Shloka 53

Adhyāya 240: Indriya–Manas–Buddhi–Ātman — The Inner Hierarchy and Restraint (इन्द्रिय-मनस्-बुद्धि-आत्म-क्रमः)

Devanagari script

सत्त्वसंसेवनाद धीरो निद्रामुच्छेत्तुमरहति । विद्वानोंने योगके जो काम

Transliteration

sattvasaṁsevanād dhīro nidrām ucchettum arhati | vidvān yoge ye kāma-krodha-lobha-bhayaṁ ca pañcamaṁ svapnam—ime pañca doṣā uktās teṣāṁ pūrṇatayā ucchedaṁ kuryāt | teṣu krodhaṁ śamena jayet, kāmaṁ saṅkalpa-tyāgena parājayet, tathā dhīraḥ sattvaguṇa-sevanena nidrāyā ucchedaṁ kartum śaknoti ||

Translation

Vyāsa dit : En cultivant sattva, l’homme ferme devient apte à retrancher le sommeil. Les sages déclarent cinq fautes qui entravent le yoga—désir, colère, avidité, peur et, comme cinquième, le rêve—et il faut les déraciner entièrement. Parmi elles, la colère se conquiert par une maîtrise de soi paisible ; le désir se défait en abandonnant l’intention et la résolution compulsives ; et l’homme résolu, en recourant à la qualité de sattva, peut vaincre le sommeil lui-même.

Word by Word

• {'sattva-saṁsevana': 'cultivation/constant resort to sattva (clarity, purity, balance)', 'dhīra': 'steadfast, self-possessed person', 'nidrā': 'sleep

• lethargy that dulls awareness', 'ucchettum / uccheda': 'to cut off

• eradication, uprooting', 'vidvān': 'the wise, learned person', 'yoga': 'discipline of inner integration

• meditative practice', 'kāma': 'desire, craving', 'krodha': 'anger', 'lobha': 'greed, grasping', 'bhaya': 'fear', 'svapna': 'dreaming

• dream-state distraction', 'doṣa': 'fault, defect, obstacle', 'śama': 'calmness

• mental restraint, pacification of the mind', 'saṅkalpa': 'intention, resolve, mental construction/volition', 'tyāga': 'renunciation, letting-go', 'parājayet / jayet': 'should defeat / should conquer', 'sattva-guṇa': 'the sattva quality among the guṇas (clarity, luminosity)'}

Speaker

व्यास उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Vyāsa

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Yoga requires uprooting five inner obstacles—desire, anger, greed, fear, and dreaming. Anger is subdued through śama (mental restraint), desire through abandoning saṅkalpa (compulsive intention), and sleep is overcome by cultivating sattva (clarity and purity).

What is happening in the narrative?

In the instruction-heavy Shānti Parva, Vyāsa delivers a didactic teaching on inner discipline, listing psychological impediments to yogic practice and prescribing specific methods of conquest grounded in self-restraint and the cultivation of sattva.