Devanagari
श्रीभगवानुवाच
योग आध्यात्मिक: पुंसां मतो नि:श्रेयसाय मे ।
अत्यन्तोपरतिर्यत्र दु:खस्य च सुखस्य च ॥ १३ ॥
Verse text
śrī-bhagavān uvāca
yoga ādhyātmikaḥ puṁsāṁ
mato niḥśreyasāya me
atyantoparatir yatra
duḥkhasya ca sukhasya ca
Synonyms
śrī
—
bhagavān uvāca — the Personality of Godhead said
;
yogaḥ
—
the yoga system
;
ādhyātmikaḥ
—
relating to the soul
;
puṁsām
—
of living entities
;
mataḥ
—
is approved
;
niḥśreyasāya
—
for the ultimate benefit
;
me
—
by Me
;
atyanta
—
complete
;
uparatiḥ
—
detachment
;
yatra
—
where
;
duḥkhasya
—
from distress
;
ca
—
and
;
sukhasya
—
from happiness
;
ca
—
and .
Translation
The Personality of Godhead answered: The yoga system which relates to the Lord and the individual soul, which is meant for the ultimate benefit of the living entity, and which causes detachment from all happiness and distress in the material world, is the highest yoga system.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
The Supreme Lord said: I approve of yoga concerning the ātmā for giving one personal benefit. By that, there is complete uprooting of material happiness and distress.
Yoga concerning the jīvātmā (ādhyātmikaḥ) is approved as the most beneficial method for oneself (niḥśreyasāya). It has three types: bhakti, jṣana and aṣtāṅga-yoga. For bhakti, benefit for oneself is a secondary effect. Being situated in this yoga, one uproots material happiness and distress.
Purport
In the material world, everyone is trying to get some material happiness, but as soon as we get some material happiness, there is also material distress. In the material world one cannot have unadulterated happiness. Any kind of happiness one has is contaminated by distress also. For example, if we want to drink milk then we have to bother to maintain a cow and keep her fit to supply milk. Drinking milk is very nice; it is also pleasure. But for the sake of drinking milk one has to accept so much trouble. The
yoga
system, as here stated by the Lord, is meant to end all material happiness and material distress. The best
yoga,
as taught in
Bhagavad-gītā
by Kṛṣṇa, is
bhakti-yoga.
It is also mentioned in the
Gītā
that one should try to be tolerant and not be disturbed by material happiness or distress. Of course, one may say that he is not disturbed by material happiness, but he does not know that just after one enjoys so-called material happiness, material distress will follow. This is the law of the material world. Lord Kapila states that the
yoga
system is the science of the spirit. One practices
yoga
in order to attain perfection on the spiritual platform. There is no question of material happiness or distress. It is transcendental. Lord Kapila will eventually explain how it is transcendental, but the preliminary introduction is given here.