September Gītā: 6.46

This month Louise has selected a sloka which Tom interpreted in July. Their interpretations of the same sloka are very different and we have repeated it this month to show how yoga is an experiential practice and how the philosophy behind it is open to interpretation.

tapasvibhyo ’dhiko yogī
jñānibhyo ’pi mato ’dhikaḥ
karmibhyaś c'ādhiko yogī
tasmād yogī bhav'ārjuna

‘A yogi is superior to a man of austerity, superior to a scholar, he is superior to a ritualist too. Therefore, O Arjuna, strive to be a yogi.’

Bhagavad Gītā 6.46

Here we see Krishna telling Arjuna that the path of the yogi is the one to strive for because the others attempt to attain things which exist and belong in the material world whilst the yogi strives for something beyond the material world.

It doesn’t really matter how many chants or slokas you can throw into conversation in your best Sanskrit, neither does it matter how long you practise and abstain from chocolate and coffee or how many sticks of incense and candles you ritualistically light before setting your feet onto the mat for Surya Namaskar; what matters is our search for our true spiritual identity, our true commitment and intention to this path, our striving towards the observances, our dedicated struggle to reign in our thoughts, senses and desires, and our repeated attempts to challenge our attachments. Yoga is not measured by how disciplined we make our life, the habits we form around practice or the number of books we read and memorise, it is a state of being and whilst it is constantly reinforced and helped along with every physical practice we do, it is something we constantly strive to take beyond the practice space into every interaction with life we have. We don’t do, we try to be.

– Louise Newton