---
title: "Verse 06.16-18 | Bhagavad-Gita: 06 - The Yoga of Contemplation - v1.4"
heading: "Bhagavad-Gita: Chapter 06"
subheading: "= 06.16-18 ="
updated: "2025-09-29T00:00:00+00:00"
words: 
url: https://ananda.icu/trans/bg/06/16-18
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."
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🔎︎

nātyaśnatas tu yogo’sti
   na caikāntam anaśnataḥ |
na cātisvapna-śīlasya
   jāgrato naiva cārjuna ||16||[↪](/trans/bg/06/16)
No union is there for the over-eater,
nor for one fixated with starvation;
Nor for one habituated to excess sleep,
nor indeed for one who's always awake, Arjuna.
Notes: Union follows balance. Balance is established by cultivating accurate perception and realistic understanding of the golden median of our actual needs — which may vary from time to time. This insight reveals the extremes of excess and deficit, born of desire and aversion, the underminers of balance in our lives. Over-eating leads to sluggishness and complacency — and indulgence itself fuels further desire. Starvation leads to apathy and weakness. Then, excessive sleep results in dullness and lethargy. Sleep deprivation results in fragility and cognitive impairment. In essence, lack of balance brings about negative physical, emotional, and cognitive impacts. The path of the aspiring yogi is fraught with obstacles — and imbalance stemming from lack of self-discipline augments the heap of challenges. Primed with balance, we persevere and prevail in our quest for union.

yuktāhāra-vihārasya
   yukta-ceṣṭasya karmasu |
yukta-svapnāvabodhasya
   yogo bhavati duḥkhahā ||17||[↪](/trans/bg/06/17)
With regulated eating and recreation,
regulated in efforts and obligations,
regulated in sleep and wakefulness,
union is manifest and misery is slain.
Notes: The word _yukta_, here "regulated", also "yoked", "connected", "tethered", shares the root with the word _yoga_. Proper self-regulation follows a standard of balance conducive for the practice of yoga or unification — discipline that supports our connection, tethers us to the path of union. Regulated eating is the intake of sufficient nutrition in adequate variety to sustain and nourish the body and the mind. Regulated recreation refreshes the body and the mind without overstimulation or derailment of priorities. Regulated efforts and obligations are proportionate to one's capacity and resources. Regulated sleep is the amount necessary for physical and mental rejuvenation. Misery is eliminated with the cultivation of balanced self-regulation in all aspects of our lives — and this living balance is a precondition and a foundation for the ultimate attainment of union.

yadā viniyataṁ cittam
   ātmany evāvatiṣṭhate |
niḥspṛhaḥ sarva-kāmebhyo
   yukta ity ucyate tadā ||18||[↪](/trans/bg/06/18)
Thus with a well-regulated mind,
abiding verily in the self,
not craving after each desire,
this is being connected, it's said.
Notes: The term _citta_ refers to the "generative mind", a mirror-like aspect of awareness that reflects the environment and its potentials, pouring into and interacting with the phenomenal world. Yoga is defined as: _yogaś citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ_ — "Union is the elimination of the patterns of _citta_." (Yoga-sutra 1.2) It is not that mind and awareness must be categorically eliminated. Rather, our concern is over the uncontrolled fluctuation of this reflective awareness and the resulting entanglement of the subject with the world of objects. Then, _tadā draṣṭuḥ svarūpē'vasthānam_ — "There the witness abides in its intrinsic nature." The yogi's predicament is with a consciousness that entangles and identifies with mental dynamics. The faculties of life are not rejected — rather, they are "yoked" into the process and liberated into union with their respective natures, released from the bondage of the ego that assumes ownership of its slice of the universe.

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