When the hook lets go

yadā hi nendriyārtheṣu na karmasvanuṣajjatesarvasaṅkalpasaṃnyāsī yogārūḍhastadocyate

When a person no longer clings to the objects of the senses or to actions, having given up all selfish intentions, they have reached yoga.

What it means

Here is how Krishna describes someone who has truly arrived. They still see, hear, taste and work. What is gone is the clinging. Pleasant things no longer pull them by a hook. Their actions are no longer driven by what they will get. That loosened grip is the mark of yoga.

The story

Picture a lotus in a pond. Its roots are in the mud and its leaves float on water, yet water slides right off them. It lives fully in the pond without being soaked by it. Krishna uses this very image elsewhere in the Gita.

In your life

Sam is on a beach holiday and has checked work email eleven times today. The sea is right there. This afternoon he leaves the phone in the room for two hours, and simply swims.