Bhagavad Gita Chapter 6, Verse 17 (BG 6.17) — Meaning, Translation & Commentary

# BG 6.17 — Commentary Translation The practice of meditation becomes naturally accessible when one follows the disciplines described in this verse. The Bhagavan places special emphasis on restraint in eating, activity, and similar matters. The words used to describe the superior life of self-mastery carry profound depth, and their meaning is vast. Generally, practitioners adopt selfless action understanding that this very performance of duty will grant them the qualification for spiritual life. I have encountered many seekers who have become so entangled in the very actions they themselves initiated that they cannot extricate themselves from them. This verse reveals the remedy for escaping such self-created bondage. Discernment should be employed in choosing one's field of work; yet thereafter, it is equally necessary that our efforts be proportionate and measured. If, after selecting a noble action, we become ensnared within it, there is greater likelihood of creating new desires rather than exhausting existing ones. And then it is possible that through the fatigue of actions and mental distractions, we may descend into the lower category of animal nature. Dream and wakefulness ordinarily mean the states of sleep and wakefulness respectively. Yet they contain another profound meaning as well. In the Upanishads, the state of ignorance of ultimate truth is called sleep, and the state of perception and experience arising from that ignorance is called dream—encompassing both our waking state and dream state. From this perspective, true wakefulness is the state of direct knowledge of reality itself. Thus, the dream and wakefulness spoken of in this verse mean the waking state of the individual soul and the state of meditation practice. To be united in both means that the practitioner should maintain restraint in daily activities, and similarly, in meditation practice from the beginning, one should not forcefully suppress the mind and attempt to remain in that state for prolonged periods. Doing so may diminish the mind's interest in meditation due to fatigue. Because meditation yoga possesses the power to destroy all suffering, it should be practiced continuously. The answer to when the practitioner becomes united is—