Chapter 6 - Verse 13

An erect body may be in motion; hence the qualification ‘still.’ He is to gaze as it were on the tip of his nose.—Here we have to understand the words ‘as it were’; for, the Lord means to prescribe, not the very act of ‘gazing on the tip of his nose’, but the fixing of the eye-sight within (by withdrawing it from external objects); and this, of course, depends on the steadiness of mind. If, on the other hand, the very act of ‘gazing on the tip of his nose’ were meant here, then the mind would be fixed only there, not on the Self. As a matter of fact, the Yogin is to concentrate his mind on the Self, as will be taught in vi. 25, ‘Making the mind dwell in the Self.’ Wherefore the words ‘as it were’ being understood, ‘gazing’ means here ’the fixing of the eye-sight within.’