---
title: "Verse 06.5 | Bhagavad-Gita: 06 - The Yoga of Contemplation - v1.4"
heading: "Bhagavad-Gita: Chapter 06"
subheading: "= 06.5 ="
updated: "2025-02-02T00:00:00+00:00"
words: 
url: https://ananda.icu/trans/bg/06/5
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."
...


🔎︎

uddhared ātmanātmānaṁ
   nātmānam avasādayet |
ātmaiva hy ātmano bandhur
   ātmaiva ripur ātmanaḥ ||5||[↪](/trans/bg/06/5)
Uplift the self with the self,
instead of degrading the self;
Self indeed is the friend of the self,
self indeed is the enemy of the self.
Notes: The word _ātmā_ or "self" has multiple imports. In here, the "self that uplifts" is the emergent higher self reached through purification and progressive union, the self-presence that is rooted in actuality, unconditioned by the hallucinations born of a fractured and finite sense of self. The common self is the conflicted being that navigates the dualities of existence, struggling to reconcile the push and pull of its internal polarization in relation to the environment. The "self that degrades" is the self given to the pursuit of self-centered desire — the nemesis of the authentic self. Another import of the term "self", discussed later in the text, is the "absolute self" in the sphere of undifferentiated consciousness.

- [▲](/trans/bg/06)
- [◀](/trans/bg/06/4#hu)
- [▶](/trans/bg/06/6#hu)

- [1](/trans/bg/06/1#hu)
- [2](/trans/bg/06/2#hu)
- [3](/trans/bg/06/3#hu)
- [4](/trans/bg/06/4#hu)
- [5](/trans/bg/06/5#hu)
- [6](/trans/bg/06/6#hu)
- [7](/trans/bg/06/7#hu)
- [8](/trans/bg/06/8#hu)
- [9](/trans/bg/06/9#hu)
- [10](/trans/bg/06/10#hu)
- [11](/trans/bg/06/11#hu)
- [12](/trans/bg/06/12#hu)
- [13](/trans/bg/06/13#hu)
- [14](/trans/bg/06/14#hu)
- [15](/trans/bg/06/15#hu)
- [16](/trans/bg/06/16#hu)
- [17](/trans/bg/06/17#hu)
- [18](/trans/bg/06/18#hu)
- [19](/trans/bg/06/19#hu)
- [20](/trans/bg/06/20#hu)
- [21](/trans/bg/06/21#hu)
- [22](/trans/bg/06/22#hu)
- [23](/trans/bg/06/23#hu)
- [24](/trans/bg/06/24#hu)
- [25](/trans/bg/06/25#hu)
- [26](/trans/bg/06/26#hu)
- [27](/trans/bg/06/27#hu)
- [28](/trans/bg/06/28#hu)
- [29](/trans/bg/06/29#hu)
- [30](/trans/bg/06/30#hu)
- [31](/trans/bg/06/31#hu)
- [32](/trans/bg/06/32#hu)
- [33](/trans/bg/06/33#hu)
- [34](/trans/bg/06/34#hu)
- [35](/trans/bg/06/35#hu)
- [36](/trans/bg/06/36#hu)
- [37](/trans/bg/06/37#hu)
- [38](/trans/bg/06/38#hu)
- [39](/trans/bg/06/39#hu)
- [40](/trans/bg/06/40#hu)
- [41](/trans/bg/06/41#hu)
- [42](/trans/bg/06/42#hu)
- [43](/trans/bg/06/43#hu)
- [44](/trans/bg/06/44#hu)
- [45](/trans/bg/06/45#hu)
- [46](/trans/bg/06/46#hu)
- [47](/trans/bg/06/47#hu)