बुद्ध्या विशुद्धया युक्तो धृत्याऽऽत्मानं नियम्य च।शब्दादीन् विषयांस्त्यक्त्वा रागद्वेषौ व्युदस्य च॥
buddhyā viśuddhayā yukto dhṛtyātmānaṃ niyamya caśabdādīn viṣayāns tyaktvā rāga-dveṣau vyudasya ca
Word by word
The verse says
Joined with a cleared understanding, holding himself steady, having let go of sound and the other things the senses reach for, and having put aside both liking and disliking.
In plain words
The first of four verses describing the approach. This one is about subtraction.
A cleared understanding. A steady hold on yourself. The objects of the senses released.
And then both sides of the same coin again: liking and disliking, put aside together. Not the bad one removed and the good one kept. Both.
Where you've felt this · in health
You go a week without anything playing in the background. The first two days are uncomfortable and you keep reaching for the usual noise. By Thursday the quiet stops being an absence and becomes a sort of room. Nothing was added that week. Something was taken out and the space underneath turned out to be fine.
Going deeper
Letting go of liking and disliking together, rather than keeping the pleasant half, is the move most people resist in this kind of instruction.
The assumption is usually that the goal is more of the good feeling and less of the bad one. This describes releasing both, and the reason has been given several times already: they are one mechanism. A mind that is strongly pulled towards things is the same mind that is strongly pushed away from them.
What is described is subtraction rather than achievement. Nothing is being acquired in this verse. Things are being set down: the objects, the pull, the push.
That is worth knowing because it is cheaper than it sounds. You do not need to find anything or become anything to begin. You need to stop supplying something for long enough to see what is underneath it, which usually takes about four days.