{ "verse_id": "4.12", "mūla": { "devanāgarī": "काङ्क्षन्तः कर्मणां सिद्धिं यजन्त इह देवताः | क्षिप्रं हि मानुषे लोके सिद्धिर् भवति कर्मजा", "iast": "kāṅkṣantaḥ karmaṇāṃ siddhiṃ yajanta iha devatāḥ | kṣipraṃ hi mānuṣe loke siddhir bhavati karmajā", "chapter_position": "Chapter 4 (Jñāna-Karma-Sannyāsa-Yoga (The Yoga of Renunciation of Action in Knowledge)), verse 12", "speaker": "Krishna", "addressed_to": "Arjuna" }, "word_by_word": [ { "surface_form": "kāṅkṣantaḥ", "lemma": "√kāṅkṣ", "grammar": "nominative masculine plural present participle verb", "senses_attested_in_panel": [ { "sense": "अभीप्सन्तः कर्मणां सिद्धिं फलनिष्पत्तिं प्रार्थयन्तः यजन्ते इह अस्मिन् लोके देवताः इन्द्राग्न्याद्याः अथ योऽन्यां देवता", "school": "advaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "shankara" ] }, { "sense": "इत्यत्र विशेषनिर्देशाभावात्सर्व", "school": "viśiṣṭādvaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "vedantadeshika" ] }, { "sense": "प्रायशः इह मनुष्यलोके इन्द्रादिदेवता", "school": "bhakti", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "sridhara" ] } ], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "काङ्क्षन्तः" }, { "surface_form": "karmaṇām", "lemma": "karman", "grammar": "genitive neuter plural noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "कर्मणाम्" }, { "surface_form": "siddhim", "lemma": "siddhi", "grammar": "accusative feminine singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "सिद्धिम्" }, { "surface_form": "yajantaḥ", "lemma": "√yaj", "grammar": "nominative masculine plural present participle verb", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "यजन्तः" }, { "surface_form": "iha", "lemma": "iha", "grammar": "", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "इह" }, { "surface_form": "devatāḥ", "lemma": "devatā", "grammar": "accusative feminine plural noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [ { "sense": "इन्द्राग्न्याद्याः अथ योऽन्यां देवतामुपास्ते अन्योऽसावन्योऽहमस्मीति न स वेद यथा पशुरेवं स देवानाम् (बृ0 उ 0 1.4.10) इति", "school": "advaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "shankara" ] }, { "sense": "देवानिन्द्राग्न्याद्यान्यजन्ते पूजयन्ति अज्ञानप्रतिहतत्वान्नतु निष्कामाः सन्तो मां भगवन्तं वासुदेवमिति शेषः", "school": "advaita-bhakti", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "madhusudan" ] } ], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "देवताः" }, { "surface_form": "kṣipram", "lemma": "kṣipram", "grammar": "", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "क्षिप्रम्" }, { "surface_form": "hi", "lemma": "hi", "grammar": "", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "हि" }, { "surface_form": "mānuṣe", "lemma": "mānuṣa", "grammar": "locative masculine singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [ { "sense": "लोके मनुष्यलोके हि शास्त्राधिकारः", "school": "advaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "shankara", "anandgiri" ] }, { "sense": "लोके कर्मजा पुत्रपश्वन्नाद्या सिद्धिः भवति", "school": "viśiṣṭādvaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "ramanuja" ] }, { "sense": "लोके सिद्धिः फलं प्राकृतं कर्मजं भवति अतो देवता इन्द्रादीन् यजन्ते भगवन्तं न मां क्षिप्रं फलदातृत्वाभावनिश्चयात् निरुपा", "school": "śuddhādvaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "vallabha" ] }, { "sense": "लोके। ज्ञानफलं त्वन्तःकरणशुद्धिसापेक्षत्वान्न क्षिप्रं प्रभवति। मानुषे लोके कर्मफलं शीघ्रं भवतीति विशेषणादन्यलोकेऽपि वर", "school": "advaita-bhakti", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "madhusudan" ] } ], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "मानुषे" }, { "surface_form": "loke", "lemma": "loka", "grammar": "locative masculine singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [ { "sense": "देवताः इन्द्राग्न्याद्याः अथ योऽन्यां देवतामुपास्ते अन्योऽसावन्योऽहमस्मीति न स वेद यथा पशुरेवं स देवानाम् (बृ0 उ 0 1.4.", "school": "advaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "shankara", "anandgiri" ] }, { "sense": "कर्मजा पुत्रपश्वन्नाद्या सिद्धिः भवति", "school": "viśiṣṭādvaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "ramanuja", "vedantadeshika" ] }, { "sense": "सिद्धिः फलं प्राकृतं कर्मजं भवति अतो देवता इन्द्रादीन् यजन्ते भगवन्तं न मां क्षिप्रं फलदातृत्वाभावनिश्चयात् निरुपाधिकस्", "school": "śuddhādvaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "vallabha" ] }, { "sense": "देवताः देवानिन्द्राग्न्याद्यान्यजन्ते पूजयन्ति अज्ञानप्रतिहतत्वान्नतु निष्कामाः सन्तो मां भगवन्तं वासुदेवमिति शेषः", "school": "advaita-bhakti", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "madhusudan" ] } ], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "लोके" }, { "surface_form": "siddhiḥ", "lemma": "siddhi", "grammar": "nominative feminine singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "सिद्धिः" }, { "surface_form": "bhavati", "lemma": "√bhū", "grammar": "present indicative 3rd person singular verb", "senses_attested_in_panel": [ { "sense": "। कर्मजा कर्मणो जाता।।मानुषे एव लोके वर्णाश्रमादिकर्माधिकारः न अन्येषु लोकेषु इति नियमः किंनिमित्त इति अथवा वर्णाश्रमादि", "school": "advaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "shankara" ] }, { "sense": "। मनुष्यलोकशब्दः स्वर्गादिलोकप्रदर्शनार्थः।सर्व एव हि लौकिकाः पुरुषा अक्षीणानादिकालप्रवृत्तानन्तपापसंचयतया अविवेकिनः क्ष", "school": "viśiṣṭādvaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "ramanuja" ] }, { "sense": "अतो देवता इन्द्रादीन् यजन्ते भगवन्तं न मां क्षिप्रं फलदातृत्वाभावनिश्चयात् निरुपाधिकस्यौपाधिककामितदाने विचारस्तत्पूर्वक", "school": "śuddhādvaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "vallabha" ] }, { "sense": "नतु ज्ञानफलं कैवल्यम्", "school": "bhakti", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "sridhara" ] }, { "sense": "मानुषे लोके", "school": "advaita-bhakti", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "madhusudan" ] } ], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "भवति" }, { "surface_form": "karma", "lemma": "karman", "grammar": "compound (compound member)", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "कर्म" }, { "surface_form": "jā", "lemma": "ja", "grammar": "nominative feminine singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "जा" } ], "intertextual_panel": [ { "verse": "3.20", "type": "cross-chapter thematic parallel", "score": 0.8967, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8567, "theme_graph": 1.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 7.4136, "stem_prefix": 3.0 } }, { "verse": "18.46", "type": "long-distance thematic echo", "score": 0.8966, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8566, "theme_graph": 1.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 6.0926, "stem_prefix": 3.0 } }, { "verse": "3.12", "type": "shared-vocabulary echo", "score": 0.8827, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8427, "theme_graph": 0.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 6.48, "stem_prefix": 4.0 } }, { "verse": "3.5", "type": "shared-vocabulary echo", "score": 0.8814, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8414, "theme_graph": 0.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 6.8964, "stem_prefix": 4.0 } }, { "verse": "18.45", "type": "long-distance thematic echo", "score": 0.877, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.847, "theme_graph": 1.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 6.509, "stem_prefix": 2.0 } }, { "verse": "3.14", "type": "shared-vocabulary echo", "score": 0.8768, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8468, "theme_graph": 0.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 6.2596, "stem_prefix": 3.0 } }, { "verse": "18.2", "type": "semantic neighbor", "score": 0.8763, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8563, "theme_graph": 0.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 4.6372, "stem_prefix": 2.0 } }, { "verse": "8.3", "type": "thematic-similarity", "score": 0.8725, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8425, "theme_graph": 0.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 3.6612, "stem_prefix": 3.0 } } ], "doctrinal_projections": { "advaita": { "reading_summary": "(reading summary extraction pending; ENABLE_READING_SUMMARIES=true to generate)", "key_cross_references": [], "witness_passages": [ "shankara_4.12", "anandgiri_4.12" ], "score": 0.5, "english_rendering": "Those who desire swift results from ritual action worship the devas — Indra, Agni, and the rest — here in the human world, for it is only here that scriptural authority (adhikāra) over varṇāśrama duties operates. The worshipper who approaches a deity as other than himself, thinking 'that is different, I am different,' is like a beast among the gods, as the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad (1.4.10) declares. Since karma-born fruit ripens quickly in the human realm, fruit-seekers take the easy road of separate-deity worship — while the question of why all creatures follow the Lord's path and not another's points toward the deeper teaching yet to come." }, "viśiṣṭādvaita": { "reading_summary": "(reading summary extraction pending; ENABLE_READING_SUMMARIES=true to generate)", "key_cross_references": [], "witness_passages": [ "ramanuja_4.12", "vedantadeshika_4.12" ], "score": 0.5, "english_rendering": "Every worldly person, weighed down by the beginningless accumulation of karma (pāpa-saṁcaya), craves swift fruit — sons, cattle, grain, heaven — and so worships Indra and the other devas through prescribed rites, without understanding that the Lord is the inner soul (ātmabhūta) of all those devas and the true enjoyer of every sacrifice. No one tormented by saṁsāra actually takes up the karma-yoga described in the preceding verses as an act of service (kainkarya) to Bhagavān, because the fruit of devatā-worship appears quickly in this very human world. The Lord now proceeds to name the sin-destroying cause that makes even this preliminary karma-yoga possible." }, "dvaita": { "reading_summary": "(reading summary extraction pending; ENABLE_READING_SUMMARIES=true to generate)", "key_cross_references": [], "witness_passages": [ "madhva_4.12", "jayatirtha_4.12" ], "score": 0.5, "english_rendering": "The reason all beings follow the Lord's path is precisely that swift fruit (kṣipra-phala) accrues to them through Him — for even devatā-worship succeeds only because Hari is the antarātman of all devas, and apart from Him no fruit arises. The Chāndogya Upaniṣad (1.7.6) confirms: 'those who know this become wealthy (dhana-sanaya).' The jīva who seeks quick results through limited deities unknowingly worships Hari indirectly, since no deity possesses independent power to grant results; only the eternally distinct Lord bestows karma-phala as its ultimate dispenser." }, "śuddhādvaita": { "reading_summary": "(reading summary extraction pending; ENABLE_READING_SUMMARIES=true to generate)", "key_cross_references": [], "witness_passages": [ "vallabha_4.12" ], "score": 0.5, "english_rendering": "Why do people worship other devas instead of Kṛṣṇa? Because the fruit born of action (karma-ja siddhi) — mundane, prākṛta — comes swiftly through those devas, whereas Bhagavān, being unconditional (nirupādhika), cannot dispense conditioned desires without prior examination, purification, and testing of the seeker, which takes time. People thus prefer Indra and other upādhika devas precisely because they dispense conditioned results without that delay. The verse exposes — without condoning — this calculus of spiritual impatience, implying that those who desire the Lord's gift rather than mere karma-fruit must accept His deliberate, refining delay." }, "bhakti": { "reading_summary": "(reading summary extraction pending; ENABLE_READING_SUMMARIES=true to generate)", "key_cross_references": [], "witness_passages": [ "sridhara_4.12" ], "score": 0.5, "english_rendering": "The verse answers the implicit question: if liberation is available through the Lord, why does almost no one approach Him directly? Most people in this human world, desiring the fruit of their actions, worship devas like Indra — because karma-born fruit arrives quickly, whereas the fruit of jñāna, namely kaivalya (liberation), is extremely difficult to attain (duṣprāpya). Śrīdhara notes the asymmetry plainly: quick fruit draws the crowd to devatā-worship; the rarity of seekers willing to undertake the long road of jñāna explains why the Lord's direct worshippers are so few." }, "advaita-bhakti": { "reading_summary": "(reading summary extraction pending; ENABLE_READING_SUMMARIES=true to generate)", "key_cross_references": [], "witness_passages": [ "madhusudan_4.12" ], "score": 0.5, "english_rendering": "Why does no one take refuge directly in Bhagavān Vāsudeva? Because those who desire karma-phala — blocked by avidyā (ajñāna-pratihata) — are not dispassionate (niṣkāma); they find that karma-born fruit comes quickly in the human world through devatā-worship. The fruit of jñāna, by contrast, requires the prior purification of the inner instrument (antaḥkaraṇa-śuddhi) and therefore cannot arise quickly. Madhusūdana adds that by specifying 'in the human world,' the Lord implicitly signals that karma-phala from varṇāśrama-transcending actions can be won in other realms too — but in any realm, the desire-bound turn to minor deities and never reach Vāsudeva, the ultimate goal." } }, "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": "कर्मयोग", "role": "supporting", "other_verses_in_list": [ "2.53", "3.3", "3.18", "3.28", "4.1", "4.24", "5.2", "5.3", "5.5", "6.5", "12.11" ] }, { "list": "सिद्ध", "role": "supporting", "other_verses_in_list": [ "1.1", "2.48", "3.20", "4.22", "4.38", "6.37", "6.43", "6.45", "7.3", "8.15", "10.26", "11.21", "11.22", "11.36", "12.10", "14.1", "16.14", "16.23", "18.13", "18.45", "18.46", "18.49", "18.50" ] } ], "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": [ "kāṅkṣantaḥ: kāṅkṣ -> √kāṅkṣ", "yajantaḥ: yaj -> √yaj", "bhavati: bhū -> √bhū" ] } ] }, "so_what_questions": [ "If even devatā-worship ultimately serves the Lord (because He is the antarātman of all devas, per Dvaita and Viśiṣṭādvaita), does the verse condemn desire-driven ritual or merely describe its limitation?", "Śaṅkara's citation of Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 1.4.10 ('like a beast among the gods') is severe — what exactly disqualifies the separate-deity worshipper, and does the verse itself carry that severity or does Śaṅkara add it?", "The verse singles out 'the human world' (mānuṣe loke) as the realm of swift karma-phala and scriptural adhikāra — what does this imply about ritual action performed by beings in other lokas, and how do the schools differ on this?", "Vallabha's reading frames the Lord's delay in granting fruit as a purifying act of grace rather than absence of power — how does this revalue the apparent disadvantage of Kṛṣṇa-worship over devatā-worship?", "Rāmānuja identifies beginningless accumulated karma (anādi pāpa-saṁcaya) as the root cause of the preference for quick fruit — is the verse then a diagnosis of saṁsāric psychology, or a prescription for how to exit it?", "Madhusūdana requires antaḥkaraṇa-śuddhi (inner-instrument purification) before jñāna-phala can arise — does this make niṣkāma karma-yoga a prerequisite technology for Advaita realization, or merely a concurrent discipline?", "All six commentators note the quickness (kṣipra) of karma-phala as the operative cause of devatā-worship — does the Gītā here accept that quickness as a feature of the cosmic order, or is it implicitly marking it as a trap?" ], "everyday_applications": { "advaita": "When you optimize a professional project for the fastest visible metric — quarterly revenue, follower count, quick user feedback — notice that you are in the mode Śaṅkara describes: worshipping the 'deity' of immediate result. The verse is not a prohibition but a diagnostic: ask whether the fast-result frame is being chosen in ignorance (avidyā) of a longer-range aim, or consciously as a temporary tool on the way to it.", "viśiṣṭādvaita": "Rāmānuja's reading suggests that no external agent — manager, mentor, institution — grants results independently; the deeper source of every outcome is the Lord who indwells them. Practically: work through human channels fully and skillfully, but hold your reliance on any particular channel loosely, recognizing that the real source is not the 'deva' (the channel) but what animates it. This is not passivity but a reorientation of where gratitude and accountability ultimately land.", "dvaita": "Madhva's point that every effective action traces its efficacy back to Hari means that credit-claiming is theologically mistaken at the source. In daily life: when a plan succeeds, the Dvaita practitioner attributes it not to their own capacity nor to the tool used (the 'deva' equivalent — the software, the contact, the strategy) but to the Lord's sanction. This is not superstition but a discipline against the inflation of instrumental causes into ultimate ones.", "śuddhādvaita": "Vallabha's framing of the Lord's deliberate delay as purification rather than indifference applies directly to any sustained practice — a creative project, a long study, a relationship — whose fruit is slow: the slowness is not absence of grace but the grace of being made fit. The practitioner in Puṣṭi-mārga does not switch to a faster 'deity' (a shortcut, a hack, a lesser goal) when results are slow; the delay itself is the curriculum.", "bhakti": "Śrīdhara's plain observation — jñāna-phala is rare because it is difficult (duṣprāpya) and most prefer the quick route — maps onto how we choose between shallow learning (fast, visible credential) and deep understanding (slow, no credential at the end). The verse, read through Śrīdhara, licenses patience: the practitioner who chooses the slow path toward genuine understanding is not making a strategic error, but is simply among the few.", "advaita-bhakti": "Madhusūdana's requirement of antaḥkaraṇa-śuddhi before jñāna ripens means that inner clarity is not optional preliminary work but the actual bottleneck. In practice: before seeking a higher-order answer to a hard problem — in work, in relationships, in creative life — the question to ask is not 'what is the answer' but 'is my instrument (attention, intention, emotional clarity) actually clean enough to receive it?' The verse, on this reading, mandates inner preparation as the precondition for any genuine cognitive result." }, "primary_meaning": "People who want quick results from their actions worship the devas here in the human world, and they get those results fast, because in this realm the fruit of action ripens swiftly." }