Shloka 15
अव्यक्त–पुरुष–विवेकः (Discrimination of Avyakta/Prakṛti and Puruṣa) — Yājñavalkya’s Anvīkṣikī to Viśvāvasu
स्थाणुवच्चाप्यकम्प: स्याद् गिरिवच्चापि निश्चल: । बुद्धवा विधिविधानज्ञास्तदा युक्तं प्रचक्षते,मिथिलेश्वर! जब योगी मनके द्वारा सम्पूर्ण इन्द्रियोंको और बुद्धिके द्वारा मनको स्थिर करके पत्थरकी भाँति अविचल हो जाय, सूखे काठकी भाँति निष्कम्य और पर्वतकी तरह स्थिर रहने लगे तभी शास्त्रके विधानको जाननेवाले विद्वान् पुरुष अपने अनुभवसे ही उसको योगयुक्त कहते हैं
sthāṇuvaccāpy akampaḥ syād girivaccāpi niścalaḥ | buddhvā vidhividhānajñās tadā yuktaṃ pracakṣate, mithileśvara |
Vasiṣṭha said: “Let him become unshaken like a pillar and immovable like a mountain. When, by the mind, he restrains all the senses, and by the intellect he steadies the mind—becoming motionless like a stone, desireless like dry wood, and firm like a mountain—then those wise men who know the scriptural disciplines declare, from their own realization, that he is truly established in Yoga, O Lord of Mithilā.”
वसिष्ठ उवाच
Educational Q&A
True Yoga is recognized as inner integration and steadiness: the senses are gathered under the mind, and the mind is stabilized by the intellect. When one becomes unshaken, desireless, and firmly established—like a pillar or mountain—scripturally trained sages acknowledge that state as being ‘yukta’ (yoga-established).
Vasiṣṭha is instructing the king of Mithilā (Janaka) on the marks of an accomplished yogin. Using vivid similes (pillar, stone, dry wood, mountain), he describes the experiential criteria by which knowledgeable sages recognize genuine yogic establishment.