Steadying the mind in solitude, free of desire and the wish to possess.
The outer picture is a hermit alone in a quiet place, but the real instruction is inward: gather the restless mind and hold it steadily on one ground. The solitude and the empty hands are not austerity for its own sake; they are simply the conditions a settling mind asks for.
A yogi should constantly steady the mind, staying in a solitary place, alone, with mind and body controlled, free from desire and from the urge to possess.
Having just shown you the one who has already climbed to yoga, Krishna now turns to method, and this verse opens a long stretch of practical instruction on how the seeker who is still climbing should sit and work.
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.
Hear this not as one stray rule but as the doorway into a whole practice of meditation that the verses ahead will fill in, step by step.
Across Advaita, Śuddhādvaita, Bhakti, and the modern voicesŚaṅkara · Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana · Vallabha · Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara · Viśvanātha · Baladeva · Ramsukhdas · TilakIn Śaṅkara, Ānandagiri, and 8 others’ words
This verse opens Krishna's detailed handbook on the actual practice of yoga. Having just described the marks and the reward of the one who has already climbed to yoga (the yoga-arudha), the Lord now turns to method: how the person still seeking that height should sit and work. Several commentators note that this begins a long, continuous passage of practical instruction, running roughly twenty-three verses, that lays out yoga together with its limbs (its supporting conditions and steps) and its final fruit. So the reader should hear 6.10 not as an isolated rule but as the doorway into a whole curriculum of meditation that the next verses fill in.
The one work at the heart of this is to gather the restless mind and hold it on a single ground, and to do so constantly, not in fits and starts but steadily, until it takes hold.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Dvaita, Śuddhādvaita, Kashmir Śaiva, Bhakti, and the modern voicesŚaṅkara · Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana · Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati · Rāmānuja · Madhva · Jayatīrtha · Vallabha · Puruṣottama · Abhinavagupta · Śrīdhara · Viśvanātha · Baladeva · Sivananda · RamsukhdasIn Śaṅkara, Ānandagiri, and 14 others’ words
The single instruction at the heart of the verse is 'yunjita': let the yogi yoke, join, or gather the self, and do so 'satatam', constantly, without interruption. Nearly every commentator reads the word 'self' here in a specific way: it means the mind (the manas or inner instrument, the chitta or buddhi), not the ultimate Self. The work is to take the scattered, restless mind and make it collected, one-pointed, and absorbed in meditation (samadhi). One commentator spells out that this means restraining the mind's modifications (its wanderings) and pulling it back from its dull, scattered, and distracted conditions onto a single ground; another names the five kinds of mental movement that are all to be subdued. The stress on 'constantly' is deliberate: yoga is not done in fits and starts but practiced steadily, with reverence and over long duration, until it takes hold.
Sit apart in a quiet place, and sit alone, for the work to be done is wholly inward; let the surroundings not call the senses back out toward the world.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Śuddhādvaita, Kashmir Śaiva, Bhakti, and the modern voicesŚaṅkara · Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana · Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati · Rāmānuja · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabha · Puruṣottama · Abhinavagupta · Śrīdhara · Baladeva · Sivananda · TilakIn Śaṅkara, Ānandagiri, and 12 others’ words
The verse then names the outer conditions that make this inner work possible, and the commentators agree these are not austerity for its own sake but a deliberate map of the circumstances the mind requires. 'Rahasi', in a solitary place: a quiet, secluded spot such as a mountain cave, free of people, noise, wicked company, and other obstacles to meditation. 'Ekaki', alone: without even a single companion, since company draws the mind back out toward objects. The reasoning is consistent across the schools: because the work to be done is entirely inward, the senses must not be called out by surroundings or society, so the outer arrangement is shaped to protect the inward turning.
Hold mind and body in check, let go of every expectation beyond the goal itself, and keep nothing as your own, for even small belongings still pull the mind back to guarding them.
Across Advaita, Śuddhādvaita, Bhakti, and the modern voicesŚaṅkara · Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana · Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati · Vallabha · Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara · Baladeva · SivanandaIn Śaṅkara, Ānandagiri, and 8 others’ words
The verse closes with three further qualifications of the meditator's inner and outer state. 'Yata-chittatma': his mind and body are restrained and held in check, the inner sense and the outer frame both steadied. 'Nirashih': free of expectation, without longing or thirst for anything other than the goal of yoga itself, a freedom that comes from firm dispassion. 'Aparigrahah': without possessions, free of the very sense of 'mine' toward anything whatever. Commentators note that since solitude and aloneness already imply a renouncer, the further mention of possessionlessness is pointed: it strips away even the few things scripture might permit (a cloak, a covering, books), because such belongings still invite the mind's concern, or even invite thieves, and so obstruct the one-pointed work.
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 formal beginning of a discipline for the renunciant (sannyasi). They emphasize that the words 'dwelling in solitude' and 'alone' themselves establish that the practitioner has already made renunciation, given up all possessions and attendants. On this reading the further word 'possessionless' is not redundant but pointed: it removes even the capacity for the minimal things a renouncer might still hold, down to a loincloth, a covering, or the books that could invite thieves. The 'self' to be yoked is carefully distinguished from the inmost Self: it means the inner instrument, the mind, which is to be collected by restraining its modifications. The whole verse is taken as setting the stage for the rules of seat, food, and conduct that follow.
Viśiṣṭādvaita, in their fuller words
These commentators place the verse within the discipline of action already taught, and read 'yoking the self' as making the self settled in the direct beholding of itself, the self gazing on its own nature. One source stresses that the injunction 'yunjita' has direct seeing (sakshatkara), an immediate vision, as its very fruit, so the practice is aimed at a clear inner perception, not mere mental quiet. 'Free of expectation' is taken broadly as having no expectation toward anything at all other than the self, and 'without possession' as having no sense of 'mine' toward anything whatever other than that self. The four outer qualifications are understood to circumscribe the outer condition within which this inner beholding is to be carried on day after day, at the appointed time of discipline.
Dvaita, in their fuller words
These commentators read the verse specifically as teaching the yoga of samadhi, deep absorptive concentration. One raises the objection that yoga was already enjoined earlier in the chapter (at 6.5), and answers that this restatement is not repetition but is given for the sake of stating the manner of the practice. He notes that although the plain word used means only 'engage' or 'join' in a general sense, the context narrows it to the particular: it settles upon samadhi. As with the others, 'the self' to be joined is taken to mean the mind, which is to be made joined to the yoga of samadhi.
Śuddhādvaita, in their fuller words
These commentators frame the practice as a preparation oriented wholly toward Bhagavan, the Lord, rather than as a self-built ladder to a goal the practitioner reaches by his own effort. The 'self' to be yoked is read as the form of the devotee's own 'bhava', his inner devotional disposition; the chitta is to be subdued and emptied of any desire for self-enjoyment. One source goes further than the common reading of 'free of expectation', taking it to mean that even the longing for liberation (moksha) has departed, and reads 'without possessions' as renouncing every dependence through knowing the misery of company. On this view the outer solitude is the very image of an inner emptying out of every claim other than the Lord: the secluded seat is the settled vessel in which the Lord's grace, when it comes, may be received, and the meditation itself is meditation upon Him.
Kashmir Śaiva, in their fuller words
This commentator reads the verse as answering a specific doubt: since an earlier verse spoke of 'one whose self is conquered', how is that conquest actually achieved? The means is the restraint of the mind, supported by evenness of the body. He builds a chain of dependence: from steadiness of posture comes steadiness of time, and from steadiness of time comes steadiness of mind, so the outer conditions of solitude and the rest are not optional but the ground on which mental one-pointedness stands. 'Constantly' is glossed as not for a measured time. He gives the practice a theistic aim: the meditator is to sit joined, holding Me (the Lord) as supreme, and the farthest reach of this steady standing is the attaining of Me, in which peace arises.
Bhakti, in their fuller words
These commentators agree that the 'self' to be yoked is the mind, to be made absorbed in samadhi, and read the outer rules as the careful conditions under which the mind, no longer scattered into society and acquisition, can be set on one object. One stresses that the verse is not a counsel of physical austerity for its own sake but a map of what the room of meditation requires: solitude, lightness of hand, the absence of expectation. One identifies the practitioner as the doer of desireless action, taking 'restrained mind and body' as freedom from activity opposed to yoga and 'without possessions' as taking no food beyond need. The Marathi commentator, before reaching the method, dwells at length on the surpassing glory of the perfected yogi praised in the surrounding verses, and frames the coming teaching as the 'royal road' of yoga whose fruit is peace and liberation.
A modern reading, in their fuller words
These commentators read the verse with a practical, contemporary eye. One opens the practice beyond the literal cave: while the renunciant can meditate in a mountain cave, a householder with spiritual inclination can practice in a quiet room at home or by a holy river, and he adds that one who has truly mastered withdrawal of the senses can find solitude even in a crowded city, whereas a passionate, uncontrolled person finds no peace even in a Himalayan cave. He insists the practice must be constant, not by fits and starts, and reads 'free of possessions' and 'free of hope, desire, and greed' as the very conditions of a steady mind. Another identifies the yogi here as the Karma-yogi and treats this chapter's Patanjala-style yoga as a means for acquiring the equable reason that karma-yoga needs, so solitude is required only to that extent, not as a lifelong vocation. A third notes simply that the dhyana-yoga sketched at the end of the previous chapter is now described in detail, and defines yoga from its root as the stilling (nirodha) of the mind's movements.
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
Take the verse first as a description of your mind, not only of your address. Its deepest counsel is that solitude is finally an inner achievement: if you have real control of the senses, you can find perfect solitude and peace even in the most crowded and noisy city, while if the senses are turbulent you will have no peace even in a solitary Himalayan cave. So begin where you are. If you are a householder, you need not flee your family; meditate in a quiet room of your own house, or by a holy river when you can get away, and make the practice constant rather than by fits and starts, since a few scattered minutes a day yield nothing. Loosen the grip of hope, desire, and greed, because these keep the mind restless and turbulent; and keep only what your body actually needs, since many possessions set the mind forever guarding and worrying over them. If you do long for deeper seclusion, break your worldly ties gradually rather than all at once, staying in retreat first for a week, then longer, so that neither you nor those around you are shocked. And remember the test: sense-control proved in an empty forest proves little, so let the steadied mind eventually return to the company of people, where it is truly tried.
Begin where you are; loosen the grip of hope and greed, keep only what your body truly needs, and let the mind learn to grow still wherever you sit.
Read deeper
Everything a full study holds, folded below.
Word by word
All the commentary, woven together
The commentary, woven together
machine-assisted draft, pending review
Convergence
his verse opens Krishna's detailed handbook on the actual practice of yoga. Having just described the marks and the reward of the one who has already climbed to yoga (the yoga-arudha), the Lord now turns to method: how the person still seeking that height should sit and work. Several commentators note that this begins a long, continuous passage of practical instruction, running roughly twenty-three verses, that lays out yoga together with its limbs (its supporting conditions and steps) and its final fruit. So the reader should hear 6.10 not as an isolated rule but as the doorway into a whole curriculum of meditation that the next verses fill in.
Braided from 10 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Swami Ramsukhdas · Lokmanya Tilak
The single instruction at the heart of the verse is 'yunjita': let the yogi yoke, join, or gather the self, and do so 'satatam', constantly, without interruption. Nearly every commentator reads the word 'self' here in a specific way: it means the mind (the manas or inner instrument, the chitta or buddhi), not the ultimate Self. The work is to take the scattered, restless mind and make it collected, one-pointed, and absorbed in meditation (samadhi). One commentator spells out that this means restraining the mind's modifications (its wanderings) and pulling it back from its dull, scattered, and distracted conditions onto a single ground; another names the five kinds of mental movement that are all to be subdued. The stress on 'constantly' is deliberate: yoga is not done in fits and starts but practiced steadily, with reverence and over long duration, until it takes hold.
Braided from 16 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Madhvācārya · Śrī Jayatīrtha · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Ācārya Abhinavagupta · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Swami Sivananda · Swami Ramsukhdas
The verse then names the outer conditions that make this inner work possible, and the commentators agree these are not austerity for its own sake but a deliberate map of the circumstances the mind requires. 'Rahasi', in a solitary place: a quiet, secluded spot such as a mountain cave, free of people, noise, wicked company, and other obstacles to meditation. 'Ekaki', alone: without even a single companion, since company draws the mind back out toward objects. The reasoning is consistent across the schools: because the work to be done is entirely inward, the senses must not be called out by surroundings or society, so the outer arrangement is shaped to protect the inward turning.
Braided from 14 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Ācārya Abhinavagupta · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Baladeva · Swami Sivananda · Lokmanya Tilak
The verse closes with three further qualifications of the meditator's inner and outer state. 'Yata-chittatma': his mind and body are restrained and held in check, the inner sense and the outer frame both steadied. 'Nirashih': free of expectation, without longing or thirst for anything other than the goal of yoga itself, a freedom that comes from firm dispassion. 'Aparigrahah': without possessions, free of the very sense of 'mine' toward anything whatever. Commentators note that since solitude and aloneness already imply a renouncer, the further mention of possessionlessness is pointed: it strips away even the few things scripture might permit (a cloak, a covering, books), because such belongings still invite the mind's concern, or even invite thieves, and so obstruct the one-pointed work.
Braided from 10 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Baladeva · Swami Sivananda
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
These commentators read the verse as the formal beginning of a discipline for the renunciant (sannyasi). They emphasize that the words 'dwelling in solitude' and 'alone' themselves establish that the practitioner has already made renunciation, given up all possessions and attendants. On this reading the further word 'possessionless' is not redundant but pointed: it removes even the capacity for the minimal things a renouncer might still hold, down to a loincloth, a covering, or the books that could invite thieves. The 'self' to be yoked is carefully distinguished from the inmost Self: it means the inner instrument, the mind, which is to be collected by restraining its modifications. The whole verse is taken as setting the stage for the rules of seat, food, and conduct that follow.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri
Viśiṣṭādvaita
These commentators place the verse within the discipline of action already taught, and read 'yoking the self' as making the self settled in the direct beholding of itself, the self gazing on its own nature. One source stresses that the injunction 'yunjita' has direct seeing (sakshatkara), an immediate vision, as its very fruit, so the practice is aimed at a clear inner perception, not mere mental quiet. 'Free of expectation' is taken broadly as having no expectation toward anything at all other than the self, and 'without possession' as having no sense of 'mine' toward anything whatever other than that self. The four outer qualifications are understood to circumscribe the outer condition within which this inner beholding is to be carried on day after day, at the appointed time of discipline.
Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika
Dvaita
These commentators read the verse specifically as teaching the yoga of samadhi, deep absorptive concentration. One raises the objection that yoga was already enjoined earlier in the chapter (at 6.5), and answers that this restatement is not repetition but is given for the sake of stating the manner of the practice. He notes that although the plain word used means only 'engage' or 'join' in a general sense, the context narrows it to the particular: it settles upon samadhi. As with the others, 'the self' to be joined is taken to mean the mind, which is to be made joined to the yoga of samadhi.
Madhvācārya · Śrī Jayatīrtha
Śuddhādvaita
These commentators frame the practice as a preparation oriented wholly toward Bhagavan, the Lord, rather than as a self-built ladder to a goal the practitioner reaches by his own effort. The 'self' to be yoked is read as the form of the devotee's own 'bhava', his inner devotional disposition; the chitta is to be subdued and emptied of any desire for self-enjoyment. One source goes further than the common reading of 'free of expectation', taking it to mean that even the longing for liberation (moksha) has departed, and reads 'without possessions' as renouncing every dependence through knowing the misery of company. On this view the outer solitude is the very image of an inner emptying out of every claim other than the Lord: the secluded seat is the settled vessel in which the Lord's grace, when it comes, may be received, and the meditation itself is meditation upon Him.
Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama
Kashmir Shaivism
This commentator reads the verse as answering a specific doubt: since an earlier verse spoke of 'one whose self is conquered', how is that conquest actually achieved? The means is the restraint of the mind, supported by evenness of the body. He builds a chain of dependence: from steadiness of posture comes steadiness of time, and from steadiness of time comes steadiness of mind, so the outer conditions of solitude and the rest are not optional but the ground on which mental one-pointedness stands. 'Constantly' is glossed as not for a measured time. He gives the practice a theistic aim: the meditator is to sit joined, holding Me (the Lord) as supreme, and the farthest reach of this steady standing is the attaining of Me, in which peace arises.
Ācārya Abhinavagupta
Bhakti
These commentators agree that the 'self' to be yoked is the mind, to be made absorbed in samadhi, and read the outer rules as the careful conditions under which the mind, no longer scattered into society and acquisition, can be set on one object. One stresses that the verse is not a counsel of physical austerity for its own sake but a map of what the room of meditation requires: solitude, lightness of hand, the absence of expectation. One identifies the practitioner as the doer of desireless action, taking 'restrained mind and body' as freedom from activity opposed to yoga and 'without possessions' as taking no food beyond need. The Marathi commentator, before reaching the method, dwells at length on the surpassing glory of the perfected yogi praised in the surrounding verses, and frames the coming teaching as the 'royal road' of yoga whose fruit is peace and liberation.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar
Modern
These commentators read the verse with a practical, contemporary eye. One opens the practice beyond the literal cave: while the renunciant can meditate in a mountain cave, a householder with spiritual inclination can practice in a quiet room at home or by a holy river, and he adds that one who has truly mastered withdrawal of the senses can find solitude even in a crowded city, whereas a passionate, uncontrolled person finds no peace even in a Himalayan cave. He insists the practice must be constant, not by fits and starts, and reads 'free of possessions' and 'free of hope, desire, and greed' as the very conditions of a steady mind. Another identifies the yogi here as the Karma-yogi and treats this chapter's Patanjala-style yoga as a means for acquiring the equable reason that karma-yoga needs, so solitude is required only to that extent, not as a lifelong vocation. A third notes simply that the dhyana-yoga sketched at the end of the previous chapter is now described in detail, and defines yoga from its root as the stilling (nirodha) of the mind's movements.
Swami Sivananda · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas
A Seeker Asks
Does real meditation require me to physically withdraw to a cave alone with nothing, or can the solitude and possessionlessness this verse asks for be cultivated within an ordinary life?
The verse does literally describe a renunciant settling into a solitary place such as a mountain cave, alone, having given up belongings, and several commentators read it precisely as the start of a sannyasi's discipline. So the picture of the secluded hermit is genuinely there and is not to be explained away.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Dhanapati Sūri
But the commentators are clear that none of the outer conditions are austerity for its own sake. They are a careful map of what the mind needs in order to stop scattering itself into society and acquisition and to rest on a single object. Solitude removes the distractions that call the senses out, aloneness removes the company that draws the mind back to the world, and possessionlessness removes the belongings the mind would otherwise keep guarding. The whole arrangement exists to serve the one real instruction, which is to gather the mind and hold it steady.
Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabhācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Ācārya Abhinavagupta
Read that way, the verse opens onto ordinary life. One modern commentator explicitly says a householder with spiritual inclination can practice in a quiet room at home or by a holy river, that the deeper aim is inner sense-control which can yield solitude even in a crowded city, and that what the verse really asks of anyone is constancy of practice and freedom from hope, desire, and greed, keeping only what the body needs. So the cave is the outer image; the steadied, unattached, one-pointed mind is the thing itself, and that can be cultivated wherever you are.
Swami Sivananda · Swami Ramsukhdas · Lokmanya Tilak
Contemplation
Take the verse first as a description of your mind, not only of your address. Its deepest counsel is that solitude is finally an inner achievement: if you have real control of the senses, you can find perfect solitude and peace even in the most crowded and noisy city, while if the senses are turbulent you will have no peace even in a solitary Himalayan cave. So begin where you are. If you are a householder, you need not flee your family; meditate in a quiet room of your own house, or by a holy river when you can get away, and make the practice constant rather than by fits and starts, since a few scattered minutes a day yield nothing. Loosen the grip of hope, desire, and greed, because these keep the mind restless and turbulent; and keep only what your body actually needs, since many possessions set the mind forever guarding and worrying over them. If you do long for deeper seclusion, break your worldly ties gradually rather than all at once, staying in retreat first for a week, then longer, so that neither you nor those around you are shocked. And remember the test: sense-control proved in an empty forest proves little, so let the steadied mind eventually return to the company of people, where it is truly tried.
Sit with this · Swami Sivananda
All the translations and commentary
Pull up a chair.
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