“For someone balanced in eating and in play, balanced in effort at work, and balanced in sleeping and waking, yoga takes away sorrow.”

Not too much, not too little

Chapter 6 is about meditation, and you might expect Lord Krishna to recommend something extreme: fasting, staying awake all night, giving up every comfort. He says the opposite. The verse just before this one (6.16) warns that yoga is not for the one who eats too much or too little, or sleeps too much or too little.

The key word is yukta: balanced, fitting, “just right”. It runs all through this verse: yukta-āhāra (balanced eating), vihāra (play and recreation), yukta-ceṣṭa (balanced effort in work), yukta-svapna-avabodha (balanced sleep and waking). For such a person, yoga becomes duḥkha-hā, “the remover of sorrow”.

It is an ancient version of advice every doctor gives today. A tired, hungry, over-busy mind cannot be calm, however hard it tries.

For a student: an all-night study session often costs more than it earns. For a parent: a regular bedtime is a gift, not a punishment. At work: rest is part of the work, not a break from it.

For kids: “Good food, good play, good work and good sleep keep my mind happy.”