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Bhagavad-gītā As It Is · Text 6.4
यदा हि नेन्द्रियार्थेषु न कर्मस्वनुषज्जते ।
सर्वसङ्कल्पसन्न्यासी योगारूढस्तदोच्यते ॥ ४ ॥
yadā hi nendriyārtheṣu
na karmasv anuṣajjate
sarva-saṅkalpa-sannyāsī
yogārūḍhas tadocyate
A person is said to be elevated in yoga when, having renounced all material desires, he neither acts for sense gratification nor engages in fruitive activities.
Read Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport on Vedabase.ioWhat this verse is saying, and where it sits in the story.
3 study points
A person rises in yoga by giving up material desires and no longer acting for sense pleasure or personal rewards.
Prabhupāda explains that loving service to the Lord brings inner satisfaction and freedom from seeking sense pleasure.
Try to do everything for Kṛṣṇa’s satisfaction rather than your own sense pleasure.
This verse explains the Yoga-rudha stage — In later stages, when the practitioner is completely purified, he can also give up the work itself
This is the stage when one:
Renounces all material desires, and
Neither acts for sense gratification, nor engages in fruitive acts
Krishna consciousness fulfils all the criteria of Yoga-rudha stage by engagement in transcendental loving service
One is always pleased in himself and is no longer engaged in sense gratification
Krishna conscious person can do everything for Krishna’s satisfaction and thus perfectly detach from sense-gratification
Without Krishna consciousness –
Senses always need one engagement and without Krishna consciousness they automatically are engaged in sense-gratification
One is always seeking self-centered or extended selfish activities
Krishna consciousness vs Astanga-yoga — To practice astanga-yoga without realization of Krishna implies:
One must mechanically try to escape material miseries before being elevated to the top rung of yoga ladder
Texts 6.3 & 6.4
Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura answers the question “Should the ashtanga-yogi perform his prescribed duties as long as he lives?”. He says that this third text describes how in the yogaruruksa (beginning) stage, one works in niskama-karma-yoga while simultaneously practicing ashtanga-yoga. That purifies his heart. When the aspiring yogi becomes elevated in his practice to the point of yogarudha, he gives up niskama-karma-yoga and practices astanga-yoga exclusively. Srila Baladeva Vidyabhushana adds, “The yogarudha stage begins at dhyana, which is described in the next verse
Astanga yogis, like niskama-karma-yogis, engage in detached work to advance.
Learn the Sanskrit words of the verse.
The spiritual concepts this verse connects to.
Key ideas: karma, sva-dharma.
Take one thing from this verse into your day.
What does BG 6.4 establish in Śrīla Prabhupāda's translation and purport, and how does it connect to duty & action?
Do one task today purely because it is right.
Keep going: verses that carry this teaching further.
Study notes are editorial summaries, not the translation. Confirm them in the original text and purport.