Yoga destroys suffering for one who is moderate in eating and recreation, balanced in actions, and regulated in sleep and waking.

This verse appears almost identically in the Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā (1.11), demonstrating continuity between the Gītā tradition and later Haṭha texts.

The word yukta is repeated three times: eating-recreation (āhāra-vihāra), actions (ceṣṭā), sleep-waking (svapna-avabodha). Yukta means joined, appropriate, just — the very root of “yoga.”

Balance spans the 24 hours:

• What we eat and how we recreate
• How we act during the day
• How we sleep and wake

The promised fruit is potent: duḥkhahā — destroyer of suffering. It doesn’t promise pleasure but the cessation of the existential pain that characterizes the unexamined life.

Traditional yoga understands that practice on the mat is only one part. If you eat poorly, don’t sleep, and your actions are chaotic, one hour of āsana won’t compensate.

Practice is life; life is practice.