Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 October 2025
The fourth chapter is titled ‘Yoga in the Bhagavad-gītā’; yoga no doubt occupies a central place in the Gītā and is one of the fundamental constituents of its structure; the chapter is engaged with dhyāna-yoga, which in many ways resembles Patañjali’s classical yoga system. While the Gītā tends to use the term yoga interchangeably with karma-yoga, and while the text focuses primarily on karma-yoga, jñāna-yoga and bhakti-yoga, the techniques of Patañjalian-type yoga are outlined throughout the entire sixth chapter, albeit subsumed under devotion to Kṛṣṇa. This chapter indeed takes the Yoga-Sūtra or similar such ideas as a point of departure, highlights its similarities to dhyāna-yoga and argues that the Gītā not only maintains similar views but expands and elaborates them. As opposed to the very concentrated and internalized mode of yoga articulated in the Yoga-Sūtra, themes and ideas that are described in the Yoga-Sūtra in a concentrated sūtra style receive a more elaborate description in the Gītā. These core doctrines are expanded and present in all other three yoga paths, that is, karma, jñāna and bhakti. As such, a study of these core yoga concepts, such as the ladder principle, mental restraint and samādhi, is required in order to understand the other three paths presented in the Gītā.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.