बुद्ध्या विशुद्धया युक्तो धृत्यात्मानं नियम्य च | शब्दादीन् विषयांस्त्यक्त्वा रागद्वेषौ व्युदस्य च ||
buddhyā viśuddhayā yukto dhṛtyātmānaṁ niyamya ca śabdādīn viṣayāṁs tyaktvā rāga-dveṣau vyudasya ca
Translation
Endowed with purified intellect, controlling the self by will, abandoning sound and other sense objects, laying aside love and hatred —
Interpretation
The path to Brahman: purified intellect (the discriminative faculty cleansed of ego-distortion), mastery of the lower self through sustained will (dhritya — steady resolve), withdrawal from sensory objects (not through suppression but through the natural turning of attention inward), and the laying aside of both attraction and aversion (raga and dvesha — the twin forces that normally pull the mind outward). These are not sequential steps but simultaneous qualities of the consciousness turned toward its own Source.