Chapter 6 · Verse 12·Spoken by Krishna
तत्रैकाग्रं मनः कृत्वा यतचित्तेन्द्रियक्रियः। उपविश्यासने युञ्ज्याद्योगमात्मविशुद्धये
tatraikāgraṁ manaḥ kṛitvā yata-chittendriya-kriyaḥ upaviśhyāsane yuñjyād yogam ātma-viśhuddhaye
Seated there, let him make the mind one-pointed, with the workings of mind and senses controlled, and practice yoga to purify the self.
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Sanskrit recitation by Swami Brahmānanda
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Convergence
he verse moves from preparation to practice. Krishna has just described the outer seat, the cloth and skin and kusha grass, the right height and steadiness. Now he says what to do once seated there: sit down on that seat and practise yoga. Several commentators stress that 'seated' is deliberate; one should sit, not lie down or stand, because steady sitting is what makes sustained inward gathering possible. The whole elaborate setup of place and posture finds its single purpose here, in this one inward act. Without this gathering the outward preparation falls back into mere ritual; with it, the prepared seat truly becomes the seat of yoga.
Braided from 10 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Vallabhācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrī Puruṣottama · Swami Ramsukhdas · Sant Jñāneśvar
The core instruction is to make the mind one-pointed (ekagra). This means drawing the mind in from all outer objects and fixing it on a single point of meditation, so that it stops scattering. The Sanskrit ekagra literally means having one point or one tip. The mind that normally runs out in many directions is gathered and held to one object. Alongside this, the activities of both mind and senses are to be restrained: the phrase yata-chitta-indriya-kriya means one whose workings of mind (citta) and sense-organs (indriya) are held in check. So two things happen together: the senses are pulled back from their outward longings, and the mind is composed on one object.
Braided from 11 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Vallabhācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrī Puruṣottama · Swami Sivananda · Lokmanya Tilak · Sant Jñāneśvar
The stated purpose of the practice is atma-vishuddhi, the purification of the self. Most commentators take 'self' here in the sense of the inner instrument, the antahkarana or mind, rather than the supreme Self. The point is that yoga cleanses and steadies the inner organ. One commentator argues this reading carefully: yoga does not directly remove ignorance, since ignorance is removed only by knowledge; rather, yoga purifies the inner organ, through that purified organ knowledge arises, and through knowledge comes liberation. Another adds that the mind, once freed of distraction and made extremely subtle, becomes fit for the direct realization of Brahman, quoting scripture that says the Self is seen by the keen, subtle intellect.
Braided from 7 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Swami Sivananda · Vallabhācārya
Several commentators insist on the order of steps, each prior one being the condition of the next. First the seat is made; then the mind is brought to one-pointedness; then the senses are held in; and only then is the yoga itself undertaken. The mind cannot be brought to one point while the senses are loose, nor the senses held while the seat is unsteady. So the verse is read not as a loose list but as a graded sequence, where the posture supports the gathering of mind, and the gathering of mind supports the deeper absorption that follows.
Vallabhācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Swami Ramsukhdas
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
These commentators read the practice as the cleansing of the inner instrument so that knowledge of Brahman can arise. The purified mind is the means, not the end: by yoga the inner organ is purified, through that knowledge comes, and through knowledge liberation. One develops this into a technical account of meditation, naming the absorption-with-cognition (samprajnata-samadhi): with the three faults of rajasic agitation, tamasic dullness, and distraction abandoned and sattva made predominant, the mind flows continuously toward a single object. He identifies this very flow of mind-movement taking the form of Brahman with profound meditation (nididhyasana), the mind-stream shaped as Brahman without the conceit of the ego. One stresses that 'purification of the self' must be read as purity of the inner organ and not the direct removal of ignorance, since ignorance falls only to knowledge.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri
Śuddhādvaita
These commentators keep the careful order of steps and read 'purification of the self' in a distinctive way. The jiva is the Bhagavan's own cit-portion, so the self is not an originally impure substance to be scrubbed clean; what is purified is the avidya-made overlay, the falling away of the maya-make-believe by which the jiva had held himself to be something other than Bhagavan's own. One reframes the entire bodily posture as the outer covering for a single inward act: settling the mind with no second object in the disposition of pure servitude (dasya), relishing His service. The whole point of restraining mind and senses is to let go of the restless wavering for one's own enjoyment and the longings of the senses that seek only to remove one's own pain, so that the bhava-form, the devotional form, is perfected.
Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama
Bhakti
One of these commentators reads the one-pointed mind as fixed in meditation on the preceptor or master, sustained until the finer essence of pious love spreads through one's whole inward and outward being, the hard inertia of egotism melts, the anguish of the senses is calmed, and the outgoing mind is lulled to quiet. From that gathered state the body comes to balance itself and the life-breaths hold together, and he then gives a detailed account of the seated lock called Mulabandha or Vajrasana, with the heel pressed against the base so that the downward breath (apana) turns back inward. Another treats the verse as the very hinge between preparation and practice: all that was said of place, seat, cloth, skin, kusha, and height now finds its purpose in the citta gathered to one point and the inner organ cleansed.
Sant Jñāneśvar · Śrīdhara Svāmī
Dvaita
These commentators read the word 'yoga' here in a specific technical sense: it is the yoga of samadhi, deep absorption. One glosses the verb 'let him yoke' as amounting to 'let one make' or engage oneself, used to distinguish the place where the practice is to be done. Their comment is terse and stays close to fixing the precise meaning of the terms rather than developing a full account of the practice.
Madhvācārya · Śrī Jayatīrtha
A Seeker Asks
If yoga only purifies and steadies the mind, what exactly does it accomplish, and is a quiet mind the goal itself or only the doorway to something further?
On the common reading, the quiet mind is the doorway, not the destination. The verse names the purpose as purification of the self, and most commentators take 'self' here as the inner instrument, the mind, which yoga cleanses and steadies. A purified, undistracted mind is then what makes the deeper aim possible.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Śrīdhara Svāmī
One commentator lays out the chain plainly: yoga does not by itself remove ignorance, because ignorance falls only to knowledge; what yoga does is purify the inner organ, through that purified organ knowledge arises, and through knowledge comes liberation. So the steadied mind is precisely the condition for the realization that frees. Another adds that the mind made free of distraction becomes extremely subtle and thereby fit for the direct realization of Brahman, which scripture says is seen only by a keen and subtle intellect.
Dhanapati Sūri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
In the devotional readings the steadied mind is likewise a means to something further, but the further thing is loving union rather than abstract knowledge: the mind held to one point with no second object settles into the relish of His service, and what is cleansed is the false overlay by which the self had taken itself to be separate from the Lord. Either way, stillness is the gateway, and the gathering of mind is for the sake of what it opens onto.
Śrī Puruṣottama · Vallabhācārya
Contemplation
When you actually sit to gather the mind, expect resistance. The moment you deliberately try to forget worldly objects, all sorts of thoughts crop up to disturb you; old thoughts and memories from years ago bubble up and force the mind to wander, and the more you try to still them, the harder they push back. Do not be discouraged. Make the mind one-pointed by collecting its scattered rays, withdrawing it again and again from sense-objects and fixing it gently on your chosen point of meditation. If thoughts trouble you greatly, do not fight to suppress them by force; sit as a silent witness, as if watching a screen, and they will subside on their own. Be regular above all, because regularity is what brings success; come to know the habits of your own mind through daily self-examination, and steadily replace useless thoughts with calm and sublime ones. This is patient work, but constant meditation gradually purifies the mind and burns away its restless memories.
Sit with this · Swami Sivananda
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