Where the meditator's real work lies, and how the bodily instructions are meant.
Krishna sketches the inner method of meditation: shut out the world's contacts, steady the gaze, even the breath. The instruction is easily misread as managing the body from outside; its weight falls instead on ceasing to dwell on what the senses bring.
Shut out the contacts of the outer world. Fix the gaze between the eyebrows. Make the outgoing and incoming breaths even as they move through the nostrils.
Having just promised that the yogi reaches peace in Brahman, Krishna now gives the practical "how" behind that result, a seed teaching the next chapter will unfold at length.
Where they agreethe convergence
Across schools and centuries the commentators come to the same ground. These are the points they share, and the voices that hold each one.
These are not a fresh topic but the inner method behind the peace already promised; hold this verse and the next together as one instruction in meditation.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Śuddhādvaita, Bhakti, and the modern voicesŚaṅkara · Madhusūdana · Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabha · Śrīdhara · Viśvanātha · Baladeva · SivanandaIn Śaṅkara, Madhusūdana, and 8 others’ words
Krishna here begins a compact teaching on the yoga of meditation (dhyana-yoga), and these words are meant as a seed or aphorism that the sixth chapter will unfold at length. The verse should be read together with the next as a single instruction. Krishna has just said that the yogi attains brahma-nirvana, peace in Brahman; now he sketches the actual inner method by which that is reached. So this is not a fresh, unrelated topic but the practical 'how' behind the result already promised.
The first discipline is to draw the senses home: the objects are already outside you, so stop dwelling on them, and they stay merely external, no longer lodged in the mind.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Dvaita, Bhedābheda, Bhakti, Kashmir Śaiva, and the modern voicesŚaṅkara · Madhusūdana · Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati · Rāmānuja · Madhva · Bhāskara · Śrīdhara · Viśvanātha · Baladeva · Sivananda · Ramsukhdas · AbhinavaguptaIn Śaṅkara, Madhusūdana, and 11 others’ words
The first discipline is the withdrawal of the senses from their objects, called pratyahara. 'Contacts' (sparsha) means the sense-objects, sound, touch, form, taste and smell, which enter through the doors of the senses and lodge in the mind. The phrase 'putting the outer contacts outside' does not mean the objects physically leave; they are already outside. It means the meditator stops dwelling on them. By ceasing to brood on them, by giving up the very thought of them, he keeps them out of the mind. Several commentators stress that the obstacle is never the object itself but the inward clinging to it; cut the dwelling-on, and the contact stays merely external.
Settle the gaze half-closed between the brows, so the mind neither sinks into sleep nor scatters outward, and let the breath grow even, for the mind follows the breath into its quiet.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Dvaita, Bhakti, and the modern voicesŚaṅkara · Madhusūdana · Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati · Rāmānuja · Vedānta Deśika · Madhva · Jayatīrtha · Śrīdhara · Viśvanātha · Baladeva · Sivananda · Ramsukhdas · Tilak · JñāneśvarIn Śaṅkara, Madhusūdana, and 13 others’ words
Next comes the steadying of the gaze and the regulation of the breath. The meditator fixes the eye between the eyebrows (some commentators add that 6.13 also allows the tip of the nose). The reason given is precise: shutting the eyes fully lets the mind sink into sleep, while opening them fully lets it scatter outward toward objects; so the gaze is held half-closed and fixed at that point to avoid both faults. Then he makes the in-breath (prana) and out-breath (apana), which move within the nostrils, even. This is pranayama, breath-control. Many gloss 'even' as holding the breath (kumbhaka), checking its upward and downward motion; when the breath grows quiet and steady, the mind, which follows the breath, also leaves its agitation.
Now the senses, mind and intellect are restrained, and you sit as one given to silence, intent on liberation alone, with desire, fear and anger falling away as attention turns inward.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Śuddhādvaita, Bhakti, and the modern voicesŚaṅkara · Madhusūdana · Nīlakaṇṭha · Rāmānuja · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabha · Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara · Baladeva · Tilak · JñāneśvarIn Śaṅkara, Madhusūdana, and 9 others’ words
The verse then names the inner state of the one who practices this. His senses, mind and intellect are restrained; he is a muni, a sage given to silence and to reflection on the Self; he is intent on liberation, having liberation as his one supreme aim; and he is free of desire, fear and anger. These three, desire, fear, and anger, fall away once the senses are turned inward and the self is the only object of attention, since they all arise from grasping after or recoiling from outer things.
For such a one liberation is not some future thing still to be reached; freed in this way, attention resting on the Self, you are free even now, even while you go on with outward dealings.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Śuddhādvaita, Bhakti, Kashmir ŚaivaŚaṅkara · Madhusūdana · Rāmānuja · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabha · Puruṣottama · Baladeva · Jñāneśvar · AbhinavaguptaIn Śaṅkara, Madhusūdana, and 7 others’ words
The verse closes with a striking promise: such a person 'is ever liberated, indeed.' The commentators stress that for him liberation is not some future thing he must still go and accomplish. Being already this kind of person, freed of desire, fear and anger, with senses turned inward and the self alone as his goal, he is liberated even now, even while living and even while carrying on outward dealings. He is free both in the stage of practice and in the stage of the goal; there is no further task he must do for the sake of liberation.
This is the shared ground; it can be carried as it is. Below is where they differ.
Where they differthe divergence
Advaita Vedānta, in their fuller words
These commentators read the verse as the seed of dhyana-yoga set within a larger path that culminates in the truth-knowledge that liberates. The sequence is: action-yoga purifies the inner organ, then comes renunciation of action, then knowledge of the truth which is the means of liberation; meditation is the inner means that brings about right vision. The 'putting outside' is explained as the power of supreme dispassion: an object lodged within only through attachment can be put out again by dispassion, whereas if it were inherently inner no means could expel it. One source maps the half-closed gaze to the need to restrain all five mental modifications (sleep on full closing, and the four scattering modifications on full opening). One source goes further and reads the whole verse against Patanjali's eight-limbed yoga, mapping 'free of desire' to the yamas, 'free of fear' to the niyamas, 'free of anger' to the four mind-clearing meditations, and the stages of sense-, mind-, and intellect-restraint to the successive levels of samadhi (savitarka, savichara, ananda and asmita, culminating in the objectless asamprajnata), and even allows samyama on an external object like the sun for those unable to do pratyahara.
Viśiṣṭādvaita, in their fuller words
These commentators read the verse as describing the ease of karma-yoga, which has obligatory and occasional action as its duty and meditation as its crown. The decisive point is that the senses, mind and intellect are rendered 'unfit for any activity except the beholding of the self.' The muni is one who has the habit of looking upon the self (atma-avalokana). One source carefully resolves an apparent repetition: 'restrained-sensed' was used in earlier verses to mean fitness for spiritual engagement, but here the same idea names the fruit, namely the senses' unfitness for any unbidden engagement, so it is no mere repetition. The same source reads the singular 'eye' as a sign that the two eyes share one operative form, and treats the inward silence of speech as more central than it first appears.
Dvaita, in their fuller words
These commentators frame the verse as Krishna stating the very manner of meditation, and they address a logical worry: if the meditator's liberation were direct, it would conflict with the recognized means of valid knowledge, and if it were through knowledge, the statement would be a mere repetition. So they take 'he is liberated indeed' as praise of the meditative discipline. They explain how 'outer' contacts can be 'put outside': when the senses are unrestrained, a firm and attentive impression from past practice can make sounds and the rest feel as if inward, but once the senses are restrained by withdrawal, the outer ones are genuinely kept out. They also gloss 'making the breath even' specifically as steady, motionless retention (kumbhaka), the other senses of evening-out serving only that retention.
Bhedābheda, in their fuller words
This commentator gives the briefest reading: having put the outer objects outside, when by the mind they do not approach the inner Self, then the objects simply remain outside. The whole weight falls on the mind's refusal to carry the objects inward to the Self.
Śuddhādvaita, in their fuller words
These commentators read the meditation here as valuable only as the outward shape of an inward leaning on the Lord; the yoga is 'Lord-supported.' One source, citing the Nibandha, warns that yoga which truly rests on the Lord ripens, over many births, into bhakti and bears fruit, while a yoga of merely 'settling the body' by forbidden means yields fruit only in imagination even to the end of the world-age; the body is composed and the breath steadied only so that the soul may rest more fully in Purushottama. The other source reads the verse against the difficulty of the touchless state, and gives a vivid devotional gloss: fixing the eye between the brows is to see oneself as of the very form of time and death, and evening the breath is the equal experience of joy in union and in separation.
Kashmir Śaiva, in their fuller words
This commentator reads the bodily instructions as inward symbols. The space between the brows is the spot free of the leftward and rightward glances that are made of anger and passion; the in-breath and out-breath that are to be made even are dharma and adharma; and the 'nose' (nasa) is taken as the operation of the mind, so called because it moves crookedly (nasate), unevenly, under the sway of anger and the rest. To even the breath within the mind's operation is thus to steady the mind beyond the pull of opposites. He adds that this same teaching holds in the plain outward reading too, and concludes that such a yogin is released even while carrying on all worldly dealings.
Bhakti, in their fuller words
These commentators give the most detailed practical gloss of the technique and set it within the path that begins with desireless karma-yoga purifying the inner instrument. They are careful that the posture be a steadying, not a violent stopping: the eyes half-lowered, the breath made even, the senses no longer fetching their objects. One source offers an alternative reading of 'even breath' as letting prana and apana move only in the very middle of the nose by gentle out- and in-breath, rather than forced retention. The Marathi voice carries the practice to its climax: the prana and apana, joined with the mind, are forced up toward the brahmarandhra at the crown; as streams lose themselves in the Ganga and the Ganga in the sea, the mind merges in the brahmarandhra, desires cease, the 'linen' of the mind on which worldly existence is painted is torn, and one who tastes this oneness becomes the very being and power of Brahman even while in a human body.
A modern reading, in their fuller words
These commentators read the verse plainly as the yoga of meditation and add cautions and clarifications for the contemporary seeker. One stresses that rhythmical, harmonious breathing steadies the mind and brings the whole system into harmony, and that objects are shut out simply by the mind not thinking of them. One warns that these are genuine Yoga-sutra practices that are like athletics for the body: they help only the disciplined seeker who has already passed through the yamas and niyamas and conquered fear, and that without purity of mind and body they can lead a person astray and deeper into delusion; for this reason Patanjali gave first place to the cardinal and casual vows. One non-sectarian devotional voice deepens the central point: outer objects are never the real obstruction; the obstruction is the relationship of attachment (raga) we have accepted with them, and dhyana-yoga severs that bond by making the Supreme alone the object of attention, just as karma-yoga severs it through service and jnana-yoga through discernment.
A few questions to carry
These ask for understanding, not recall; each answer is settled by the commentary itself.
For a second sitting
Carry this with youwhat stays
Notice where the real difficulty lies. The outer objects are not your obstruction. The obstruction is the bond of attachment you have quietly accepted with them, the inward leaning that says you need them. So when you sit to meditate, the work is not to push the world away by force but to stop feeding it your thought. Let the eyes settle half-closed, let the breath grow even, and turn the whole of your attention toward the Supreme alone. As that attention deepens, a natural turning-away from outer things happens on its own. The same bond that service loosens through giving, and discernment loosens through clear seeing, meditation loosens by quietly resting the mind in God until the outer simply no longer has its hold.
So when you sit, do not push the world away by force; let the eyes settle, let the breath grow even, and turn your whole attention toward the Supreme, and the hold of outer things loosens on its own.
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Convergence
rishna here begins a compact teaching on the yoga of meditation (dhyana-yoga), and these words are meant as a seed or aphorism that the sixth chapter will unfold at length. The verse should be read together with the next as a single instruction. Krishna has just said that the yogi attains brahma-nirvana, peace in Brahman; now he sketches the actual inner method by which that is reached. So this is not a fresh, unrelated topic but the practical 'how' behind the result already promised.
Braided from 10 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabhācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Swami Sivananda
The first discipline is the withdrawal of the senses from their objects, called pratyahara. 'Contacts' (sparsha) means the sense-objects, sound, touch, form, taste and smell, which enter through the doors of the senses and lodge in the mind. The phrase 'putting the outer contacts outside' does not mean the objects physically leave; they are already outside. It means the meditator stops dwelling on them. By ceasing to brood on them, by giving up the very thought of them, he keeps them out of the mind. Several commentators stress that the obstacle is never the object itself but the inward clinging to it; cut the dwelling-on, and the contact stays merely external.
Braided from 13 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Madhvācārya · Śrī Bhāskara · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Swami Sivananda · Swami Ramsukhdas · Ācārya Abhinavagupta
Next comes the steadying of the gaze and the regulation of the breath. The meditator fixes the eye between the eyebrows (some commentators add that 6.13 also allows the tip of the nose). The reason given is precise: shutting the eyes fully lets the mind sink into sleep, while opening them fully lets it scatter outward toward objects; so the gaze is held half-closed and fixed at that point to avoid both faults. Then he makes the in-breath (prana) and out-breath (apana), which move within the nostrils, even. This is pranayama, breath-control. Many gloss 'even' as holding the breath (kumbhaka), checking its upward and downward motion; when the breath grows quiet and steady, the mind, which follows the breath, also leaves its agitation.
Braided from 15 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Madhvācārya · Śrī Jayatīrtha · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Swami Sivananda · Swami Ramsukhdas · Lokmanya Tilak · Sant Jñāneśvar
The verse then names the inner state of the one who practices this. His senses, mind and intellect are restrained; he is a muni, a sage given to silence and to reflection on the Self; he is intent on liberation, having liberation as his one supreme aim; and he is free of desire, fear and anger. These three, desire, fear, and anger, fall away once the senses are turned inward and the self is the only object of attention, since they all arise from grasping after or recoiling from outer things.
Braided from 11 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Baladeva · Lokmanya Tilak · Sant Jñāneśvar
The verse closes with a striking promise: such a person 'is ever liberated, indeed.' The commentators stress that for him liberation is not some future thing he must still go and accomplish. Being already this kind of person, freed of desire, fear and anger, with senses turned inward and the self alone as his goal, he is liberated even now, even while living and even while carrying on outward dealings. He is free both in the stage of practice and in the stage of the goal; there is no further task he must do for the sake of liberation.
Braided from 9 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar · Ācārya Abhinavagupta
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
These commentators read the verse as the seed of dhyana-yoga set within a larger path that culminates in the truth-knowledge that liberates. The sequence is: action-yoga purifies the inner organ, then comes renunciation of action, then knowledge of the truth which is the means of liberation; meditation is the inner means that brings about right vision. The 'putting outside' is explained as the power of supreme dispassion: an object lodged within only through attachment can be put out again by dispassion, whereas if it were inherently inner no means could expel it. One source maps the half-closed gaze to the need to restrain all five mental modifications (sleep on full closing, and the four scattering modifications on full opening). One source goes further and reads the whole verse against Patanjali's eight-limbed yoga, mapping 'free of desire' to the yamas, 'free of fear' to the niyamas, 'free of anger' to the four mind-clearing meditations, and the stages of sense-, mind-, and intellect-restraint to the successive levels of samadhi (savitarka, savichara, ananda and asmita, culminating in the objectless asamprajnata), and even allows samyama on an external object like the sun for those unable to do pratyahara.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri
Viśiṣṭādvaita
These commentators read the verse as describing the ease of karma-yoga, which has obligatory and occasional action as its duty and meditation as its crown. The decisive point is that the senses, mind and intellect are rendered 'unfit for any activity except the beholding of the self.' The muni is one who has the habit of looking upon the self (atma-avalokana). One source carefully resolves an apparent repetition: 'restrained-sensed' was used in earlier verses to mean fitness for spiritual engagement, but here the same idea names the fruit, namely the senses' unfitness for any unbidden engagement, so it is no mere repetition. The same source reads the singular 'eye' as a sign that the two eyes share one operative form, and treats the inward silence of speech as more central than it first appears.
Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika
Dvaita
These commentators frame the verse as Krishna stating the very manner of meditation, and they address a logical worry: if the meditator's liberation were direct, it would conflict with the recognized means of valid knowledge, and if it were through knowledge, the statement would be a mere repetition. So they take 'he is liberated indeed' as praise of the meditative discipline. They explain how 'outer' contacts can be 'put outside': when the senses are unrestrained, a firm and attentive impression from past practice can make sounds and the rest feel as if inward, but once the senses are restrained by withdrawal, the outer ones are genuinely kept out. They also gloss 'making the breath even' specifically as steady, motionless retention (kumbhaka), the other senses of evening-out serving only that retention.
Madhvācārya · Śrī Jayatīrtha
Bhedabheda
This commentator gives the briefest reading: having put the outer objects outside, when by the mind they do not approach the inner Self, then the objects simply remain outside. The whole weight falls on the mind's refusal to carry the objects inward to the Self.
Śrī Bhāskara
Śuddhādvaita
These commentators read the meditation here as valuable only as the outward shape of an inward leaning on the Lord; the yoga is 'Lord-supported.' One source, citing the Nibandha, warns that yoga which truly rests on the Lord ripens, over many births, into bhakti and bears fruit, while a yoga of merely 'settling the body' by forbidden means yields fruit only in imagination even to the end of the world-age; the body is composed and the breath steadied only so that the soul may rest more fully in Purushottama. The other source reads the verse against the difficulty of the touchless state, and gives a vivid devotional gloss: fixing the eye between the brows is to see oneself as of the very form of time and death, and evening the breath is the equal experience of joy in union and in separation.
Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama
Kashmir Shaivism
This commentator reads the bodily instructions as inward symbols. The space between the brows is the spot free of the leftward and rightward glances that are made of anger and passion; the in-breath and out-breath that are to be made even are dharma and adharma; and the 'nose' (nasa) is taken as the operation of the mind, so called because it moves crookedly (nasate), unevenly, under the sway of anger and the rest. To even the breath within the mind's operation is thus to steady the mind beyond the pull of opposites. He adds that this same teaching holds in the plain outward reading too, and concludes that such a yogin is released even while carrying on all worldly dealings.
Ācārya Abhinavagupta
Bhakti
These commentators give the most detailed practical gloss of the technique and set it within the path that begins with desireless karma-yoga purifying the inner instrument. They are careful that the posture be a steadying, not a violent stopping: the eyes half-lowered, the breath made even, the senses no longer fetching their objects. One source offers an alternative reading of 'even breath' as letting prana and apana move only in the very middle of the nose by gentle out- and in-breath, rather than forced retention. The Marathi voice carries the practice to its climax: the prana and apana, joined with the mind, are forced up toward the brahmarandhra at the crown; as streams lose themselves in the Ganga and the Ganga in the sea, the mind merges in the brahmarandhra, desires cease, the 'linen' of the mind on which worldly existence is painted is torn, and one who tastes this oneness becomes the very being and power of Brahman even while in a human body.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar
Modern
These commentators read the verse plainly as the yoga of meditation and add cautions and clarifications for the contemporary seeker. One stresses that rhythmical, harmonious breathing steadies the mind and brings the whole system into harmony, and that objects are shut out simply by the mind not thinking of them. One warns that these are genuine Yoga-sutra practices that are like athletics for the body: they help only the disciplined seeker who has already passed through the yamas and niyamas and conquered fear, and that without purity of mind and body they can lead a person astray and deeper into delusion; for this reason Patanjali gave first place to the cardinal and casual vows. One non-sectarian devotional voice deepens the central point: outer objects are never the real obstruction; the obstruction is the relationship of attachment (raga) we have accepted with them, and dhyana-yoga severs that bond by making the Supreme alone the object of attention, just as karma-yoga severs it through service and jnana-yoga through discernment.
Swami Sivananda · Mahatma Gandhi · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas
A Seeker Asks
Is the elaborate technique of fixing the gaze between the brows and holding the breath truly necessary for liberation, or is the real work simply turning the mind inward?
The commentators are clear that the heart of the instruction is the inward turning. 'Putting the contacts outside' does not mean managing the world around you; it means ceasing to dwell on sense-objects, withdrawing the mind from them, so that they stay merely external. The real obstruction is never the object but the clinging thought directed at it.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Bhāskara · Swami Ramsukhdas · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva
Within that, the gaze and the breath are practical supports, not arbitrary rituals. The half-closed gaze fixed between the brows guards against the two failures the mind is prone to in meditation: sinking into sleep if the eyes close fully, and scattering outward if they open fully. The even breath steadies the mind, because the mind follows the breath, and a quiet breath brings a quiet mind.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Swami Sivananda
Several commentators also insist these techniques are safe and fruitful only for one already disciplined, who has passed through the cardinal and casual vows and conquered fear; without that inward purity the outward practices can mislead. And one school reads the whole bodily apparatus as symbol for the inner steadying of the mind beyond passion and anger, while a devotional school values the posture only as the outward shape of an inward resting in the Lord. So the technique serves the turning of the mind; it is not a substitute for it.
Mahatma Gandhi · Ācārya Abhinavagupta · Vallabhācārya
Contemplation
Notice where the real difficulty lies. The outer objects are not your obstruction. The obstruction is the bond of attachment you have quietly accepted with them, the inward leaning that says you need them. So when you sit to meditate, the work is not to push the world away by force but to stop feeding it your thought. Let the eyes settle half-closed, let the breath grow even, and turn the whole of your attention toward the Supreme alone. As that attention deepens, a natural turning-away from outer things happens on its own. The same bond that service loosens through giving, and discernment loosens through clear seeing, meditation loosens by quietly resting the mind in God until the outer simply no longer has its hold.
Sit with this · Swami Ramsukhdas
All the translations and commentary
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