BG 6.16 — Dhyāna-Yoga — Sūtrakṛt-Gītā

Bhagavad Gītā 6.16Chapter 6 · Dhyāna-Yoga · Krishna → Arjuna · anuṣṭubh

नात्यश्नतस् तु योगो ऽस्ति न चैकान्तमनश्नतः ।

नश् चातिस्वप्नशीलस्य जाग्रतो नैव चार्जुन ॥

nātyaśnatas tu yogo 'sti na caikāntam anaśnataḥ

naś cātisvapna-śīlasya jāgrato naiva cārjuna

spokensingle-voice recital; rendered via IndicF5 conditioned on a Sanskrit reference clip

meaning

Yoga is not for one who eats too much or fasts completely, Arjuna, nor for one given to too much sleep or too much waking.

ekras · bhāṣya

The verse names what yoga is not for. "Yoga is not for one who eats too much, nor for one who fasts completely, nor for one given to too much sleep, nor for one given to too much waking, Arjuna." Four extremes; four exclusions. The verse is doing a quiet but firm thing: it is foreclosing the romanticism of austerity in either direction.

Shankara reads naty-ashnatah through the Shatapatha-shruti rule: atma-sammita food — body-commensurate, neither too much nor too little — sustains without harming. Excess produces ajirna, indigestion, that disorders the inner instrument required for samadhi. The yoga-shastra's fourfold partition holds: half the stomach for food, a quarter for water, a quarter left empty for vayu, the vital breath. The measure is not poetic; it is the operative arithmetic.

Ramanuja extends the principle into eight terms across four pairs. Ati-ashana and anashana — overeating and fasting. Ati-vihara and avihara — excessive movement and immobility. Ati-svapna and ati-jagara — too much sleep and too much waking. Ati-ayasa and anayasa — excessive exertion and lassitude. Each is a virodhin, an obstructing factor; the body that does kainkarya as Bhagavan's instrument cannot do that work from any of these eight extremes.

Madhva opens a careful door. The injunction against anashana applies to the ashakta — the one not yet capable of sustained nirahara; for the shakta, the advanced sadhaka, the Naradiya-smriti prescribes open-eyed motionless dhyana free of sleep, food, fear, and breath-disturbance. The middle is not the only path; for those who have grown into the higher capacity, the prohibition lifts.

Vallabha reads 6.16-17 as one teaching: the negation here clears the ground for yukta-ahara-vihara in 6.17, the affirmative measure under which yoga becomes duhkha-ha.

Context

where

Chapter 6 · Dhyāna-Yoga · meter anuṣṭubh

who speaks

Krishna → Arjuna

preceded by — BG 6.15

The yogi who practices this way without cease, mind held steady and controlled, reaches the supreme peace of nirvāṇa, which rests in Me.

What's going on

Yoga is not for one who eats too much or fasts completely, Arjuna, nor for one given to too much sleep or too much waking.

Sūtras through this verse (63)

RamsukhdasclassicalA

What binds you (and how to let go)between

6.1True renouncing acts; drops the inner hook.───→here6.16───→7.30Hold the Lord through every layer of life.

RāmānujaclassicalB

The śāstra is one bracket (2.12 → 18.66)between

2.39Practice seam begins.───→here6.16───→6.46The yogi outranks every other path.

MadhvaclassicalT2

Soul depends on Lord — the gap that does not closebetween

6.9Souls differ by nature not by accident alone.───→here6.16───→13.23Soul and Lord coexist in the body, not as one.

show all 63

Madhusūdanaclassicalmadhusudan_bhagavad_arpana

Madhusudan Bhagavad Arpanabetween · other

6.1Renouncer and yogi together───→here6.16───→9.22Yogakshema as offering returned

MadhusūdanaclassicalB

Different students need different teachingsbetween

6.1The renouncer and yogi are one under two views.───→here6.16───→7.16Four kinds of devotee, ranked by ripeness.

MadhusūdanaclassicalC

Action purifies before knowing can landbetween

6.1Renouncing too lives by purity of mind.───→here6.16───→16.1The dispositions decide who can even begin.

MadhusūdanaclassicalD

Offer the act to the Lord and it stops bindingbetween

6.1The fruit-unattached one is yogi and renouncer.───→here6.16───→9.22The undivided ones the Lord himself sustains.

MadhusūdanaclassicalG

Knowing and acting cannot run togetherbetween

6.1Calling a karma-yogi 'renouncer' is only a courtesy.───→here6.16───→18.1At the very end, the line still holds.

MadhusūdanaclassicalI

Liberation while alive — the body finishes its runbetween

3.1The architecture ends in living-liberation, then bodily.───→here6.16───→6.46The yogi with mind-stilled stands above mere knowing.

MadhusūdanaclassicalE

Devotion is how knowing actually arrivesapproach

───→here6.16───→7.1The chapter elaborates the prior bhajana-line.

MadhusūdanaclassicalF

Every middle chapter opens with a bow to the teacherapproach

───→here6.16───→7.1A bow to the bliss-cloud, Nanda's son, opens seven.

RamsukhdasclassicalB

This human birth — your one chance to actbetween

3.8Even keeping the body alive requires action.───→here6.16───→6.40A fallen seeker still keeps the human birth.

RamsukhdasclassicalC

Desire is the root — not actionbetween

5.26With desire gone, the goal stands on all sides.───→here6.16───→6.24Renounce every desire born of will.

RamsukhdasclassicalG

Equanimity in everythingbetween

6.8Clay, stone, and gold are all level to him.───→here6.16───→6.32Sees others' pain and joy as his own.

RamsukhdasclassicalH

All paths arrive at the same roombetween

5.4Insight and practice are not two paths.───→here6.16───→6.46The lover outranks every other yogi.

RamsukhdasclassicalK

The body is not yoursbetween

6.3Body, senses, and mind: none of them yours.───→here6.16───→13.20Nature causes the act; you only experience.

Ramsukhdasclassical

Sādhaka Sañjīvanī commentary at this versebetween

───→here6.16───→

RamsukhdasclassicalI

The Lord already inside the heartapproach

───→here6.16───→6.30See Me everywhere, I am never lost.

RāmānujaclassicalC

Three ṣaṭkas (1–6 / 7–12 / 13–18)between

6.1The renouncer and yogi are the same person.───→here6.16───→7.1Open the second ṣaṭka: mind clung to Me.

RāmānujaclassicalD

Karma-yoga as kainkarya (worship)between

6.1The renouncer is the one who acts for Me.───→here6.16───→9.27Whatever you do, do it as offering.

MadhvaclassicalT3

Ranking is real — and it never collapsesbetween

6.9Devas, asuras, mortals are three native kinds.───→here6.16───→14.27Brahman has gradations within its own form.

MadhvaclassicalT6

Citation is the spine — texts carry the loadbetween

6.6Maitrāyaṇī defines the stilled mind.───→here6.16───→7.5Doubled prakṛti named from a single śruti.

MadhvaclassicalT7

Action and knowledge — never rivalsbetween

6.1The renouncer and yogi are one person, two names.───→here6.16───→18.2The ritualists' śruti fixes the closing definition.

MadhvaclassicalT8

Direct vision — the only proximate causebetween

6.7The stilled mind sees the seated supreme self.───→here6.16───→6.46The five-rung ladder ends in love, not knowledge.

MadhvaclassicalT9

Devotion and grace — what knowledge cannot do alonebetween

2.72Many lives of bhakti precede the final crossing.───→here6.16───→6.30Devotion brings what the seeker cannot earn.

MadhvaclassicalT12

Closure by gloss — the small repertoirebetween

5.7'Self of all' resolves to the Lord himself.───→here6.16───→6.20'Self' here is not soul but the Lord within.

VallabhaclassicalC

Drop the doer, not the deedbetween

6.1Real renouncing keeps the act alive.───→here6.16───→18.1The closing chapter reopens this question.

VallabhaclassicalD

Chapter-opening preludesbetween

6.1Prelude binds yoga to puṣṭi-bhakti.───→here6.16───→7.1Seven-verse prelude opens the bhakti-ṣaṭka.

VallabhaclassicalE

Three paths, one teaching orderbetween

6.1The two paths are one through fruit-renouncing act.───→here6.16───→6.46The lover outranks the wise and the disciplined.

VallabhaclassicalH

Stilling the mind — into the Lordbetween

2.48Yoga itself is just sameness of mind.───→here6.16───→6.46The yogi closing the ṣaṭka is a mind-stiller.

RāmānujaclassicalA

World as the Lord's body (antaryāmin)approach

───→here6.16───→7.4Two natures of the Lord: matter and selves.

RāmānujaclassicalE

Bhakti as continuous recollectionapproach

───→here6.16───→7.17I am dearest to him.

RāmānujaclassicalF

Two prakṛtis · jīva as eternal aṃśaapproach

───→here6.16───→7.4Lower nature: matter.

RāmānujaclassicalJ

Śeṣa-śeṣī · pati-vrata simileapproach

───→here6.16───→7.18He is My self; I cannot hold without him.

VallabhaclassicalB

Grace alone — the technical markapproach

───→here6.16───→7.18The wise one is Myself, by grace alone.

VallabhaclassicalK

Aphorism, gloss, full commentaryapproach

───→here6.16───→6.47Six chapters of aphorism close at this verse.

Gauravmodernchaplaincy_kit_of_tools

Chaplaincy Kit Of Toolsbetween

6.11Mudra and posture. 'Shuchau deshe pratishthapya sthiram asanam atmanah.' Establi───→here6.16───→9.26Puja and havan. 'Patram pushpam phalam toyam yo me bhaktya prayachchhati.' Whoev

Gauravmoderncivilizational_air_conditioning

Civilizational Air Conditioningbetween

6.5'Uddhared atmanatmanam natmanam avasadayet.' Lift yourself by yourself, do not l───→here6.16───→16.21'Tri-vidham narakasyedam dvaram nashanam atmanah, kamah krodhas tatha lobhah.' T

Gauravmodernheart_leadership

Heart Leadershipbetween

6.7'Jitatmanah prashantasya paramatma samahitah.' For the self-conquered, in-peace,───→here6.16───→6.35'Asamshayam maha-baho mano durnigraham chalam, abhyasena tu Kaunteya vairagyena

Gauravmodernthree_yogas_braid

Three Yogas Braidbetween

5.5'Yat sankhyaih prapyate sthanam tad yogair api gamyate.' The place reached by sa───→here6.16───→6.46'Tapasvibhyo'dhiko yogi jnanibhyo'pi mato'dhikah, karmibhyash chadhiko yogi tasm

Gauravmodernwitness_self_neti_neti

Witness Self Neti Netibetween

2.20'Na jayate mriyate va kadachit, nayam bhutva bhavita va na bhuyah, ajo nityah sh───→here6.16───→6.20'Yatroparamate chittam niruddham yoga-sevaya, yatra chaivatmana'tmanam pashyann

ĀnandagiriclassicalB

Three hexads = tat tvam asibetween

2.1First hexad opens, tvam-pada implicit.───→here6.16───→6.46Inner-self hexad closes; pivot prepared.

ĀnandagiriclassicalC

Adhikāra: seeker vs. fulfilledbetween

5.1Two saṃnyāsas: fruit and means.───→here6.16───→6.46Yogin vs. jñānin: not synonyms.

ĀnandagiriclassicalK

Upasaṃhāra — recap as instrumentbetween

2.39Wisdom section wound up here.───→here6.16───→6.46Dhyāna section sealed: yogin is supreme.

ĀnandagiriclassicalI

Bhakti carries jñāna, never parallelapproach

───→here6.16───→7.1Upāsya and tat-pada in apposition. Anchor.

ĀnandagiriclassicalJ

Prakṛti is never autonomousapproach

───→here6.16───→7.4Two-fold prakṛti is the Lord's own power.

Śaṅkaraclassicalshankara_jnana_nishtha

Shankara Jnana Nishthabetween · other

6.1Soft sense of renouncer───→here6.16───→18.49Naishkarmya-siddhi by sannyāsa

ŚaṅkaraclassicalB

Knowledge alone, with all action laid downbetween

6.1The fire-keeper is renouncer only in a soft sense.───→here6.16───→18.49Action-freedom comes from full renunciation.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalF

Saṅgati — anticipation-and-resolutionbetween

3.1Arjuna's question resolves 2.49's hint.───→here6.16───→6.47Top-yogin clause — the chapter-7 hinge.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalG

Three yogas — three angles on one configurationbetween

6.1The renouncer and yogi are one figure.───→here6.16───→6.46The yogi outranks tapasvi, jñāni, karmin.

ŚrīdharaclassicalL

Chapter prefaces as the bhāṣya's spinebetween

6.1Pure mind is not yet release: now meditate.───→here6.16───→8.1Now, the questions of Brahman and self.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalI

The lover and the knower are one personapproach

───→here6.16───→7.16Of the four devotees, the knower is dearest.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalB

Prapatti — bhakti's access for those the long path defeatsapproach

───→here6.16───→7.14Those who take refuge cross the māyā.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalI

9.24 — the standing citation for ārādhyaapproach

───→here6.16───→7.21Deity-worship: His self-arrangement of grace.

ŚrīdharaclassicalC

Devotion is both the way and the homeapproach

───→here6.16───→6.47Be a devotee: that is the meaning.

ŚrīdharaclassicalH

The grammar of single-pointednessapproach

───→here6.16───→7.14Undivided love crosses the great mist.

ŚrīdharaclassicalK

Death-memory as the test of daily habitapproach

───→here6.16───→8.5Whoever remembers Me at the last reaches Me.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalG

After knowing, act only to hold the worldexit

5.8I do nothing at all, says the knower.───→here6.16───→

Ekrasmodernmeditation

Meditation — the dhyāna tourbetween · v2

6.14Mind on Me───→here6.16───→6.19Lamp in a windless place

Ekrasmodernvairagya

Vairāgya — dispassion as instrumentbetween · v2

6.4Renounced in resolve───→here6.16───→6.35Practice and dispassion

Ekrasmodernbhakti

Bhakti — devotion pathapproach · v2

───→here6.16───→7.16Four kinds of bhakta

JayatīrthaclassicalC

Refuting Śaṅkara-style readings, named or unnamedbetween

6.1Householder is not figurative saṁnyāsin.───→here6.16───→7.13Why this declaration? The gloss must answer.

JayatīrthaclassicalD

Saṅgati declared at the head of every adhyāyabetween

6.1Karma-yoga is outer; samādhi-yoga inner.───→here6.16───→7.1First ṣaṭka closed; new pratijñā opens.

Śabda · lemmas (16 unique · 20 occurrences)

न na ×3 — not (negation particle)
च ca ×3 — and; (homonym: also the consonant ca)

show all 16

अत्यश्नतः a-√tyaś — to surpass, eat beyond (ati- + √aś) · genitive masculine singular present participle verb
तु tu — but, on the other hand (particle)
योगः yoga — yoga; union, discipline, application · nominative masculine singular noun
अस्ति √as — to be (verbal root) · present indicative 3rd person singular verb
एकान्तम् ekāntam — exclusively, solely (eka + anta)
अन् an — negation prefix (variant of a-)
अश्नतः √aś — to eat / to pervade (verbal root, two homophonous roots) · genitive masculine singular present participle verb
नः mad — I, me (1st person pronoun stem); also: to rejoice (verbal root) · genitive plural noun
अति ati — beyond, exceeding (prefix)
स्वप्न svapna — dream, sleep (from √svap) · compound · also at 2.13, 6.17, 18.35
शीलस्य śīla — character, conduct, disposition · genitive masculine singular noun
जाग्रतः √jāgṛ — to be awake, watchful (verbal root) · genitive masculine singular present participle verb
एव eva — indeed, truly, only (emphatic particle)
अर्जुन arjuna — Arjuna (the third Pāṇḍava); also: white, bright · vocative masculine singular noun

Praśna · so what (7)

01If yoga requires ātma-saṃmita (body-commensurate) intake, does the verse implicitly validate individualized dietary norms — and how do the schools resolve the tension between prescriptive rules and individual physiology?
02Madhva restricts the anaśana prohibition to the aśakta: does this create a two-tier yoga ethics where advanced practitioners operate under different norms, and what prevents that from licensing spiritual elitism?

show all 7

03All six commentators converge on a 'middle way' reading — does this convergence reflect a genuine philosophical agreement across Advaita, Dvaita, and Bhakti schools, or is each school's 'middle' located at a doctrinally different point?
04Vallabha's pairing of 6.16 with 6.17 makes yukta-āhāra itself a form of prasāda-reception: does this move dissolve the boundary between ascetic discipline and devotional surrender, or sharpen it?
05Madhusūdana's extension to environmental conditions (cold, heat, wind) via Mārkaṇḍeya-purāṇa treats external circumstances as obstacles structurally equivalent to internal excess — what does this imply for the yogī's relationship to place and season?
06The verse is addressed explicitly to Arjuna on a battlefield: does the āhāra-nidrā regulation apply to a warrior's regimen, and how do any of the bhāṣyas reckon with the incongruity of sleep-regulation advice in a war context?
07If ati-jāgara (excessive wakefulness) is an obstacle equal to ati-svapna, does the verse implicitly critique heroic ascetic vigil traditions (rātri-jāgara), and do any commentators acknowledge that tension?

Vyavahāra · try it in your life

Advaita

A practitioner following the Śaṅkara reading applies the fourfold stomach-partition — filling half with food, a quarter with water, leaving a quarter open — as a pre-meditation discipline, treating this not as dietary preference but as antaḥkaraṇa (inner-instrument) maintenance; any day the stomach is overloaded or empty, formal sitting is rescheduled rather than forced.

Viśiṣṭādvaita

A Rāmānuja practitioner frames meal-planning and sleep-scheduling as kainkarya (service to Bhagavān): the body is Bhagavān's property, so irregular eating or sleep deprivation is a form of neglect of a divine instrument — morning sādhana begins only after the body has received its measured night's rest, and meals are offered to Bhagavān before eating, sizing the portion by what the body genuinely requires.

show all 6

Dvaita

A Madhva practitioner distinguishes their current capacity honestly: if they are aśakta (ordinary), they maintain measured āhāra as Hari's injunction; they do not perform dramatic fasts to signal renunciation but calibrate intake to keep vijñāna (discriminative faculty) alert for nama-smaraṇa (Hari's remembrance) — and they treat any food-related vow as conditional on continuing capacity, not as a permanent identity claim.

Śuddhādvaita

A Puṣṭi-mārga sādhaka treats every meal as prasāda-reception: portions are sized by what Kṛṣṇa himself would be offered — neither the renunciant's symbolic morsel nor the householder's feast — and eating is preceded by brief remembrance of Kṛṣṇa's own āhāra in Vraja, so that yukta-āhāra becomes a moment of līlā-connection rather than a rule to obey.

Bhakti

A practitioner following Śrīdhara's plain reading audits four variables each evening — did I eat excessively, fast completely, sleep too long, or stay awake too long? — and scores them simply as yogābhyāsa-anukūla (favorable to practice) or pratikūla (unfavorable); the next session's duration is adjusted accordingly, without moral self-judgment but with the same practicality one applies to equipment maintenance.

Advaita-Bhakti

A Madhusūdana-informed practitioner adds environmental conditions to the daily audit: sitting for dhyāna in extreme cold without adequate covering, or in a noisy wind-exposed location, is treated as structurally equivalent to overeating — an obstacle to kārya-kṣamatā (functional capacity) that the practitioner arranges the environment to remove, because Kṛṣṇa-bhakti's contemplative quality depends as much on outer conditions as on inner restraint.

Adhiṣṭhāna · substrate signature

substratev2.6-frozen

parserByT5-Sanskrit-multitask (Nehrdich/Hellwig/Keutzer EMNLP 2024)

mūlaBelvalkar critical edition (BORI 1947), via Ambuda multi-witness

show all metadata

weightsa=1 · b=0.01 · e_v=0.005 · z=0.2 · h=0 · th=0.01

anchorfit on Ramsukhdas's Sādhak Sañjīvanī (1980), frozen across the eight-commentator panel; cross-validated R@4 = 71.6% on Śaṅkara

extracted2026-04-21

methodPaper 1, Section II.B

↓ view raw per-verse object (JSON)↗ per-verse-object schema ↗ substrate code (MIT) + data (CC-BY 4.0)

The schema generalizes to any bounded-polysemy corpus with discrete primary text units, attested witness traditions, identifiable schools, and formal substrate. Port the per-verse object; refit weights on a domain-appropriate Layer-3 anchor; ship.

Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 6, Verse 16: Krishna to Arjuna — Dhyāna-Yoga