Cluster 0229 — BG-6.18
BG-6.18
Sanskrit: यदा विनियतं चित्तमात्मन्येवावतिष्ठते । निःस्पृहः सर्वकामेभ्यो युक्त इत्युच्यते तदा ॥१८॥
Literal English: When the well-restrained mind abides in the Self alone, free-from-craving for all desires, then one is said-to-be yukta (yoked).
This is the yukta-definitional-śloka of adhyāya 6. Cluster 0228 (BG-6.17) gave the operational regimen — yukta-āhāra-vihāra + yukta-ceṣṭa + yukta-svapna-avabodha (measured eating-and-walking + measured acting + measured sleeping-and-waking); cluster 0229 (BG-6.18 — this) names the yukta-state the regimen produces. Jñāneśvar's four ovis (6.353-6.356) accomplish the transition with one central image: the fortune-overflow that uses the business-pretext (6.354-6.355). The BG-6.17 regimen is the outward business-pretext; the BG-6.18 yukta-state is the inward fortune-overflow that uses the regimen as its outward-form. By the look of it one does the regimen; in truth, the wealth-of-the-Self walks into the house of its own accord.
This is one of the chapter's clearest concentrations of sahaja-Nātha doctrine — liberation-as-received-not-achieved. Three of the four ovis name the realized-state in overt-soteriological vocabulary: sahajēm-chi yoga ghaḍē nā-abhyāsitām (6.353 — yoga arrives spontaneously, without practice-effort); ātma-siddhi-chi pikē anubhavu tayāchā (6.355 — ātma-siddhi itself ripens as his anubhava); apavargī-chiyē rāṇivā aḷankārije (6.356 — adorned with the queen-throne of apavarga / liberation). The cluster's argument is the sahaja-thesis: the yukta-state of BG-6.18 is adorned, not engineered. It uses the regimen as its outward-form the way fortune uses business as its pretext.
The cluster prepares cluster 0230 (BG-6.19 — यथा दीपो निवातस्थो नेङ्गते सोपमा स्मृता) which will deliver the canonical nirvāta-dīpa (windless-lamp) image of the stilled-mind that adhyāya-2's 2.341 first foreshadowed. The yukta-state named here becomes the unflickering-lamp there.
Ovi 6.353
Original (Marathi): बाहेर युक्तीची मुद्रा पडे । तव आंत आंत सुख वाढे । तेथें सहजेंचि योगु घडे । नाभ्यासितां ॥३५३॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| बाहेर युक्तीची मुद्रा पडे | outside, the yukti-mudrā (measure-stamp / measured-comportment) falls / lands |
| तव आंत आंत सुख वाढे | meanwhile, inside-inside (deep within), sukha grows |
| तेथें सहजेंचि योगु घडे | there, spontaneously (sahajēm-chi), yoga occurs |
| नाभ्यासितां | without [further] practice-effort |
Literal translation
English: Outside, the yukti-mudrā falls into place; meanwhile, deep within, sukha grows; there, spontaneously, yoga arrives — without further practice-effort.
मराठी (आधुनिक): बाहेरून शिस्तीची, मोजमापाची मुद्रा दिसते; पण आत-आत खूप खोलवर सुख वाढत असते; आणि तिथेच, कुठल्याही वेगळ्या अभ्यासाशिवाय, सहजच योग घडून येतो.
Metaphor-unfold
| Literal image | Philosophical referent | Modern equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| The yukti-mudrā falling/landing outside | The regimen of BG-6.17 has crystallized into a stable outward-form (mudrā) — the body's measured-comportment is the outer face of the practitioner | The athlete whose stride has become so worked that it now holds itself — outside-observers see the form, but it is no longer being held by act-of-will |
| Sukha vāḍhē (grows) in the āmta-āmta (deep-deep within) | The inward-event is not a quiet-mind or a still-feeling but an increasing sukha — a positive-rising, not a subtraction | A spring of water that has begun rising from the ground inside a long-empty well — quietly, without announcement, but unmistakably growing |
| Sahajēm-chi yoga ghaḍē nā-abhyāsitām | The Nātha-sahaja doctrine: the matured-abhyāsa exhausts itself in its own perfection — yoga now occurs as the form-of-no-longer-trying | The long-practiced musician whose hands have begun playing while she is still thinking about something else — the music has come forward, the trying has receded |
Metaphor-family: yukti-outside-sukha-inside. The image-pair (outer mudrā + inner sukha) is the signature-structure of the sahaja-Nātha realized-state — the realized-one is outwardly indistinguishable from the practitioner-of-the-regimen, but inwardly the regimen has become a self-sustaining form whose content is sukha-growth and effortless-yoga.
Nāth-yogic layer
Referent: yukti-mudrā outside + sukha growing inside — the regimen's measured-comportment is the outward face (mudrā) of the yogi; the inward-event is sukha vāḍhē (sukha grows); from-this the yoga ghaḍē nā-abhyāsitām (yoga arrives without practice-effort) — the cluster's first overt sahaja-Nātha statement. Confidence: high. Note: sahajēm + yoga ghaḍē + nā-abhyāsitām is unambiguous sahaja-Nātha doctrine — the chapter's second formal statement of this doctrine, the first being 6.191's abhyāsu sarē baisata-khēmvo at the seat-taking.
Cross-references
- Internal: 6.352 (developed-further — santoṣa-from-yukti-regimen now becomes sukha-and-sahaja-yoga); 6.191 (parallel-image — chapter's two formal sahaja-Nātha statements paired: 6.191 at seat-taking, 6.353 at yukta-arrival).
- Tukaram parallel: abhang 2618 (thematic-parallel-on-ecstatic-yoga-as-fulfilled-regimen — mātalē Vaiṣṇava intoxicated-by-fulfilment is the bhakti-key form of sahajēm-chi yoga ghaḍē).
- Source citation: BG-6.18 (direct-paraphrase — yadā viniyatam cittam ātmany eva avatiṣṭhate split into outward yukti-mudrā + inward sukha-growth); BG-6.17 (echo — yuktāhāra-vihārasya is the regimen-source of the yukti-mudrā); Yogasūtra 1.18 (echo — virāma-pratyaya-abhyāsa-pūrvaḥ samskāra-śeṣaḥ anyaḥ — the practice-matured-into-its-fruit doctrine).
Modern application
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The morning routine that has become a mudrā. A long-time practitioner notices that the morning sequence she does — wake / drink water / sit / breathe / move — has crystallized into a self-running form. She no-longer decides the sequence; it runs. Externally, observers see the same regimen they would have seen ten years ago. Internally, she notices that the sukha of the morning has been quietly growing for years, and the yoga of the morning (the alignment, the steadiness) now occurs without effort — the very mark of Jñāneśvar's yukti-mudrā outside / sukha-vāḍhē inside.
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The skilled professional's day. A doctor of thirty years' practice walks the hospital ward. From the outside: the regimen of clinical-protocol, history-taking, examination. From the inside: a steady sukha of recognition-and-response, and the clinical-judgment (the actual content of the work) arriving without effort. The mudrā is the outer-form; the yoga — the practitioner's union with what she is doing — is the inner content arrived-at-without-trying.
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The discovery that trying has receded. A meditator notices, perhaps in the second decade of practice, that the act-of-meditating has stopped requiring her to try. The yukti-mudrā has landed — the outer-form continues — and the yoga has begun to occur on its own. This is not laziness or fading; this is the matured-abhyāsa's nā-abhyāsitām — the practice that has exhausted itself in its own perfection.
Sādhanā
Once today, in the middle of a long-established daily-routine (your morning practice, your work-process, a familiar relationship-pattern), pause for ten seconds and ask: is this routine running on effort right now, or has it become a mudrā that runs itself? If the latter, notice whether sukha is growing deep within — and whether you needed to make it grow.
Arc
Opens the cluster with the BG-6.18 structural-claim: outside, the yukti-mudrā falls into place; inside, sukha grows and yoga arrives spontaneously. 6.354 will supply the defining-illustrative simile.
Ovi 6.354
Original (Marathi): जैसें भाग्याचिया भडसें । उद्यमाचेनि मिसें । मग समृद्धिजात आपैसें । घर रिघे ॥३५४॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| जैसें भाग्याचिया भडसें | just as by the bhaḍasa (overflow / press) of bhāgya (fortune) |
| उद्यमाचेनि मिसें | through the misa (pretext) of udyama (business / effort / undertaking) |
| मग समृद्धिजात आपैसें | then the samṛddhi-jāta (aggregate / total of prosperity) of its own (āpaisēm) |
| घर रिघे | enters the house |
Literal translation
English: Just as, by the overflow-of-fortune, through the pretext-of-business, the whole aggregate of prosperity walks-into-the-house of its own accord —
मराठी (आधुनिक): जसे भाग्याच्या भरास, उद्यमाच्या निमित्ताने, सर्व समृद्धी आपोआप घरात येते —
Metaphor-unfold
| Literal image | Philosophical referent | Modern equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Bhāgyāchiyā bhaḍasēm (by the overflow-of-fortune) | The primary cause of the prosperity is the bhāgya (fortune-as-already-existing-condition), not the business-activity. The business is the form through which the bhāgya flows | The startup that became wildly successful — looked at closely, the work was done; looked at honestly, the moment and the meeting and the timing arrived on their own |
| Udyamāchēni misēm (through the pretext-of-business) | The business-activity is a misa (pretext, occasion, outward-form) — not the cause but the channel; the bhāgya needed some form through which to flow, and chose business | The marriage that worked — of course you did the dating and the conversations, but the meeting itself was already-arriving; the meeting used the dating as its outward-form |
| Samṛddhi-jāta āpaisēm ghara righē (the aggregate-of-prosperity enters-the-house of its own) | The samṛddhi-jāta (the whole-group of prosperity-aspects — wealth, status, satisfaction, well-being) walks-into-the-house — the language of self-arrival, not of being-fetched | The day you finally had the life you had been working toward, and noticed that it had walked into the house while you were busy doing things |
Metaphor-family: fortune-overflow-business-pretext. This is the cluster's defining-image and one of the few overt mercantile-domestic image-clusters in adhyāya-6 (most of the chapter's imagery is yogic-mountain or body-positioning). The image's pedagogical-function is bridge-building: the BG-6.18 sahaja-doctrine is rendered in a householder-recognizable form. The cluster is implicitly arguing: you already know what this is — you have seen it in business, in marriage, in the arrival of any genuine prosperity. Jñāneśvar's mercantile-vocabulary (bhāgya, udyama, samṛddhi-jāta, ghara righē) is precise: the bhaḍasa (overflow, press) names the pressure-of-the-arrival, not its absence.
Nāth-yogic layer
No Nāth-yogic referent in this ovi — pure mercantile-domestic simile.
Cross-references
- Internal: 6.353 (developed-further — structural-claim → mercantile-domestic illustrative-simile).
- Tukaram parallel: abhang 2629 (thematic-parallel-on-the-self-arriving-treasury-of-bhakti — sants' shop-of-dāna, ananta bhāṇḍāra, bag-never-empty — bhakti-key of the samṛddhi-jāta āpaisēm ghara righē claim).
- Source citation: empty. (The ovi is illustrative-simile; no Sanskrit-source verse is being paraphrased — the cluster's source-citations are concentrated at 6.353/6.355/6.356.)
Modern application
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The careful diagnostic of the appearance of effort. A friend who has just made a major life-success says, I worked so hard for this. Both things are true: he worked hard, and the success had to arrive as the bhāgya-overflow of which his work was the pretext. The diagnostic is not which was it; the diagnostic is can you name both simultaneously without collapsing one into the other?
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The household-recognition of grace. Look around your house. Take one good thing — a friendship that has lasted, a meaningful job, a child's well-being. Did you make it, or did you facilitate its arrival? The honest answer is rarely I made it. The cluster's mercantile-image is teaching: in the most consequential domains of life, fortune-overflow uses business-pretext, and the prosperity walks-in of its own.
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The protection of the udyama-misa. The image does not invite passivity. The udyama (business / effort / undertaking) is the necessary pretext. Without the business, the bhāgya has no channel through which to flow. The image's discipline: do the work, and recognize the work as the pretext, and keep the house's door open for the arrival.
Sādhanā
Tonight, before sleep, name one good thing currently in your life. Then ask of it: what was the bhāgya-bhaḍasa, and what was the udyama-misa? Do not collapse them. Notice that an honest answer requires holding both — your work was the form, and the arrival was its content.
Arc
Supplies the defining illustrative-simile (vehicle): fortune-overflow uses business-pretext / aggregate-of-prosperity enters-the-house of its own. 6.355 will complete the simile by mapping the vehicle to its tenor — the yukti-mantu and the ātma-siddhi.
Ovi 6.355
Original (Marathi): तैसा युक्तिमंतु कौतुकें । अभ्यासाचिया मोहरा ठाके । आणि आत्मसिद्धीचि पिके । अनुभवु तयाचा ॥३५५॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| तैसा युक्तिमंतु कौतुकें | just-so, the yukti-mantu (yukti-possessor) in kautuka (sport / play) |
| अभ्यासाचिया मोहरा ठाके | takes-his-place (ṭhākē) in the abhyāsa-mohorā (abhyāsa-direction / abhyāsa-face) |
| आणि आत्मसिद्धीचि पिके | and ātma-siddhi itself ripens (pikē) |
| अनुभवु तयाचा | as his anubhava (experiential-knowing) |
Literal translation
English: Just so, the yukti-possessor, in play (kautuka), takes-his-place in the abhyāsa-direction, and ātma-siddhi itself ripens as his anubhava.
मराठी (आधुनिक): तसाच युक्तिमंतु — ज्याची साधना मुरली आहे तो — कौतुकाने, खेळासारखा अभ्यासाच्या दिशेने उभा राहतो; आणि आत्मसिद्धीच त्याच्या अनुभवात पिकत येते.
Metaphor-unfold
| Literal image | Philosophical referent | Modern equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| The yukti-mantu in kautukēm (sport / play) | The matured-practitioner's mode is play, not strain — the kautuka-mode is the sahaja-Nātha mode of effortless-engagement | The thirty-year-tennis-player on her favourite court — she is fully-engaged, but the engagement has the quality of play, not the quality of labour |
| Abhyāsāchiyā moharā ṭhākē (takes-his-place in the abhyāsa-direction) | The yukti-mantu continues to do the abhyāsa — the matured-state does not stop the practice; it stands-in-its-direction. The continuation is the udyama-misa of 6.354 | The seasoned doctor still does the morning rounds — the rounds are not abandoned; their direction is held |
| Ātma-siddhi-chi pikē anubhavu tayāchā (ātma-siddhi itself ripens as his anubhava) | The ātma-siddhi (Self-attainment) is the bhāgya-bhaḍasa of 6.354 — the fortune-overflow that uses the abhyāsa-direction as its outward-form; the pikē (ripens) image insists ātma-siddhi is grown like fruit, in its season, when conditions are met | The orchard's fruit — you watered, weeded, pruned (the abhyāsa-mohorā); the fruit's ripening itself is the orchard's bhāgya-arrival, neither caused nor not-caused by your work |
Metaphor-family: fortune-overflow-business-pretext (continues from 6.354), abhyasa-ripens-to-atmasiddhi. The taisā (just-so) at the head explicitly closes the simile begun at 6.354. The kautukēm (in play / in sport) is signature sahaja-Nātha vocabulary for effortless-realized-mode. The pikē (ripens) is one of the corpus's most-precise verbs for the realized-state: the fruit is grown, neither manufactured nor non-related-to-the-orchard-keeping.
Nāth-yogic layer
Referent: ātma-siddhi-chi pikē anubhavu tayāchā — the abhyāsa-direction (abhyāsāchiyā moharā) of the yukti-mantu (yukti-possessor) takes-its-place (ṭhākē); from this, ātma-siddhi ripens-as-his-anubhava. Confidence: high. Note: ātma-siddhi is overt soteriological-technical-vocabulary; the kautuka-play-as-abhyāsa-mode is signature sahaja-Nātha doctrine. The cluster's overt soteriological-naming of the yukta-state's fruit.
Cross-references
- Internal: 6.354 (developed-further — simile-vehicle → simile-tenor; taisā explicit comparator-marker); 6.353 (developed-further — sahajēm-chi yoga ghaḍē now specified as ātma-siddhi-chi pikē anubhavu; yoga and ātma-siddhi vocabulary merged).
- Tukaram parallel: abhang 2882 (thematic-parallel-on-the-mungi-eat-sugar-image-of-natural-sweetness-arriving — become-ant-eat-sugar; nija-vastu; be-dhākuṭā ask-and-receive — bhakti-key of ātma-siddhi-pikē-anubhavu-tayāchā).
- Source citation: BG-6.18 (direct-paraphrase — ātmany eva avatiṣṭhate ... niḥspṛhaḥ sarva-kāmebhyaḥ operationally-rendered as ātma-siddhi-chi pikē anubhavu tayāchā); Yogasūtra 1.17 (echo — samprajñāta-fruit-naming doctrine).
Modern application
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The kautuka-mode of long-practice. The thirty-year practitioner stops attempting to progress in the practice and begins to play it. The form is held; the struggle has receded; kautuka has arrived. This is not regression and not loss-of-discipline — it is the matured stage in which the abhyāsa-direction (the mohorā) is held without strain, and the fruit ripens of its own.
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The ripening-question for one's own life. Take one domain where you have practiced long (a craft, a marriage, a discipline). Ask: is the fruit ripening here? Not — am I getting somewhere? but — is the ātma-siddhi-of-this-domain pikē? The ripening has its own pace; the practitioner's job is to stand in the abhyāsa-direction and not pull the unripe fruit.
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The recognition that the fruit is the orchard's bhāgya. A long-practiced therapist hears himself say a sentence in a session that exactly meets the client's need. He did not engineer the sentence. It came forward through his abhyāsa-direction (his decades of practice) as the bhāgya-overflow of the moment. The ātma-siddhi of his practice is not his accomplishment; it is what ripens through him.
Sādhanā
Today, in one domain of long-practice, deliberately adopt kautuka-mode for fifteen minutes — do the practice as play, not as work. Notice whether the practice becomes less effective, more effective, or simply clearer. Do not draw conclusions; collect data.
Arc
Completes the simile (vehicle to tenor) and names the cluster's overt soteriological-fruit: ātma-siddhi itself ripens as the yukti-mantu's anubhava. 6.356 will close the cluster with the coronation-image — the apavarga-rāṇivā.
Ovi 6.356
Original (Marathi): म्हणोनि युक्ति हे पांडवा । घडे जया सदैवा । तो अपवर्गीचिये राणिवा । अळंकारिजे ॥३५६॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| म्हणोनि युक्ति हे पांडवा | therefore, this yukti, O Pāṇḍava |
| घडे जया सदैवा | occurs to whom is sadaiva (always-Self / always-fortunate) |
| तो अपवर्गीचिये राणिवा | he, with the rāṇivā (queen-throne / royal-rank) of apavarga (liberation) |
| अळंकारिजे | is-adorned / coronated / decorated |
Literal translation
English: Therefore, O Pāṇḍava, the one who is sadaiva (always-Self-possessed), to whom this yukti occurs — he is adorned with the queen-throne of apavarga (liberation).
मराठी (आधुनिक): म्हणून, हे पांडवा, ज्या नित्य-भाग्यवंताला अशी युक्ति लाभते — तो मुक्तीच्या राजगादीने अलंकृत होतो.
Metaphor-unfold
| Literal image | Philosophical referent | Modern equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| The rāṇivā (queen-throne / royal-rank) of apavarga (liberation) | Apavarga (Sanskrit-derived Marathi: cessation-of-cosmic-process / liberation, technical-soteriological term) is named as a throne, a rank — not a state-of-mind but a station | The civic-honour bestowed-on a recognized-citizen — the recognition is public, the throne is real (not metaphorical-only), and the rank-holder bears it rather than makes it |
| Aḷankārije (is-adorned/decorated) | The verb is in passive-mood: the yukti-possessor is-adorned-with — others bring the ornament; the rank-holder receives it | The graduate at the ceremony does not seize the diploma — she receives it. The verb-mood is consequential |
Metaphor-family: coronation-of-the-yukti-possessor. The closing-coronation-image is the chapter's final-vocabulary at the BG-6.18 yukta-definitional-summit. The use of passive-mood (aḷankārije — is-adorned) is the cluster's load-bearing grammatical-move: the yukta-state is bestowed, not achieved. The apavarga naming-by-name is overt liberation-vocabulary.
Nāth-yogic layer
Referent: the apavarga-rāṇivā (the queen-throne / royal-rank of apavarga / liberation) — the yukti-possessor aḷankārije (is-adorned/coronated) with it; explicit liberation-vocabulary at the cluster's closing-summit. Confidence: high. Note: apavarga is named by-name; the entire cluster ends on overt liberation-vocabulary. The passive-mood aḷankārije is the cluster's load-bearing grammatical-move — the yukta-state is received, not achieved.
Cross-references
- Internal: 6.355 (developed-further — inner-anubhava-of-ātma-siddhi → outer-recognition-as-apavarga-rāṇivā); 6.60 (parallel-image — chapter's two complementary definitions of the yukta/samādhi-state: 6.60 = geometric (equal-ground); 6.356 = sovereign (queen-throne); same realized-state, two image-registers).
- Tukaram parallel: abhang 2906 (thematic-parallel-on-elevation-by-grace-rather-than-by-merit — humans-elevated-by-Rāma-Nāma-keṇyā-guṇa — bhakti-key of apavarga-as-ornament-one-is-adorned-with).
- Source citation: BG-6.18 (direct-paraphrase — yukta iti ucyate tadā operationally-rendered as apavargī-chiyē rāṇivā aḷankārije; the Sanskrit iti ucyate / is-called becomes the aḷankārije / is-adorned coronation-image); Yogasūtra 4.34 (echo — puruṣārtha-śūnyānām guṇānām pratiprasavaḥ kaivalyam — apavarga = kaivalya doctrinal-identification).
Modern application
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The recognition-question for the spiritual life. The cluster's closing-question is the most-consequential framing-question of any spiritual-life: is the liberation/awakening/freedom you are working toward something you achieve (your-own-doing) or something you are adorned-with (received)? Jñāneśvar's aḷankārije (passive: is-adorned) is the explicit naming. The discipline of the question is to take it seriously — not to collapse it into one answer for the sake of comfort.
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The sadaivā qualifier — always-fortunate / always-Self-possessed. The yukti occurs to jayā sadaivā — to whom is sadaiva (the Sanskrit-derived compound names a condition of being-always-with-the-Self / being-perpetually-fortunate). The qualifier matters: the yukti does not arrive randomly; it arrives to the one whose orientation-of-being is already sadaivā. The qualifier is not a condition you can engineer; it is a quality you can grow.
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The image of being-adorned as a daily-discipline. The most-mature practitioners report that the practice-life eventually becomes a relation-of-receiving-ornaments rather than a relation-of-achieving-goals. The mornings arrive with their gifts; the relationships bring their depths; the inner-stillness deepens without being-asked. The discipline is to receive — to keep the house open and the hands available for the ornaments that walk-in.
Sādhanā
Tonight, before sleep, sit for two minutes and name three things in your life today that arrived as ornaments rather than were achieved as goals. Hold the question of whether your relation-to-life has the aḷankārije quality — being-adorned — or whether it is exclusively the I-engineer-this quality. The discipline is to notice; the discipline is not to decide.
Arc
Closes the cluster with the coronation-image (apavarga-rāṇivā / queen-throne of liberation) and the explicit vocative pāṇḍavā re-anchoring Kṛṣṇa-voice. The next cluster (0230, BG-6.19) will deliver the canonical nirvāta-dīpa (windless-lamp) image — the yukta-state of BG-6.18 named here will become the unflickering-lamp imaged there.
Cluster summary
Core teaching. BG-6.18 is the yukta-definitional-śloka — the culminating-criterion-verse that names the state which the BG-6.17 yukta-āhāra-vihāra-regimen produces. When the well-restrained mind abides in the Self alone, free-from-craving for all desires, then one is said-to-be yukta. Jñāneśvar's four ovis (6.353-6.356) accomplish four moves: (i) 6.353 names the structural-claim — outside, the yukti-mudrā falls into place; inside-inside, sukha grows; there, spontaneously, yoga arrives without practice-effort; (ii) 6.354 supplies the defining illustrative-simile — just as fortune-overflow uses business-pretext, and the aggregate-of-prosperity walks-into-the-house of its own; (iii) 6.355 completes the simile by mapping vehicle to tenor — just-so, the yukti-possessor takes-up the abhyāsa-direction as kautuka-play, and ātma-siddhi itself ripens as his anubhava; (iv) 6.356 closes with the coronation-image — therefore, O Pāṇḍava, the always-Self-possessed-one to-whom this yukti occurs is adorned with the queen-throne of apavarga. The cluster's load-bearing interpretive-move is the fortune-overflow + business-pretext metaphor (6.354 vehicle / 6.355 tenor): the BG-6.17 regimen is the outward business-pretext; the BG-6.18 yukta-state is the inward fortune-overflow that uses the regimen as its outward-form. The whole cluster operates on the sahaja-Nātha hinge: the yukta-state is received (ripened, adorned-with) rather than achieved (engineered, conquered).
Theme tags. bg-6.18-yukta-definitional-sloka; yukti-mudra-outside-sukha-inside; sahaja-natha-yoga-without-abhyasa-effort; fortune-overflow-business-pretext-metaphor; samrddhi-jata-apaisem-ghara-righe; atma-siddhi-as-ripened-anubhava; kautuka-play-as-abhyasa-mode; apavarga-queen-throne-coronation; liberation-as-ornament-one-is-adorned-with; bg-6.17-regimen-to-bg-6.18-fruit-state-transition; chapter-6-yukta-state-canonical-naming; mercantile-domestic-imagery-rare-register.
Contains extended metaphor: yes (the fortune-overflow + business-pretext metaphor at 6.354-6.355).
Chapter arc position. Cluster 0229 sits at the yukta-definitional-summit of adhyāya 6's regimen-and-criterion sequence. BG-6.17 (cluster 0228) gave the operational regimen; BG-6.18 (cluster 0229 — this) names the yukta-state the regimen produces; BG-6.19 (cluster 0230) will deliver the canonical nirvāta-dīpa image of the stilled-mind. The chapter is now passing through its operational-completion-and-canonical-image phase.
Connects to next śloka. Cluster 0230 (BG-6.19 — यथा दीपो निवातस्थो नेङ्गते सोपमा स्मृता) will deliver the canonical nirvāta-dīpa (windless-lamp) image of the stilled-mind. The cluster 0229 → 0230 sequence is the yukta-state-named → yukta-state-imaged transition: the yukti-mudrā / sukha / ātma-siddhi / apavarga-rāṇivā of cluster 0229 will be condensed in cluster 0230 into the single canonical unflickering-lamp-in-windless-place image. Cluster 0229's mercantile-domestic image (fortune-overflow + business-pretext) and cluster 0230's domestic-image (unflickering-lamp + windless-place) are the chapter's two adjacent householder-recognizable simile-clusters — one for the yukta-state's structure (overflow-using-pretext), one for the yukta-state's quality (steadiness-in-shelter).