Śivasaṃhitā 3.20

Samatābhāva and indriyanigraha are the fourth and fifth conditions articulated here. Equanimity (samatā) is not emotional flatness but the capacity to perceive all beings through the same gaze, without hierarchies that distort practice. Sensory restraint (indriyanigraha) completes the preparation: without it, the energy cultivated in practice dissipates immediately through the channels of perception.

Samatā derives from sama (equal, uniform, calm) and designates in the Bhagavad Gītā the ideal of the sthitaprajña — one whose wisdom remains stable amid all conditions. Indriyanigraha joins indriya (sense organ, sensory power, linked to Indra as king of the senses) with nigraha (restraint, from ni-grah, ‘to hold down’). The image is physical: holding the reins of the senses firmly in hand.

The verse’s second half introduces the figure of the yogavid — one who knows Yoga through direct experience, not merely theoretical study. This distinction is crucial in the tradition: the Guru is not a scholar (paṇḍita) but a realized practitioner. Instruction received from such a teacher (yogopadeśa) must be practiced with āsthā (earnestness, devotion), a term implying a firm settling of will rather than mechanical discipline.