Verse 1

¹Surely, revered one, for those who take their pleasure in the self, whose seeds of work have been parched by a knowing that yoga has fanned into flame, the lordships that come unasked cannot give pain a second time. ²What you say is true. Still, some here will not for a moment give their trust to a mind that never stands still, any more than to a cheating hunter. ³And so it has been said. Never make a friend of a mind that will not stand still. Trusting it, the austerity even of a lord, practised for ages, has spilled away. ⁴For the yogin who has made friends with it, it is always giving an opening to desire and to the enemies that come behind desire, as a wanton wife gives an opening against her husband.

⁵Desire, anger, pride, greed, grief, delusion, fear and the rest, and the binding of works, all have it for their root. What man with sense would take it for his own?