In plain words
For one moderate in food and movement, balanced in effort in action, and regulated in sleep and waking, yoga becomes the destroyer of sorrow.
Word for word
For one measured in food and movement, measured in effort in actions, measured in sleep and waking, yoga becomes the destroyer of sorrow.
युक्ताहारविहारस्य युक्तचेष्टस्य कर्मसुयुक्तस्वप्नावबोधस्य योगो भवति दुःखहा
Other commentaries
The commentators
▸Bhagavadgītābhāṣyam
कथं पुनः योगो भवति इत्युच्यते —
युक्ताहारविहारस्य आह्रियते इति आहारः अन्नम् , विहरणं विहारः पादक्रमः, तौ युक्तौ नियतपरिमाणौ यस्य सः युक्ताहारविहारः तस्य, तथा युक्तचेष्टस्य युक्ता नियता चेष्टा यस्य कर्मसु तस्य, तथा युक्तस्वप्नावबोधस्य युक्तौ स्वप्नश्च अवबोधश्च तौ नियतकालौ यस्य तस्य, युक्ताहारविहारस्य युक्तचेष्टस्य कर्मसु युक्तस्वप्नावबोधस्य योगिनो योगो भवति दुःखहा दुःखानि सर्वाणि हन्तीति दुःखहा, सर्वसंसारदुःखक्षयकृत् योगः भवतीत्यर्थः ॥ १७ ॥
In plain words
So how, then, does yoga actually happen? Let's see —
‘Āhāra’ means food—what's taken in. ‘Vihāra’ means recreation, the movement of the feet, simply moving about. When both are regulated, kept to a fixed measure, that person has regulated diet and recreation. Likewise, when someone's activity in everything he does is measured and controlled, he has regulated activity. And when his sleep and waking both keep to a fixed rhythm, he has regulated sleep and waking. For the yogī whose diet, recreation, activity, sleep, and waking are all like this, yoga becomes what destroys sorrow—it destroys every sorrow there is—so it is called ‘destroyer of sorrow,’ the very thing that brings an end to all the sorrow of this worldly life.
Close to the Sanskrit
How, then, is yoga possible? — this is now stated —
‘Āhāra’ means food, since it is said ‘that which is brought in’; ‘vihāra’ means recreation, i.e. the movement of the feet, wandering—those two, regulated, of fixed measure, of whom they are so—he is ‘of regulated diet and recreation’—for him; likewise, ‘of regulated activity,’ means of whom the activity in his actions is regulated, controlled—for him; likewise, ‘of regulated sleep and waking,’ means of whom those two, sleep and waking, are regulated, fixed in their timing—for him. For the yogī of regulated diet and recreation, of regulated activity in actions, of regulated sleep and waking, yoga becomes ‘destroyer of sorrow’—i.e. it destroys all sorrows, hence ‘destroyer of sorrow’—yoga becomes that which brings about the destruction of all sorrow of worldly existence—that is the meaning.