥ |
ekākī yata-cittātmā
   nirāśīr aparigrahaḥ ||10||[↪](/trans/bg/06/10)
A yogi should be uniting perpetually,
established in solitude with the self;
Singular, governing the self's reflections,
free of longings, not striving to acquire.
Notes: The words _yogī_ and _yuñjīta_ are related; the task of the _yogī_, a cultivator of union, is _yuñjīta_, the connecting and unification of all things. Establishing the self in solitude, seclusion, privacy, even secrecy and concealment, is primarily and predominantly an internal establishment. While external solitude may at times be conducive and desirable, it is devoid of merit when the outflows of the mind remain unchecked. The "reflections" of consciousness (_citta_) refer to the interplay of awareness emanating into the environment. The resulting potentials must be wisely regulated by the dispassionate self — not misused as a playground for the endless conjurations that arise with untamed desire holding the reins of consciousness.

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