{ "verse_id": "2.53", "mūla": { "devanāgarī": "श्रुति-विप्रतिपन्ना ते यदा स्थास्यति निश्चला | समाधाव् अचला बुद्धिस् तदा योगम् अवाप्स्यस्यि", "iast": "śruti-vipratipannā te yadā sthāsyati niścalā | samādhāv acalā buddhis tadā yogam avāpsyasyi", "chapter_position": "Chapter 2 (Sāṅkhya-Yoga (The Yoga of Knowledge)), verse 53", "speaker": "Krishna", "addressed_to": "Arjuna" }, "word_by_word": [ { "surface_form": "śruti", "lemma": "śruti", "grammar": "compound (compound member)", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "श्रुति" }, { "surface_form": "vipratipannā", "lemma": "√vipratipad", "grammar": "nominative feminine singular participle noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [ { "sense": "नानाप्रतिपन्ना विक्षिप्ता सती ते तव बुद्धिः यदा यस्मिन् काले स्थास्यति स्थिरीभूता भविष्यति निश्चला विक्षेपचलनवर्जिता सत", "school": "advaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "shankara" ] } ], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "विप्रतिपन्ना" }, { "surface_form": "te", "lemma": "tvad", "grammar": "genitive singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "ते" }, { "surface_form": "yadā", "lemma": "yadā", "grammar": "", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "यदा" }, { "surface_form": "sthāsyati", "lemma": "√sthā", "grammar": "future indicative 3rd person singular verb", "senses_attested_in_panel": [ { "sense": "स्थिरीभूता भविष्यति निश्चला विक्षेपचलनवर्जिता सती समाधौ समाधीयते चित्तमस्मिन्निति समाधिः आत्मा तस्मिन् आत्मनि इत्येतत्", "school": "advaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "shankara" ] }, { "sense": "तदा योगम् आत्मावलोकनम् अवाप्स्यसि", "school": "viśiṣṭādvaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "ramanuja" ] }, { "sense": "। लयविक्षेपलक्षणौ दोषौ परित्यज्य समाहिता भविष्यतीति यावत्। अथवा निश्चलाऽसंभावनाविपरीतभावनारहिता अचला दीर्घकालादनैरन्तर्य", "school": "advaita-bhakti", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "madhusudan" ] } ], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "स्थास्यति" }, { "surface_form": "niścalā", "lemma": "niścala", "grammar": "nominative feminine singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [ { "sense": "विक्षेपचलनवर्जिता सती समाधौ समाधीयते चित्तमस्मिन्निति समाधिः आत्मा तस्मिन् आत्मनि इत्येतत्", "school": "advaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "shankara" ] }, { "sense": "स्थास्यति तदा योगम् आत्मावलोकनम् अवाप्स्यसि", "school": "viśiṣṭādvaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "ramanuja" ] }, { "sense": "भवति ततश्च समाधावचला", "school": "dvaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "madhva" ] }, { "sense": "विशोकधैर्यादिवती ते यदा बुद्धिर्व्यवसायात्मिकैव तदा श्रोतव्यस्य श्रुतस्य", "school": "śuddhādvaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "vallabha" ] }, { "sense": "जाग्रत्स्वप्नदर्शनलक्षणविक्षेपरहिता अचला सुषुप्तिमूर्च्छास्तब्धीभावादिरूपलयलक्षणचलनरहिता सती स्थास्यति", "school": "advaita-bhakti", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "madhusudan" ] } ], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "निश्चला" }, { "surface_form": "samādhau", "lemma": "samādhi", "grammar": "locative masculine singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "समाधौ" }, { "surface_form": "acalā", "lemma": "acala", "grammar": "nominative feminine singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [ { "sense": "तत्रापि विकल्पवर्जिता इत्येतत्", "school": "advaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "shankara" ] }, { "sense": "एकरूपा बुद्धिः असङ्गकर्मानुष्ठानेन विमलीकृते मनसि यदा निश्चला स्थास्यति तदा योगम् आत्मावलोकनम् अवाप्स्यसि", "school": "viśiṣṭādvaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "ramanuja" ] }, { "sense": "सुषुप्तिमूर्च्छास्तब्धीभावादिरूपलयलक्षणचलनरहिता सती स्थास्यति", "school": "advaita-bhakti", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "madhusudan" ] } ], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "अचला" }, { "surface_form": "buddhiḥ", "lemma": "buddhi", "grammar": "nominative feminine singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "बुद्धिः" }, { "surface_form": "tadā", "lemma": "tadā", "grammar": "", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "तदा" }, { "surface_form": "yogam", "lemma": "yoga", "grammar": "accusative masculine singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [ { "sense": "अवाप्स्यसि विवेकप्रज्ञां समाधिं प्राप्स्यसि", "school": "advaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "shankara" ] }, { "sense": "आत्मावलोकनम् अवाप्स्यसि", "school": "viśiṣṭādvaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "ramanuja" ] } ], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "योगम्" }, { "surface_form": "avāpsyasyi", "lemma": "√avāp", "grammar": "future indicative 2nd person singular verb", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "अवाप्स्यस्यि" } ], "intertextual_panel": [ { "verse": "2.52", "type": "next-verse continuation", "score": 0.9605, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8705, "theme_graph": 2.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 20.4033, "stem_prefix": 7.0 } }, { "verse": "2.39", "type": "cross-chapter thematic parallel", "score": 0.9215, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8615, "theme_graph": 1.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 13.7014, "stem_prefix": 5.0 } }, { "verse": "6.21", "type": "cross-chapter thematic parallel", "score": 0.9049, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8449, "theme_graph": 1.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 12.3082, "stem_prefix": 5.0 } }, { "verse": "13.13", "type": "long-distance thematic echo", "score": 0.8892, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8497, "theme_graph": 1.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0472, "lemma_overlap": 2.8861, "stem_prefix": 2.0 } }, { "verse": "5.5", "type": "cross-chapter thematic parallel", "score": 0.8882, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8482, "theme_graph": 1.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 6.9231, "stem_prefix": 3.0 } }, { "verse": "6.12", "type": "cross-chapter thematic parallel", "score": 0.8881, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8481, "theme_graph": 1.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 6.6948, "stem_prefix": 3.0 } }, { "verse": "13.25", "type": "long-distance thematic echo", "score": 0.8878, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8368, "theme_graph": 1.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0551, "lemma_overlap": 8.3336, "stem_prefix": 3.0 } }, { "verse": "2.50", "type": "thematic-cluster continuation", "score": 0.886, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.856, "theme_graph": 1.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 4.7718, "stem_prefix": 2.0 } } ], "doctrinal_projections": { "advaita": { "reading_summary": "(reading summary extraction pending; ENABLE_READING_SUMMARIES=true to generate)", "key_cross_references": [], "witness_passages": [ "shankara_2.53", "anandgiri_2.53" ], "score": 0.5, "english_rendering": "Your buddhi (intellect), long scattered by sruti-s (Vedic injunctions) proclaiming countless means and ends — pravṛtti (engagement) here, nivṛtti (withdrawal) there — will in time become niścalā (unshakeable), freed from vikṣepa (distraction-movement). When it rests acalā (without even the subtler vikalpa, the wavering between alternate cognitions) in samādhi — which Śaṅkara reads as ātman itself, the locus in which citta is dissolved — then you will have attained yoga, which is nothing other than viveka-prajñā, discriminative insight. Acalā here is strictly technical: niścalā removes gross distraction, acalā removes the residual oscillation of the antaḥkaraṇa (inner instrument) between doubt and its absence — the threshold is not rest but extinction of all vikāra (modification).", "commentator": "Śaṅkarācārya" }, "viśiṣṭādvaita": { "reading_summary": "(reading summary extraction pending; ENABLE_READING_SUMMARIES=true to generate)", "key_cross_references": [], "witness_passages": [ "ramanuja_2.53" ], "score": 0.5, "english_rendering": "The buddhi, rendered ekārūpā (single-formed, pointed) toward a self that is sūkṣma (subtle), nitya (eternal), and niratiśaya (unsurpassed) — a self that belongs within the body of Bhagavān — becomes niścalā only when the mind has been vimalīkṛta (purified) through niṣkāma-karma, selfless action performed as kainkarya (service). Acalā, for Rāmānuja, qualifies not the absence of distraction in a blank absolute but the firm, unwavering attention of a devotee whose vision has locked onto ātmāvalokanam (self-contemplation as Bhagavān's viśeṣaṇa, attribute). Yoga here is not dissolution but arrival: jñāna-niṣṭhā (anchorage in knowledge) flowing from karma-yoga, which finally opens sthita-prajñatā — the praised state Arjuna is about to ask about.", "commentator": "Rāmānujācārya" }, "dvaita": { "reading_summary": "(reading summary extraction pending; ENABLE_READING_SUMMARIES=true to generate)", "key_cross_references": [], "witness_passages": [ "madhva_2.53", "jayatirtha_2.53" ], "score": 0.5, "english_rendering": "The buddhi that was viruddha (contradicted, pulled in opposing directions) by the veda-s themselves — because Hari's injunctions admit apparent contradictions that test the devotee — becomes niścalā precisely through tattva-niścaya (firm resolution of real distinctions): jīva is forever abhinna (unseparate in dependence) yet bhinna (distinct in essence) from Brahman. When that resolution holds even amid opposing vāk (speech), the buddhi then becomes acalā in samādhi, which Madhva glosses as brahma-pratyakṣa-darśana — direct vision of Hari — in which even the sound of a battle-drum (bherī-tāḍana) cannot dislodge the jīva from paramānanda (supreme bliss). Yoga is not union but upāya-siddhi: the jīva's means of approaching Hari are complete.", "commentator": "Madhvācārya" }, "śuddhādvaita": { "reading_summary": "(reading summary extraction pending; ENABLE_READING_SUMMARIES=true to generate)", "key_cross_references": [], "witness_passages": [ "vallabha_2.53" ], "score": 0.5, "english_rendering": "Vallabha reads verses 2.52 and 2.53 as a dyad: niścalā here carries the specific quality of viśoka-dhairya (the unshakeable composure born of grief's dissolution), which is the mark of a buddhi that has become exclusively vyavasāyātmikā (resolute in Kṛṣṇa's own will). When that buddhi is acalā in samādhi — samādhīyate, absorbed — yoga is not attained by effort but received as prasāda (grace): Kṛṣṇa's own svabhāva is the goal, and the jīva's only role is to cease constructing a separate seeking. The trai-guṇya (the three-strand world of scripture's promises) becomes anupādeya (unworthy of pursuit), not because it is false, but because Kṛṣṇa's līlā already contains all of it — the renunciation is of the seeker, not of the offering.", "commentator": "Vallabhācārya" }, "bhakti": { "reading_summary": "(reading summary extraction pending; ENABLE_READING_SUMMARIES=true to generate)", "key_cross_references": [], "witness_passages": [ "sridhara_2.53" ], "score": 0.5, "english_rendering": "The buddhi that was formerly vikṣipta (scattered) by śravaṇa (hearing) of countless laukika (worldly) and vaidika (Vedic) objects of knowledge settles into samādhi, which Śrīdhara reads as Parameśvara himself — the locus, not merely a mental state. Niścalā names the freedom from vikṣepa-vyāpti (the spread of distraction across objects); acalā adds abhyāsa-paṭutva (the acquired skill of sustained repetition) so that even laya (absorption that would slide into inertness) does not capture the buddhi — she stays laya-vyāpti-rahitā (free from the drift into blankness). The fruit of this double steadiness is tattva-jñāna (knowledge of the Real), which is yoga-phalam — Śrīdhara consistently reads the verse's yoga as the fruit of yoga practice, not its beginning.", "commentator": "Śrīdhara Svāmī" }, "advaita-bhakti": { "reading_summary": "(reading summary extraction pending; ENABLE_READING_SUMMARIES=true to generate)", "key_cross_references": [], "witness_passages": [ "madhusudan_2.53" ], "score": 0.5, "english_rendering": "Madhusūdana adds the most precisely differentiated reading: niścalā removes asaṃbhāvanā and viparīta-bhāvanā (the twin errors of doubting and mis-knowing), while acalā separately removes laya (the subsidence into sleeplike blankness) — the buddha-s familiar foes. The result is a flame in windless air, nirāta-pradīpa-vat (the lamp in the windless place), stationed in Paramātman without being extinguished into it. This is the jīva-paramātmā-aikyam that the mahāvākya-s (tat tvam asi and its siblings) produce: akhaṇḍa-sākṣātkāra (unbroken immediate cognition), which Madhusūdana insists is not mere conceptual agreement but sarvayoga-phalam — the fruit that all yogas were always approaching. His is the only reading that formally names both the vikṣepa-doṣa and the laya-doṣa as the two enemies that acalā and niścalā together destroy.", "commentator": "Madhusūdana Sarasvatī" } }, "prosodic_information": { "meter": "anuṣṭubh", "meter_shift_from_previous": false, "meter_shift_to_next": true, "pragmatic_context": { "vocative": "", "preceding_question": "", "following_response": "" } }, "theme_list_memberships": [ { "list": "कर्मयोग", "role": "supporting", "other_verses_in_list": [ "3.3", "3.18", "3.28", "4.1", "4.12", "4.24", "5.2", "5.3", "5.5", "6.5", "12.11" ] }, { "list": "ज्ञानयोग", "role": "supporting", "other_verses_in_list": [ "3.3", "3.28", "6.5", "7.2" ] }, { "list": "बुद्धि", "role": "supporting", "other_verses_in_list": [ "2.19", "2.39", "2.41", "2.44", "2.49", "2.50", "2.51", "2.52", "2.63", "2.65", "2.66", "3.1", "3.2", "3.3", "3.26", "3.40", "3.42", "4.18", "5.17", "5.20", "5.28", "6.9", "6.21", "6.43", "7.4", "7.5", "7.10", "8.7", "10.4", "10.10", "12.8", "12.14", "13.5", "15.20", "18.16", "18.17", "18.30", "18.31", "18.32", "18.37", "18.49", "18.57" ] }, { "list": "भक्तियोग", "role": "supporting", "other_verses_in_list": [ "6.5", "7.2", "12.11" ] }, { "list": "योगम्", "role": "supporting", "other_verses_in_list": [ "3.7", "4.42", "6.12", "6.19", "7.1", "9.5", "11.8", "12.11" ] }, { "list": "श्रुत", "role": "supporting", "other_verses_in_list": [ "2.29", "2.52", "11.2", "13.13", "13.25" ] } ], "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": [ "vipratipannā: vipratipad -> √vipratipad", "sthāsyati: sthā -> √sthā", "avāpsyasyi: avāp -> √avāp" ] } ] }, "so_what_questions": [ "The verse pairs niścalā and acalā as distinct qualifiers of buddhi — what is the precise phenomenological difference between distraction-movement (vikṣepa) and subtler oscillation (vikalpa/laya), and why does reaching samādhi require both to be stilled?", "Śaṅkara reads samādhi as ātman (the locus of citta-dissolution) while Śrīdhara reads it as Parameśvara (a personal divine ground) — are these two readings compatible, and what does the grammatical locative samādhau settle about the verse's intent?", "This verse is the hinge between karma-yoga instruction and the sthita-prajña section (2.54–72): why does Kṛṣṇa choose acalā buddhi, not mukti or mokṣa, as the marker of the transition?", "Madhvācārya's gloss introduces brahma-pratyakṣa-darśana as the content of samādhi — if direct vision of Hari is the criterion, how does the verse's language of buddhi-steadiness (a psychological term) support an ontological claim about a distinct Brahman?", "Vallabha's dyad reading (2.52–53 together) suggests that nirvedam (dispassion from Vedic results) and yoga-arrival are a single movement — does the sequential grammar of the verse (yada...tada) support or resist a simultaneous reading?", "The verse uses śruti in a deliberately double sense: the oral hearing-faculty and the Vedic revelation as corpus — which schools exploit this ambiguity to argue for or against the Vedas as a complete means of knowledge (pramāṇa) for liberation?", "Madhusūdana's nirāta-pradīpa metaphor for acalā buddhi recurs in BG 6.19 (describing dhyāna) — does the shared image imply that 2.53's samādhi is identical to, preparatory to, or distinct from the meditation described in the sixth chapter?" ], "everyday_applications": { "advaita": "When preparing for any sustained intellectual work — reading, writing, decisive judgment — notice the precise moment the antaḥkaraṇa (inner instrument) is still niścalā but not yet acalā: distractions have quieted, yet a residual oscillation between two framings persists. The Advaita practitioner's discipline is not to resolve that oscillation by picking a side but to recognise it as vikalpa itself — and to let it exhaust rather than act from it. The everyday threshold is: do not write the email, make the call, or take the decision until that second stillness arrives.", "viśiṣṭādvaita": "Daily niṣkāma-karma in the Rāmānuja mode means tracking the interior signature of kainkarya (service-to-Bhagavān) versus karma done for outcome: the first purifies the mind incrementally (vimalīkṛta) and over weeks produces a distinctly ekārūpā (single-pointed) quality in attention. The practical measure is whether you can return to your assigned work — the role, the household, the professional responsibility — with the same quality of attention after a disappointment as before it. That resilience of attention is the daily analogue of niścalā; acalā comes when you no longer need the outcome to sustain the effort.", "dvaita": "The Madhva practitioner works with tattva-niścaya (firm conviction about real distinctions) as an everyday cognitive discipline: before any morally charged choice, explicitly name the hierarchy — Hari above jīva, jīva distinct from jagat — rather than letting emotion blur the levels. The verse's criterion of buddhi remaining niścalā even against viruddha-vāk (contrary voices) applies directly to professional and social contexts where consensus pressure is strongest. Steadiness is not stubbornness; it is the refusal to let social vikṣepa override a clearly held ontological commitment.", "śuddhādvaita": "Vallabha's reading locates the daily practice in what might be called prasāda-receptivity: instead of engineering stillness through technique, the practitioner cultivates readiness to receive Kṛṣṇa's grace by progressively reducing the seeking-activity that blocks it. Practically this means ending any sustained effort — a creative project, a difficult conversation, a period of prayer — by explicitly releasing the outcome back to Kṛṣṇa rather than reviewing it for adequacy. Viśoka-dhairya (the composure beyond grief) is not achieved; it descends when self-assessment ceases.", "bhakti": "Śrīdhara's double criterion — niścalā (free from distraction-spread) and acalā (free from laya-drift) — gives a concrete diagnostic for meditation and devotional practice: after a period of japa (repetition) or pāṭha (recitation), ask not only 'was I distracted?' but also 'did I drift into mechanical inertness?' Both are failures; the first is too much outer movement, the second too much inner subsidence. The daily sādhana (practice) is calibrated when neither vikṣepa nor laya dominates — when Parameśvara remains present as a living object of attention, not as a habit-groove.", "advaita-bhakti": "Madhusūdana's lamp image is directly usable as a body-awareness anchor: before beginning work, notice the quality of attention — is it flickering (vikṣepa, too much input-seeking), or guttering low (laya, too little engagement)? The nirāta-pradīpa state is a felt middle — alert, steady, not effortful. This can be cultivated through the explicit naming of both enemies: before sitting down, ask 'what is the main distraction-pull today?' (a worry, an unfinished message) and separately 'what is the main laya-risk today?' (under-slept, overfed, emotionally flat). Naming both leaves the flame burning steadily — which Madhusūdana equates with being stationed in Paramātman without dissolving into inertness." }, "primary_meaning": "When your intellect, once pulled every direction by scripture's competing promises, grows still and settles unshaken into meditation, you will have attained yoga." }