{ "verse_id": "17.12", "mūla": { "devanāgarī": "अभिसंधाय तु फलं दम्भार्थम् अपि चैव यत् | इज्यते भरत-श्रेष्ठ तं यज्ञं विद्धि राजसम्", "iast": "abhisaṃdhāya tu phalaṃ dambhārtham api caiva yat | ijyate bharata-śreṣṭha taṃ yajñaṃ viddhi rājasam", "chapter_position": "Chapter 17 (Śraddhātraya-Vibhāga-Yoga (The Yoga of Distinction of Threefold Faith)), verse 12", "speaker": "Krishna", "addressed_to": "Arjuna" }, "word_by_word": [ { "surface_form": "abhisaṃdhāya", "lemma": "abhisaṃdhā", "grammar": "conv", "senses_attested_in_panel": [ { "sense": "तु उद्दिश्य फलं दम्भार्थमपि चैव", "school": "advaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "shankara" ] } ], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "अभिसंधाय" }, { "surface_form": "tu", "lemma": "tu", "grammar": "", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "तु" }, { "surface_form": "phalam", "lemma": "phala", "grammar": "accusative neuter singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "फलम्" }, { "surface_form": "dambha", "lemma": "dambha", "grammar": "compound (compound member)", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "दम्भ" }, { "surface_form": "artham", "lemma": "artha", "grammar": "accusative masculine singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "अर्थम्" }, { "surface_form": "api", "lemma": "api", "grammar": "", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "अपि" }, { "surface_form": "ca", "lemma": "ca", "grammar": "", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "च" }, { "surface_form": "eva", "lemma": "eva", "grammar": "", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "एव" }, { "surface_form": "yat", "lemma": "yad", "grammar": "nominative neuter singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "यत्" }, { "surface_form": "ijyate", "lemma": "√yaj", "grammar": "present indicative pass 3rd person singular verb", "senses_attested_in_panel": [ { "sense": "भरतश्रेष्ठ तं यज्ञं विद्धि राजसम्", "school": "advaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "shankara" ] }, { "sense": ", तं यज्ञं राजसं विद्धि", "school": "viśiṣṭādvaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "ramanuja" ] } ], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "इज्यते" }, { "surface_form": "bharata", "lemma": "bharata", "grammar": "compound (compound member)", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "भरत" }, { "surface_form": "śreṣṭha", "lemma": "śreṣṭha", "grammar": "vocative masculine singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "श्रेष्ठ" }, { "surface_form": "tam", "lemma": "tad", "grammar": "accusative masculine singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "तम्" }, { "surface_form": "yajñam", "lemma": "yajña", "grammar": "accusative masculine singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "यज्ञम्" }, { "surface_form": "viddhi", "lemma": "√vid", "grammar": "present imperative 2nd person singular verb", "senses_attested_in_panel": [ { "sense": "राजसम्", "school": "advaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "shankara" ] }, { "sense": ",हानाय", "school": "advaita-bhakti", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "madhusudan" ] } ], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "विद्धि" }, { "surface_form": "rājasam", "lemma": "rājasa", "grammar": "accusative masculine singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "राजसम्" } ], "intertextual_panel": [ { "verse": "17.21", "type": "lemma-family resonance", "score": 0.9095, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8495, "theme_graph": 0.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 12.4477, "stem_prefix": 6.0 } }, { "verse": "8.28", "type": "lemma-family resonance", "score": 0.9031, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8431, "theme_graph": 0.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 12.708, "stem_prefix": 6.0 } }, { "verse": "17.18", "type": "lemma-family resonance", "score": 0.8917, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8417, "theme_graph": 0.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 8.3459, "stem_prefix": 5.0 } }, { "verse": "18.21", "type": "cross-chapter thematic parallel", "score": 0.8907, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8307, "theme_graph": 1.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 9.9573, "stem_prefix": 5.0 } }, { "verse": "15.12", "type": "cross-chapter thematic parallel", "score": 0.8878, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8278, "theme_graph": 1.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 8.4878, "stem_prefix": 5.0 } }, { "verse": "6.21", "type": "lemma-family resonance", "score": 0.8862, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8262, "theme_graph": 0.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 9.4602, "stem_prefix": 6.0 } }, { "verse": "11.2", "type": "long-distance thematic echo", "score": 0.8824, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8224, "theme_graph": 1.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 6.2847, "stem_prefix": 5.0 } }, { "verse": "14.14", "type": "lemma-family resonance", "score": 0.8823, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8323, "theme_graph": 0.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 10.9689, "stem_prefix": 5.0 } } ], "doctrinal_projections": { "advaita": { "reading_summary": "(reading summary extraction pending; ENABLE_READING_SUMMARIES=true to generate)", "key_cross_references": [], "witness_passages": [ "shankara_17.12", "anandgiri_17.12" ], "score": 0.5, "english_rendering": "Sacrifice performed with the eye fixed on fruit (phala, result) or staged for ostentation (dambha, display of piety) is declared rajasic and therefore obstructs the purification of the inner organ (antahkarana-shuddhi) that alone opens the path to jnana (liberating knowledge). Shankara's gloss is terse: 'abhisandhaya' means 'uddiśya' — intending, targeting — and the two motives (fruit-desire and show) are jointly disqualifying because both install an object in the will where objectless clarity must stand. Such sacrifice binds rather than releases; the wise man recognizes it as an obstacle to be abandoned." }, "viśiṣṭādvaita": { "reading_summary": "(reading summary extraction pending; ENABLE_READING_SUMMARIES=true to generate)", "key_cross_references": [], "witness_passages": [ "ramanuja_17.12", "vedantadeshika_17.12" ], "score": 0.5, "english_rendering": "Ramanuja identifies two corruptions compounded in rajasic sacrifice: phala-abhisandhi (being yoked to desired fruit) and dambha-garbha (ostentation carried within like a concealed seed), with yashah-phala (fame as the real harvest) as its distinguishing mark. For Vishishtadvaita, action becomes kainkarya (loving service) only when the agent surrenders fruit to Bhagavan; the moment personal fruit or public prestige enters the intention, the sacrificial act turns on itself and feeds the ego-self rather than the Lord. This is not merely impure worship but a structural inversion: the devotee replaces Ishvara with himself as the terminal beneficiary." }, "dvaita": { "reading_summary": "(reading summary extraction pending; ENABLE_READING_SUMMARIES=true to generate)", "key_cross_references": [], "witness_passages": [ "madhva_17.12", "jayatirtha_17.12" ], "score": 0.5, "english_rendering": "*abhisaṃdhāya tu phalaṃ dambhārtham api caiva yat | ijyate bharata-śreṣṭha taṃ yajñaṃ viddhi rājasam* — sacrifice performed with eye fixed on personal fruit (*phala*) and for the sake of ostentation (*dambha*) is *rājasa*. In the Dvaita reading, the *jīva* (the individual self) is *paratantra* (eternally dependent), wholly subordinate to *svatantra* Hari, who alone disposes of all fruits. To sacrifice *abhisaṃdhāya phalam* — grasping the result as one's own entitlement — is to assert a false self-sufficiency that directly violates *pañca-bheda* (the five-fold real distinction), specifically the Lord–*jīva* distinction: it positions the *jīva* as an independent agent capable of securing its own reward rather than as one whose every fruit flows from Hari's sovereignty. *Dambha* compounds the error: the sacrifice is directed toward the adulation of other *jīvas*, not toward Hari as the sole proper object of *bhakti* (devotion). A sacrifice thus doubled in misdirection — fruit-seeking and display-seeking — cannot constitute genuine worship of the *svatantra* Lord. Kṛṣṇa's instruction to Arjuna (*bharata-śreṣṭha*) is to recognize (*viddhi*) this as *rājasa* and thereby to understand what true *sāttvika* sacrifice demands: complete subordination of fruit and ego to Hari alone.", "provenance": "siddhānta_reconstruction" }, "śuddhādvaita": { "reading_summary": "(reading summary extraction pending; ENABLE_READING_SUMMARIES=true to generate)", "key_cross_references": [], "witness_passages": [ "vallabha_17.12" ], "score": 0.5, "english_rendering": "*Abhisaṃdhāya tu phalaṃ dambhārtham api caiva yat | ijyate bharata-śreṣṭha taṃ yajñaṃ viddhi rājasam* — sacrifice performed by fixing the mind on fruit (*phala*) or on display (*dambha*, vainglory) is *rājasa*. In *śuddhādvaita*, Brahman alone is real and the world is His genuine, joy-full self-manifestation — no shadow-doctrine of *māyā* intervenes. Sacrifice belongs within that real world; its quality turns on the disposition of the offering. The *rājasa* yajña is not illusory, but its practitioner orients toward personal yield or social prestige rather than toward Kṛṣṇa's own *ānanda* (bliss). On the *puṣṭi-mārga* (the path of grace), the Lord's grace (*puṣṭi*) alone sustains and elevates action; a sacrifice driven by fruit-desire or ostentation withholds itself from that grace-current. The *jīva* here operates on its own contracted initiative — *sva-śakti* (self-powered striving) — rather than releasing the act as *sevā* (loving service) into the Lord's līlā. *Brahma-sambandha* (the consecrated relationship in which all things are surrendered to Kṛṣṇa as His own) has not been engaged; the offering circles back to the offerer. Thus it is *rājasa* — neither dissolved into Kṛṣṇa's joy nor yet rooted in the pure *sattva* that would prepare the ground for *puṣṭi*.", "divergence_note": "No Vallabhācārya bhāṣya on 17.12 is extant; reading voiced directly from *śuddhādvaita* siddhānta — real-world manifestation, *puṣṭi-mārga*, *sevā*, *brahma-sambandha* — applied to the mūla.", "provenance": "siddhānta_reconstruction" }, "bhakti": { "reading_summary": "(reading summary extraction pending; ENABLE_READING_SUMMARIES=true to generate)", "key_cross_references": [], "witness_passages": [ "sridhara_17.12" ], "score": 0.5, "english_rendering": "Sridhara Svami reads dambha sharply as 'sva-mahattva-khyapana-artham' — performed for the purpose of proclaiming one's own greatness — which he pairs with phala-abhisandhi (intent upon fruit) as the twin engines of rajasic sacrifice. The sacrifice is outwardly correct in form yet inwardly hollowed by self-promotion: it wears the garb of dharmic observance while harvesting social capital. From a bhakti-philological reading, such sacrifice is the antithesis of para (other-directed) offering; it is an exercise in self-inflation disguised as worship." }, "advaita-bhakti": { "reading_summary": "(reading summary extraction pending; ENABLE_READING_SUMMARIES=true to generate)", "key_cross_references": [], "witness_passages": [ "madhusudan_17.12" ], "score": 0.5, "english_rendering": "Madhusudana Sarasvati offers the panel's richest analysis, identifying three distinct sub-cases signalled by 'api ca eva': (1) otherworldly fruit alone (svarga-adi) intended, without any concern for antahkarana-shuddhi; (2) dambha (appearing dharmic before the world) alone as the motive, with no otherworldly intent whatsoever; (3) both motives simultaneously — visible piety compounded with karmic accumulation. The particle 'tu' marks the contrast with nitya-karma (obligatory action done for inner purification); all three rajasic modes miss antahkarana-shuddhi and are therefore to be discarded ('hanaya'). The address 'Bharata-shreshtha' signals that Arjuna is fit to discern these distinctions." } }, "prosodic_information": { "meter": "anuṣṭubh", "meter_shift_from_previous": false, "meter_shift_to_next": false, "pragmatic_context": { "vocative": "", "preceding_question": "", "following_response": "" } }, "theme_list_memberships": [ { "list": "अपि च", "role": "supporting", "other_verses_in_list": [ "2.8", "2.31", "4.36", "6.9", "6.25", "9.30", "11.2", "15.18", "17.10" ] }, { "list": "विद्धि", "role": "supporting", "other_verses_in_list": [ "2.17", "3.15", "3.32", "4.13", "4.14", "4.32", "4.34", "6.2", "7.5", "7.10", "7.12", "10.24", "10.27", "10.41", "13.2", "13.19", "13.26", "14.7", "14.8", "15.12", "18.20", "18.21" ] } ], "audit_trail": { "substrate_version": "v2.6-frozen", "fitted_weights": { "a": 1.0, "b": 0.01, "e_v": 0.005, "z": 0.2, "h": 0.0, "th": 0.01 }, "corpus_provenance": { "mūla": "Belvalkar critical edition (BORI 1947), via Ambuda multi-witness", "panel_witnesses": [ "bg-mula", "bg-shankara", "bg-ramanuja", "bg-madhva", "bg-vedantadeshika", "bg-vallabha", "bg-jayatirtha", "bg-anandgiri", "bg-sridhara", "bg-madhusudan" ] }, "extraction_date": "2026-04-21", "score_methodology_documented_at": "Paper 1, Section II.B", "word_by_word_parser": "ByT5-Sanskrit-multitask (Nehrdich/Hellwig/Keutzer EMNLP 2024)", "post_generation_repairs": [ { "date": "2026-05-03", "fix": "verb-lemma-misidentification (broader heuristic: prefix-√root canonical for all verb-tagged tokens)", "scope": "word_by_word[].lemma", "loci": [ "ijyate: yaj -> √yaj", "viddhi: vid -> √vid" ] }, { "kind": "qmark_artifact_repair", "applied_at": "2026-05-08T01:56:14.968230Z", "applied_by": "summon-web/scripts/repair_qmark_artifacts.py", "n_senses_repaired": 1, "substitution": "? -> ,", "root_cause": "ITRANS '\\,' (literal-comma escape) in sd_bgshankarabhashya.itx corrupted to '?' during upstream HTML pipeline at gitasupersite; propagated through h_c_panel/commentaries/bg_*.jsonl into substrate.", "verification_source": "sonos-paper/samvad_db/sources/sd_bgshankarabhashya.itx" } ] }, "so_what_questions": [ "If the outward form of a sacrifice is scripturally correct but the inner intent is fame or reward, does the sacrifice produce any purifying effect at all — or does correct form without correct intent simply add more karmic residue?", "Madhusudana identifies three sub-types of rajasic sacrifice. Is a person who performs sacrifice for otherworldly fruit (case 1) more culpable, less culpable, or equally culpable as one who performs it purely for social reputation (case 2)?", "Sridhara glosses dambha as 'sva-mahattva-khyapana' — proclaiming one's own greatness. How does the practitioner distinguish genuine gratitude expressed in public ritual from self-advertisement disguised as piety?", "Shankara's commentary on this verse is unusually terse compared to surrounding verses. What does his minimal gloss suggest about how he ranks this teaching — is it doctrinally obvious to him, or is his brevity a deliberate signal?", "Ramanuja frames the defect as phala-abhisandhi making the jiva the terminal beneficiary rather than Ishvara. Does this mean that all nitya-karma (obligatory daily rites) performed by someone who has not yet developed nishkama-bhava are automatically rajasic in Vishishtadvaita?", "If antahkarana-shuddhi (inner-organ purification) is the legitimate goal of sattvic sacrifice, and rajasic sacrifice explicitly excludes this, what is the long-term consequence: does rajasic sacrifice leave the inner organ exactly as it was, or does it actually degrade it?", "Both fruit-desire and ostentation are listed as disqualifying motives, but real practitioners often have mixed motives. Does the Gita's framework require complete absence of these motives, or does it establish a gradient — and if a gradient, where is the threshold?" ], "everyday_applications": { "advaita": "When preparing a public speech or report, notice whether your effort is calibrated to the quality of understanding you might produce in others (sattvic) or to how you will be perceived afterward (rajasic dambha). The Advaita practitioner applies the same test Shankara applies to ritual: if the terminal referent of your attention is your own image, the action binds even when technically competent.", "viśiṣṭādvaita": "In workplace service, before taking on a high-visibility project ask: am I drawn to this because it is the most useful seva (service) I can offer, or because it will build my reputation? Ramanuja's 'dambha-garbha' — ostentation carried as a concealed seed — applies precisely here: the corruption is hidden inside what looks like dedication, and yashah-phala (fame as real harvest) quietly redirects the action away from the Lord and toward the self.", "dvaita": "Charitable giving becomes rajasic when the gift is sized or publicized to signal status rather than to benefit the recipient. In Dvaita terms the donor has displaced Hari as the terminal point of the action — the gift orbits the donor's social standing rather than serving as an act of dependence on and gratitude toward the independent Lord. The corrective is giving that the donor cannot take credit for: anonymous, uncelebrated, unadvertised.", "śuddhādvaita": "In creative work — art, music, writing — the Pushti-marga lens asks whether the work is an offering flowing from Krishna's own energy moving through you, or a product manufactured by your skill for your portfolio. Rajasic creation in this framework is work where the artist is the subject and the audience is the court of approval. Sattvic creation in Pushti terms is work that surprises even its maker, arriving as prasada rather than output.", "bhakti": "Sridhara's 'sva-mahattva-khyapana' — proclaiming one's own greatness — is the diagnostic for rajasic social media use: posting about one's practice, pilgrimage, or generosity primarily to display personal dharmic seriousness. The bhakti practitioner tests each post: does this give something to the reader, or does it mainly accumulate evidence of my virtue? The sacrifice of attention and time is rajasic when the audience is one's own reputation.", "advaita-bhakti": "Madhusudana's three-case analysis applies to professional credentialing and achievement: (1) pursuing certification purely for career advancement (otherworldly fruit mode); (2) pursuing it to signal expertise to peers with no underlying interest in mastery (dambha mode); (3) pursuing it for both simultaneously. All three modes, however common and socially rewarded, leave the antahkarana (inner organ) uncleaned because none is organized around understanding itself. The 'tu' particle — the contrast with genuine learning — is the daily self-examination: am I doing this for the thing, or for what the thing makes me look like?" }, "primary_meaning": "Sacrifice performed with an eye on reward, or staged to impress others with your piety, is rajasic, Arjuna." }