The following qualities of a yogi are an extraction from Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s commentary on the Bhagavad Gita—a 700-verse Hindu scripture believed to have been written between the 5th and 2nd century BCE, providing timeless wisdom for living a fulfilling, meaningful, and deeply connected life.
- He who sees inaction in action and action in inaction, he is wise among men. He is a yogi, an accomplisher of everything.
- A yogi considers even his work as a game, so be a yogi. Yogi means ‘one who does things in perfection.’ Every little thing he does will be perfect because he has that equanimity of mind. Only when you consider your work as a game can you ever be detached about whether it is going to be successful or not. It doesn’t matter anyway.
- You have an intention or a desire, and your mind and your life are running in that direction. When you drop this, then you become a yogi—awareness, knowledge, and wisdom dawn.
- If a person acts without being feverish about the fruit of the action, not dependent on the outcome of the action, that person is the real renunciate. He is a yogi. A yogi is not one who has just dropped everything and is sitting in the Himalayas.
- Not knowing what is going to happen keeps you in anxiety and stress. Not minding what is going to happen and giving your hundred percent—that is the action of a yogi.
- One who rests in the inner happiness, in the inner space, immersed in the inner light—that yogi attains the highest, here and hereafter.
- A yogi should be a close friend. Whether it is someone who hates you or is indifferent to you or someone you relate well to, who is related to you, or is a saint or a sinner—a yogi sees them all as the same, with equanimity.
- A yogi is one who has a balance of activity and rest.