Chapter 6 · Verse 13·Spoken by Krishna
समं कायशिरोग्रीवं धारयन्नचलं स्थिरः। संप्रेक्ष्य नासिकाग्रं स्वं दिशश्चानवलोकयन्
samaṁ kāya-śhiro-grīvaṁ dhārayann achalaṁ sthiraḥ samprekṣhya nāsikāgraṁ svaṁ diśhaśh chānavalokayan
Hold the body, head, and neck straight and still. Stay steady. Look at the tip of your nose, not turning to gaze around.
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Sanskrit recitation by Swami Brahmānanda
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Convergence
he verse gives the bodily posture for meditation: hold the trunk, the head, and the neck even and erect, unmoving, and steady. Several commentators explain that 'kaya' (body) here means specifically the trunk, the middle part of the body, since the head and neck are named separately; the line to be kept straight runs from the base of the spine up to the crown. 'Even' (sama) means straight and unbent; 'unmoving' (achala) means without movement; 'steady' (sthira) means firm in effort. The point is a posture so straight and settled that the body stops calling attention to itself and the mind can rest.
Braided from 16 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar · Swami Sivananda · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas
The word 'unmoving' is added deliberately, because a body can be held even and still be liable to sway or tremble; so the verse insists on stillness without movement. Some commentators press the point further: the steadiness wanted is not only outward but inward. 'Unmoving' is read as freedom from inner trembling, not merely the absence of outer motion, and 'steady' is read as firm, sustained effort. The body is to become as fixed as a statue or a rock, so that the senses and instruments are no longer pulled toward objects.
Braided from 7 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Vedānta Deśika · Śrīla Baladeva · Swami Sivananda · Swami Ramsukhdas
'Gazing at the tip of one's own nose' is not to be taken literally as actually staring at the nose. The most-cited reading is that the eyes are to be drawn inward and away from objects: the gaze is half-fixed, the eyes neither fully shut nor fully open. The reason given is twofold. If the eyes are closed, the mind risks dissolution or sleep (laya); if they are wide open, the mind is scattered by distraction (vikshepa). So the half-open, nose-tip gaze keeps the seeing organ from collecting outward objects and lets the mind settle. Many commentators note that the deeper aim is composure of the inner instrument, and that the verse will go on to fix the mind on the Self, so the gaze is only a support, not the real object of attention.
Braided from 12 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Baladeva · Swami Sivananda · Swami Ramsukhdas
The final instruction, 'not looking about in the directions,' forbids glancing here and there at the quarters or the surroundings, because such looking breaks meditation. The two eye-instructions work together: the steady nose-tip gaze prevents the dullness of closed eyes, and the not-looking-around prevents the distraction of wandering eyes. The verse is grammatically incomplete on its own and joins with the next verse, which describes the inner state of the meditator who sits in this way.
Braided from 10 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Baladeva · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
These commentators read the posture wholly as a support for composing the mind on the Self, and they make much of the word 'as it were' that must be supplied before 'gazing at the tip of the nose.' The actual looking at the nose-tip is not what is enjoined; what is meant is only the directing or inward convergence of the eyes' gaze, withdrawn from form and other objects. The reasoning is precise: if real nose-tip gazing were meant, the mind would be composed on the nose and not on the Self, but a later verse enjoins settling the mind in the Self, so the gaze can only be a means of freeing the eye from objects. The half-open eye is explained as the middle path between dissolution from closed eyes and distraction from open eyes.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri
Viśiṣṭādvaita
These commentators frame the posture as the disciplining of the body and mind in order, the outer and inner means of yoga taken up after the place and seat. The bodily steadiness is the cradle and the mental posture is the child: with the body held straight, even, and free of inner trembling, the mind is next to be drawn inward, the breath made even, the understanding held in the self. Crucially, the meditation aimed at is meditation on the Lord: the meditator restrains the mind, fixes his thought on Me, fearless and joined with continence, and sits intent on Me alone. The nose-tip gaze is the drawing of the eye inward to a near, steady point that stops its outward roaming.
Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika
Śuddhādvaita
These commentators read the postures not as an end but as the fashioning of the body into an instrument fit for inward work, taken as a continuation of the limbed yoga begun earlier. The straight axis lets the prana (vital breath) flow without break; the fixed gaze keeps the conscious portion (cit) from being drawn out through the eye; the not-looking-about keeps the mind from being scattered. There is a devotional turn: the body so disposed becomes a place where the indweller (antaryamin) may be felt without interruption, the head likened to the highest world and the neck to the place of liberation. The senses become the windows of seeing the Lord (darshana) rather than of distraction, and the body itself is shaped into the form of an offering, the meditator abiding in 'bhava' and seeing Bhagavan everywhere.
Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama
Bhakti
These commentators give the same postural details and stress the half-closed eye as the careful middle between sleep and outward distraction, the gaze resting at the nose-tip just so the seeing organ stops collecting and starts to settle. They direct the inward meditation toward the personal Lord: with the mind withdrawn and restrained, the thought is fixed on Me, four-armed and of beautiful form, given over to devotion. One of them, drawing on the lived yogic tradition, describes in vivid detail how the posture forms itself when held: the palms rest in the lap forming a bowl, the head sinks between raised shoulders, the eyes become half-open with upper lids lowered and lower lids widened, the chin fills the pit of the collar bones pressing toward the chest, and the yogic locks (the Jalandhara at the throat and the Uddiyana below the navel) arise, while inwardly the mind's outward functions are uprooted from their base. One reading also places the gaze between the eyebrows for the removal of the mind's dissolving and distraction.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar
Modern
These commentators present the posture in practical, accessible terms. One stresses the intimate connection between body and mind: an unsteady body makes an unsteady mind, so one should master the asana by daily practice and sit as firm as a statue; keeping body, head, and neck erect keeps the spinal cord erect so the Kundalini can rise through the central channel (Sushumna), and he distinguishes the nose-tip gaze (Nasikagra Drishti) from the between-the-eyebrows gaze (Bhrumadhya Drishti) at the Ajna Chakra, letting the practitioner choose whichever suits, while insisting that the mind ultimately rest on the Self. Another emphasizes that no particular seated posture is named or required; the essence of all postures is simply to hold body, head, and neck straight and even, in one thread, because bending forward brings sleep, bending back brings dullness, and bending to either side brings restlessness, so one should sit straight like a staff. A third renders the verse plainly as becoming steady, holding the back, head, and neck fixedly vertical, not looking around, and fixing the gaze on the nose-tip.
Swami Sivananda · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas
A Seeker Asks
Is meditation really tied to such precise bodily mechanics, or is the posture just a removable scaffold for an entirely inward act?
The posture is genuinely a support, not the goal. The commentators are emphatic that 'gazing at the tip of the nose' is not literal staring; the words 'as it were' must be supplied, because if you actually fixed the mind on your nose it would settle there and not on the Self, which a later verse plainly enjoins. So the eye-discipline exists only to free the eye from objects, not to become an object itself.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Swami Sivananda
Yet the body is not arbitrary, because body and mind are intimately linked: an unsteady body makes an unsteady mind. That is why the straight, even, unmoving posture matters; it is the cradle in which the still mind can be held, the outer steadiness answering to an inner one. The half-open eye is chosen with the same care, set between closed eyes that drift into sleep and open eyes that scatter into distraction.
Swami Sivananda · Vedānta Deśika · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Śrīdhara Svāmī
And the precise mechanics are deliberately left flexible. No particular named seat is required; the essence of every posture is simply to hold trunk, head, and neck straight in one thread, because that alone is what soon makes the mind calm and steady. So the scaffold is real and worth building well, but it is a scaffold: shaped to one purpose, the settling of the mind on the Self or the Lord.
Swami Ramsukhdas · Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya
Contemplation
Do not get anxious about mastering a named posture. The whole essence is simple: sit so that your trunk, head, and neck rest in one straight line, like a staff, every joint of the spine stacked evenly, and let them be steady. Watch the three small drifts: leaning forward invites sleep, leaning back brings dullness, leaning to either side brings restlessness. So keep from tipping forward, back, or sideways. When sleep starts to press on you, do not fight it sitting down; rise, walk a little, then settle again, and quietly form the resolve, now I will not rise, not bend this way or that, only sit straight and steady and do my meditation. Held this way, in one thread, the mind very soon grows calm and still.
Sit with this · Swami Ramsukhdas
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