What does yoga mean in the Bhagavad Gita?
In the Gita, yoga is much more than posture or exercise. The word comes from yuj, “to join” or “to harness”, and in the Gita it names a discipline of mind and action. The Gita gives its own definitions: “equability is called devotion”, in Telang's words (2.48), and yoga is skill in action (2.50). Every chapter ends by naming itself a yoga, such as karma yoga, the yoga of action (chapter 3), and bhakti yoga, the yoga of devotion (chapter 12), and the chapter endings call the whole book a yoga-shastra. The Gita asks for balance, not extremes, even in food and sleep (6.16–17). The schools differ on which yoga leads furthest.
Written for Pujadeep and checked against the sources listed.
What the schools say
Advaita (Shankara)
For Shankara, the yoga of action is a preparation. Both renunciation and the yoga of action lead to liberation because both give rise to knowledge; for one who does not yet have knowledge, the yoga of action is better because it is easier (on 5.2). Work done without desire purifies the mind and leads in time to meditation (on 6.1). The end is knowledge of the Self, with the giving up of all action.
Sources for this reading
- The Bhagavad-Gita, with the commentary of Sri Sankaracharya, translated by A. Mahadeva Sastri (2nd ed., Mysore: G. T. A. Printing Works, 1901) (introduction to chapter 5 and commentary on 5.2 (pp. 144–145; “comparatively easier of performance”, p. 144), and on 6.1–2 (pp. 163–168))
- Bhagavad Gita, 5.2
Vishishtadvaita (Ramanuja)
For Ramanuja, the yoga of action is a full path in itself to knowing the self. The person who does his duty as worship of the Supreme, without seeking reward, walks the paths of action and of knowledge at once, and need not give up prescribed work (on 6.1). Of the two paths, the path of works is better (on 5.2). Knowing the self prepares for the higher way of bhakti, loving devotion, and the loving devotee stands above all yogis (on 6.47).
Sources for this reading
- Sri Bhagavad-Gita with Sri Ramanujacharya's Visishtadvaita commentary, translated by A. Govindacharya (Madras, 1898) (commentary on 5.2 (p. 173), 6.1 (pp. 193–194) and 6.47 (pp. 219–221))
- Bhagavad Gita, 6.47
Patanjali's Yoga
Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, one of the six classical schools, define yoga in their second sutra as, in Max Müller's words, “the effort of restraining the activity or distractions of our thoughts”. Their aim is to set the self apart from the restless world of matter. Müller notes that the Gita uses the word differently, for equability (2.48), and that one later commentator even says that Patanjali's yoga, “union”, really means separation of self from matter.
Sources for this reading
The Bhagavad Gita (the text)
The Gita describes yoga from several sides. It is evenness: “being equable in success or ill-success” (2.48, Telang). It is action without attachment, by which a person “attains the Supreme” (3.19). It is moderation: devotion “is not his … who eats too much, nor his who eats not at all” (6.16). And it is release from sorrow: “this disconnection from the union with pain is called Yoga” (6.23, Besant).
Sources for this reading
Sources
- Bhagavad Gita, 2.50
- Bhagavad Gita, 6.17
- Bhagavad Gita (chapter colophons in the Natesan 1922 printing, as stored in our chapter records (chapters 1–10 and 12–14): each names its chapter a yoga; chapters 1 and 8 print yogaśāstre, the others abbreviate the formula with ॰)
- The Bhagavad-Gita, or The Lord's Song, with the text in Devanagari and an English translation (colophons of chapters 11, 15, 16, 17 and 18, pp. 177, 217, 226, 236 and 264 (leaves n186, n226, n235, n245, n273), read on the page images: each names its chapter a yoga, and chapter 18 prints the full formula with yogaśāstre; Besant's English colophon after every chapter renders it “the scripture of Yoga”)
- F. Max Müller, The Six Systems of Indian Philosophy (London and New York: Longmans, Green, 1899), “Meanings of the word Yoga”: yuj, “to join”, came to mean to harness oneself for some work, and to concentrate or exert the mind. Müller died 1900: public domain. Summarised in our words. (pp. 404–405)
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Source and licence
- Our explanation
- Written for this site from the sources listed here, and checked against them. Free to quote with credit.
- Checked
- Checked against the sources listed, October 13, 2026.
- Updated
- October 15, 2026