SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
SlOkam – Original
yathA dhIpO nivAthasthO nEngathE sOpamA smruthA |
yOginO yathachiththasya yunjathO yOgam Athmana: ||
word-by-word meaning
yatha chiththasya – having a mind which is restrained (from worldly pleasures)
yOgam yunjatha: – being the one who engages in practice of yOga in AthmA related matters
yOgina: – yOgi’s
Athmana: – for the Athma svarUpam (true nature of the self)
nivAthastha: – in a windless place
dhIpa: – lamp
yathA na ingathE – how it stays without flickering
sA – that state
upamA – example
smruthA – said
Simple Translation
The lamp which stays without flickering in a windless place is said as an example for the true nature of a yOgi who is having a restrained mind and is engaged in the practice of yOga in AthmA related matters.
Rendering based on ALkoNdavilli gOvindhAchArya swAmy’s English translation of gIthA bhAshyam
‘To like unto the flame flickering not[1. Śrī Bhāgavata, III-24-44, gives another illustration ; Praśāntormir iva udadhiḥ; meaning: like the ocean with its waves subsided.], when screened from wind, they compare the ātma, with which communes the yogi of restrained mind.’
The lamp-flame, when sheltered from wind, does not flutter, but burns bright and steady. (This is cited [=smṛitā] by those who are experienced in meditation) as an illustration to show how ātma-nature becomes steady and effulgent to that yogi who concentres his thoughts on it, after abstracting them (or stopping them) from all other outward functionings.
The purport is, that ātma shines steady and radiant in its light of intelligence (jñāna), by reason of all extraneous workings or distractions of the mind having been shut out, like the flame of a lamp burning steady and bright when all breeze is shut out from blowing against it.
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