Bhagavad Gita 6.17

yuktāhāra-vihārasya

yukta-ceṣṭasya karmasu

yukta-svapnāvabodhasya

yogo bhavati duḥkha-hā

 

“Balanced in eating, rest, and play,

Measured in work throughout the day,

With sleep and wakefulness rightly aligned,

Yoga removes all sorrow from the mind.”

 

My dear Lord, you provide  the path of yoga to raise my consciousness from the material level to the spiritual level, ultimately releasing it from all material entanglements.

But you want me, my Lord, to show you that I am not attached to the material level. To show that, I need to act at the material level primarily for functional purposes, avoiding the extremes of indulgence or abstinence.

Help me, O Lord, to seek food as fuel for my body, so that it can be engaged in the yoga of your service. Let me not go to the extreme of eating too much, mistaking food as a source of pleasure, thereby disconnecting myself from you, the supreme source of the greatest pleasure. Simultaneously, bless me, my Lord, to avoid the other extreme of eating too little—depriving my body of necessary nourishment, all to seek egoistic pleasure by displaying to the world my extraordinary capacity for austerity.

Bless me, my Lord, so that I can remain functionally balanced in all my material engagements, including sleeping, work and recreation. Let my consciousness engage in these activities only as much as is necessary, and otherwise remain maximally available to be absorbed in you, and thereby become attracted to you.

It is through this combination of material regulation and devotional dedication that you, my Lord, will help me transcend the distresses of material existence.

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06.17 He who is regulated in his habits of eating, sleeping, recreation and work can mitigate all material pains by practicing the yoga system.