Commentary

Commentary

This verse defines, with surgical precision, what it means to have arrived — to be “yoga-aarudha,” established in yoga. Two forms of non-clinging are named: not clinging to sense objects, and not clinging to actions themselves. Both are necessary, and the second is often overlooked.

Not clinging to sense objects is more familiar as a spiritual ideal: not being pulled by pleasant sights, sounds, tastes, and touches; not being pushed by unpleasant ones. This is the classical teaching of pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses). But the second form — “na karmasu anushajjate” — not clinging to actions — is subtler. One can renounce sense objects while still clinging fiercely to the activity of renouncing. One can meditate with desperate attachment to meditation. One can serve others with an ego that needs to be seen as a servant. The yoga-aarudha is free from both: free from objects and free from the subtle possessiveness toward spiritual practice itself.

The crown of this freedom is “sarva-sankalpa-sannyaasee” — one who has renounced all sankalpa, all purposeful personal intention. This returns to the key word of verse 2. Sankalpa is the engine of the ego: I want this, I intend that, I will achieve the other. Its renunciation does not mean passivity — the established yogi acts fully — but the personal “I” behind the action has dissolved. What acts is not an ego with agenda but awareness flowing through a form, as wind moves through trees without possessing them.

The state described here is not suppression of desire but its natural exhaustion — the way a fire goes out not by being stamped on but by consuming all its fuel. The yoga-aarudha has nothing left to burn for the ego’s fire. Their peace is not effortful; it is the natural condition of a mind whose attachments have simply ended.

Historical Context

“Yoga-aarudha” — ascended to yoga — is the state that verse 3 said is served by tranquility (shama) rather than further action. Verse 4 now specifies what that state looks like: complete non-attachment to both objects and activities, with all sankalpa renounced. The Mandukya Upanishad’s turiya (the fourth state, beyond waking, dreaming, and deep sleep) corresponds to a similar description of a consciousness that is present but not grasping at any content. Verse 4 thus marks the horizon toward which all the practice of Chapter 6 — the meditation postures, breath regulation, mind training — is aimed: this absolute, effortless, unclinging presence.