By one whose self is unrestrained, whose self, whose inner instrument, has not been restrained by practice and dispassion, yoga is hard to win, won only with difficulty: that is My view. But he whose self is mastered, whose self, whose mind, has been brought into mastery by practice and dispassion, and who strives, making effort again and again: by such a one yoga can be attained, through the means that have been described. Now, by taking up the practice of yoga the actions that cause attainment of this world and the next have been renounced, while the right vision that is the means to liberation, the fruit which is the perfection of yoga, has not yet been reached. So, fearing the ruin of a yogin who has slipped from the path of yoga, his mind shaken at the hour of death, Arjuna said.

For one who has not mastered the self, whose mind is unconquered, the discipline is hard to attain even by great force. But by a means, by one who has the self under sway, who has conquered the mind by action of the kind described before, the worship of Me with knowledge included within it, and who strives, this very discipline, which has the form of seeing alike, can be attained. Now, to hear rightly the greatness of the discipline, heard already in 'in this there is no loss of effort begun' and the rest, Arjuna asks. For there the greatness of the discipline of action was told, by its having knowledge of the self included within it and by its having the discipline for its crown; and that is itself the greatness of the discipline.

This is a brief sub-gloss. For a fuller reading of this verse, see Madhusūdana, Śaṅkara, or Rāmānuja above.

Nor is the mind ever restrained of its own accord; for the Brahma text denies it, 'for men who lack the wish for good, who hate the Lord of Sri, and who are unbelievers, release is then not possible'.