📿 Shloka Collection

Yatha Dipo Nivatastho

Gita 6.19 Bhagavad Gita
📖 Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 6 — Atma Samyama Yoga
यथा दीपो निवातस्थो नेङ्गते सोपमा स्मृता ।
योगिनो यतचित्तस्य युञ्जतो योगमात्मनः ॥
Yatha dipo nivatastho nengate sopamaa smrita
Yogino yatachittasya yunjato yogamaatmanah
Yatha dipah
just as a lamp
Nivatastho
placed in a windless spot
Na ingate
does not flicker, does not waver
Sa upama smrita
that simile is remembered, that comparison is given
Yoginah yatachittasya
of the yogi whose mind is controlled
Yunjatah yogam aatmanah
who is practising yoga of the Self

This is one of the Gita's most beloved images. A lamp placed where no wind blows burns with a perfectly steady flame — upright, unwavering, casting an even light. That lamp is the simile for the disciplined yogi's mind.

Our minds are usually like a candle in a drafty room. Every thought is a gust — the flame leans this way, then that way, sometimes nearly going out. Meditation is the practice of finding the windless room inside. When the gusts of thought die down, the flame of awareness stands straight and still.

Notice that Krishna does not say the flame is extinguished. The mind is not shut off. It is fully alive, fully luminous — but without the flickering. Stillness does not mean darkness. It means steady, uninterrupted light.

This simile gives a visual shape to the abstract definition in 6.18. 'The mind resting in the Self' was conceptual. The unflickering lamp makes it something anyone can picture and aim for.

Across Indian literature, the steady lamp flame is one of the most recognized symbols of meditative absorption. The Gita's use of it here has ensured its place at the heart of that tradition.

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