{ "verse_id": "8.1", "mūla": { "devanāgarī": "किं तद् ब्रह्म किम् अध्यात्मं किं कर्म पुरुषोत्तम | अधिभूतं च किं प्रोक्तम् अधिदैवं किम् उच्यते", "iast": "kiṃ tad brahma kim adhyātmaṃ kiṃ karma puruṣottama | adhibhūtaṃ ca kiṃ proktam adhidaivaṃ kim ucyate", "chapter_position": "Chapter 8 (Akṣara-Brahma-Yoga (The Yoga of the Imperishable Brahman)), verse 1", "speaker": "Krishna", "addressed_to": "Arjuna" }, "word_by_word": [ { "surface_form": "kim", "lemma": "ka", "grammar": "nominative neuter singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "किम्" }, { "surface_form": "tat", "lemma": "tad", "grammar": "nominative neuter singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "तत्" }, { "surface_form": "brahma", "lemma": "brahman", "grammar": "nominative neuter singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [ { "sense": "तद्विदुः कृत्स्नम् (गीता 7", "school": "advaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "shankara", "anandgiri" ] }, { "sense": "अध्यात्मं", "school": "viśiṣṭādvaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "ramanuja" ] }, { "sense": "तद्विदुः कृत्स्नमध्यात्मं कर्म चाखिलम् इत्यादिना सार्धश्लोकेन सप्त पदार्था ज्ञेयत्वेन भगवता सूत्रितास्तेषां वृत्तिस्थान", "school": "advaita-bhakti", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "madhusudan" ] } ], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "ब्रह्म" }, { "surface_form": "kim", "lemma": "ka", "grammar": "nominative neuter singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "किम्" }, { "surface_form": "adhyātmam", "lemma": "adhyātma", "grammar": "nominative neuter singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "अध्यात्मम्" }, { "surface_form": "kim", "lemma": "ka", "grammar": "nominative neuter singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "किम्" }, { "surface_form": "karma", "lemma": "karman", "grammar": "nominative neuter singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [ { "sense": "च किम् इति वक्तव्यम् ऐश्वर्यार्थिनां ज्ञातव्यम् अधिभूतम् अधिदैवं", "school": "viśiṣṭādvaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "ramanuja" ] }, { "sense": "वा किमिति वक्तव्यम् अग्रिमाणां", "school": "śuddhādvaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "vallabha" ] }, { "sense": "चाखिलम् इत्यादिना सार्धश्लोकेन सप्त पदार्था ज्ञेयत्वेन भगवता सूत्रितास्तेषां वृत्तिस्थानीयोऽयमष्टमोऽध्याय आरभ्यते", "school": "advaita-bhakti", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "madhusudan" ] } ], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "कर्म" }, { "surface_form": "puruṣottama", "lemma": "puruṣottama", "grammar": "vocative masculine singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "पुरुषोत्तम" }, { "surface_form": "adhibhūtam", "lemma": "adhibhūta", "grammar": "nominative neuter singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "अधिभूतम्" }, { "surface_form": "ca", "lemma": "ca", "grammar": "", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "च" }, { "surface_form": "kim", "lemma": "ka", "grammar": "nominative neuter singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "किम्" }, { "surface_form": "proktam", "lemma": "pra-√vac", "grammar": "nominative neuter singular participle noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "प्रोक्तम्" }, { "surface_form": "adhidaivam", "lemma": "adhidaiva", "grammar": "nominative neuter singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "अधिदैवम्" }, { "surface_form": "kim", "lemma": "ka", "grammar": "nominative neuter singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "किम्" }, { "surface_form": "ucyate", "lemma": "√vac", "grammar": "present indicative pass 3rd person singular verb", "senses_attested_in_panel": [ { "sense": "[गी.सं.12] इति", "school": "viśiṣṭādvaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "vedantadeshika" ] }, { "sense": "।।1।। पूर्वाध्यायान्ते भगवतोपक्षिप्तानां ब्रह्माध्यात्मादिसप्तानां पदार्थानां तत्त्वं जिज्ञासुरर्जुन उवाच -- किं तद्ब्रह", "school": "bhakti", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "sridhara" ] } ], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "उच्यते" } ], "intertextual_panel": [ { "verse": "8.2", "type": "next-verse continuation", "score": 0.9478, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8478, "theme_graph": 7.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 1.069, "stem_prefix": 3.0 } }, { "verse": "8.3", "type": "thematic-cluster continuation", "score": 0.9239, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8739, "theme_graph": 1.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 12.7453, "stem_prefix": 4.0 } }, { "verse": "13.20", "type": "cross-chapter thematic parallel", "score": 0.9124, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8624, "theme_graph": 1.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 2.2322, "stem_prefix": 4.0 } }, { "verse": "7.29", "type": "cross-chapter thematic parallel", "score": 0.9093, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8493, "theme_graph": 1.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 13.4133, "stem_prefix": 5.0 } }, { "verse": "3.15", "type": "cross-chapter thematic parallel", "score": 0.9053, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8653, "theme_graph": 1.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 5.0621, "stem_prefix": 3.0 } }, { "verse": "3.1", "type": "cross-chapter thematic parallel", "score": 0.9047, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8447, "theme_graph": 1.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 10.6762, "stem_prefix": 5.0 } }, { "verse": "17.14", "type": "long-distance thematic echo", "score": 0.9044, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8544, "theme_graph": 1.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 3.3012, "stem_prefix": 4.0 } }, { "verse": "10.12", "type": "cross-chapter thematic parallel", "score": 0.899, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.859, "theme_graph": 2.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 3.0233, "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_8.1", "anandgiri_8.1" ], "score": 0.5, "english_rendering": "Arjuna asks: What is that Brahman? What is adhyātma (the self as inner ground)? What is karma, O Puruṣottama? Śaṅkara reads these as the seven technical seeds sown at the end of Chapter 7 — the unanswered pratiśruti (implicit promise) that compels Chapter 8. The seven terms are not idle curiosity; they are the epistemological preconditions for the inquiry into liberation from birth and death (jarā-maraṇa-mokṣa), and Arjuna now demands each be specified so that jñāna can proceed without ambiguity.", "divergence_note": "Śaṅkara: 'te brahma tad viduḥ kṛtsnam' (7.29) — iti bhagavatā arjunasya praśna-bījāni upadiṣṭāni; thus the questions were seeded by Bhagavān himself. Bhāṣya confirms both the dialogic structure and the jñāna-orientation." }, "viśiṣṭādvaita": { "reading_summary": "(reading summary extraction pending; ENABLE_READING_SUMMARIES=true to generate)", "key_cross_references": [], "witness_passages": [ "ramanuja_8.1", "vedantadeshika_8.1" ], "score": 0.5, "english_rendering": "Arjuna — representing seekers who have taken refuge in Bhagavān for liberation from old age and death — now asks: what is that Brahman, what is adhyātma, what is karma, that the mumukṣu (liberation-seeker) must know? And for those who seek aiśvarya (divine sovereignty), what are adhibhūta and adhidaiva? Who is the adhiyajña, how does he inhere in the body, and how is he to be known at the moment of departure? The three classes of seekers (mumukṣus, aiśvaryārthinaḥ, and the niyatātmā who knows the Lord at death) map the full scope of the chapter.", "divergence_note": "Rāmānuja explicitly names three seekers: jarā-maraṇa-mokṣārthinaḥ (liberation-seekers), aiśvaryārthinaḥ (sovereignty-seekers), and niyatātmā (the self-controlled who know Bhagavān at prayāṇa-kāla). This tripartite reading is distinctive to his bhāṣya." }, "dvaita": { "reading_summary": "(reading summary extraction pending; ENABLE_READING_SUMMARIES=true to generate)", "key_cross_references": [], "witness_passages": [ "madhva_8.1", "jayatirtha_8.1" ], "score": 0.5, "english_rendering": "Arjuna asks what must be known and done at the time of death — for in Madhva's reading, the adhyāya's central concern is maraṇa-kāla-kartavya (the duty at the moment of death) and the path thereafter. The seven questions frame the action-field of the departing jīva, who remains eternally distinct from Hari and must worship Him even in the final act of leaving the body.", "divergence_note": "Madhva's bhāṣya (8.1–8.2) is minimal but decisive: 'maraṇakāla-kartavya-gatyādi asmin adhyāye upadiśati' — this chapter teaches the duty and destination at death-time. The question is tactical, not metaphysical." }, "śuddhādvaita": { "reading_summary": "(reading summary extraction pending; ENABLE_READING_SUMMARIES=true to generate)", "key_cross_references": [], "witness_passages": [ "vallabha_8.1" ], "score": 0.5, "english_rendering": "Arjuna, doubtful (sandihāna), asks because Brahman, karma, and the rest are fit to be known (vijñeya) by the wise (prājña) — not by ordinary beings like us. Vallabha reads the question as an admission of the questioner's limitation and a reaching-toward grace: the inquiry itself is a form of surrender, an opening for Kṛṣṇa's prasāda to flow in.", "divergence_note": "Vallabha: 'brahma-karmādikaṃ prājñair vijñeyaṃ nāsmādādibhiḥ — iti jijñāsayā pārthaḥ sandihāno'tha pṛcchati.' The sandehā (doubt) is the devotional posture that qualifies the seeker for revelation." }, "bhakti": { "reading_summary": "(reading summary extraction pending; ENABLE_READING_SUMMARIES=true to generate)", "key_cross_references": [], "witness_passages": [ "sridhara_8.1" ], "score": 0.5, "english_rendering": "Śrīdhara notes that Brahman, karma, adhibhūta, and the rest — spoken of as knowable (vijñeya) by those whose minds are fixed on Kṛṣṇa (kṛṣṇaika-cetasaḥ) — are now to be made explicit (spaṣṭa) in Chapter 8. Arjuna asks cleanly, as a sincere student of the seven seeds planted at the chapter's end; his question is transparent (spaṣṭo'rthaḥ — the meaning is plain), and the chapter is the ordered answer.", "divergence_note": "Śrīdhara: 'pūrvādhyāyānte bhagavatopakṣiptānāṃ brahmādhyātmādi-saptānāṃ padārthānāṃ tattvaṃ jijñāsur arjuna uvāca — spaṣṭo'rthaḥ.' Bhāṣya is intentionally brief here; the question is treated as an unambiguous entry-point." }, "advaita-bhakti": { "reading_summary": "(reading summary extraction pending; ENABLE_READING_SUMMARIES=true to generate)", "key_cross_references": [], "witness_passages": [ "madhusudan_8.1" ], "score": 0.5, "english_rendering": "Madhusūdana reads Arjuna's seven questions as exposing genuine philosophical ambiguity left at the end of Chapter 7: Is Brahman sopādhika (conditioned) or nirupādhika (unconditioned)? Is adhyātma the aggregate of sense-organs (śrotrādi-karaṇa-grāma) or pure inner consciousness (pratyak-caitanya)? Is karma of one kind or two — as śruti distinguishes 'vijñānaṃ yajñaṃ tanute / karmāṇi tanute'pi ca'? The address 'Puruṣottama' signals that the questioner knows the answerer is omniscient (sarvajña) and thus entirely capable of resolving what appears ambiguous to the bound intellect.", "divergence_note": "Madhusūdana: 'tat jñeyatvena uktaṃ brahma kiṃ sopādhikaṃ nirupādhikaṃ vā... adhyātmaṃ kiṃ śrotrādi-karaṇa-grāmo vā pratyak-caitanyaṃ vā... kiṃ karma yajñarūpam anyad vā... hetu pūruṣottama iti.' The address to Puruṣottama is not ornament but epistemic pointer." } }, "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": "अधिभूतं च किं प्रोक्तम्", "role": "supporting", "other_verses_in_list": [ "8.2" ] }, { "list": "किं कर्म", "role": "supporting", "other_verses_in_list": [ "3.1", "4.16", "8.2" ] }, { "list": "किमध्यात्मम्", "role": "supporting", "other_verses_in_list": [ "8.2" ] }, { "list": "पुरुष", "role": "supporting", "other_verses_in_list": [ "1.1", "2.15", "2.16", "2.21", "2.60", "7.11", "8.4", "8.8", "8.10", "8.22", "9.3", "10.12", "10.15", "11.3", "11.18", "11.38", "13.19", "13.20", "13.21", "13.22", "13.23", "15.4", "15.16", "15.17", "15.18", "15.19", "17.3", "18.4" ] }, { "list": "पुरुषोत्तम", "role": "supporting", "other_verses_in_list": [ "3.3", "10.15", "11.3", "15.18", "15.19" ] }, { "list": "ब्रह्म", "role": "supporting", "other_verses_in_list": [ "1.1", "2.72", "3.14", "3.15", "4.21", "4.24", "4.25", "4.31", "4.32", "5.6", "5.10", "5.19", "5.20", "5.21", "5.24", "5.25", "5.26", "6.14", "6.27", "6.28", "6.38", "6.44", "7.29", "8.3", "8.11", "8.13", "8.16", "8.17", "8.24", "10.12", "11.15", "11.37", "13.4", "13.12", "13.30", "14.3", "14.4", "14.26", "14.27", "17.14", "17.23", "17.24", "18.42", "18.50", "18.53", "18.54" ] } ], "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": [ "proktam: pravac -> pra-√vac", "ucyate: vac -> √vac" ] } ] }, "so_what_questions": [ "Why does the chapter open with seven questions rather than one? What does the structure of Arjuna's inquiry reveal about how the Gītā treats the relationship between brahma-jijñāsā (inquiry into Brahman) and practical soteriological action?", "Adhibhūta and adhidaiva appear here for the first time as technical terms. What is the function of these cosmological registers — why must the seeker orient to the physical and divine planes, not only the metaphysical?", "Madhusūdana asks whether Brahman is sopādhika or nirupādhika and whether karma is one or two. How does the verse deliberately hold these as open questions rather than errors to be corrected — i.e., is the polysemy pedagogical or merely preparatory?", "Rāmānuja's three-seekers reading (mumukṣu / aiśvaryārthin / niyatātmā) implies that the chapter addresses a mixed audience. How does a single text serve three soteriological orientations simultaneously without collapsing into ambiguity?", "The address 'Puruṣottama' occurs here uniquely — the highest of persons asked to explain the highest of terms. What is the rhetorical and doctrinal work this address performs across the six schools?", "Madhva's brevity — the chapter is 'about death-time duty' — versus Madhusūdana's philosophical unpacking both start from the same verse. What does this divergence reveal about how doctrinal prior commitments govern which ambiguities a commentator even names?", "Śrīdhara's spaṣṭo'rthaḥ ('the meaning is plain') and Madhusūdana's long list of genuine ambiguities stand in direct tension. Is this a difference of depth, of audience, or of philosophical temperament — and what does it tell us about the verse's own polysemy density?" ], "everyday_applications": { "advaita": "Before entering any serious study or practice, identify the seven things you actually need to understand — not one vague goal, but precisely articulated sub-questions. Arjuna's asking is a model of epistemological preparation: you cannot get answers you have not yet formulated.", "viśiṣṭādvaita": "Recognize that you may be asking the same question as others but from a different need — liberation, achievement, or readiness for death. Locate your own category honestly before assuming your path is everyone's path; the same teaching carries different medicine.", "dvaita": "At any major transition (career change, illness, leaving a role), ask: what is my actual duty in this moment of departure? Do not be captured by metaphysics when the practical obligation — who to serve, how to act, where to direct your final effort — is the real question.", "śuddhādvaita": "Approach expertise or grace with acknowledged limitation: 'this is for the wise, not for me as I currently stand.' The sandehā (honest doubt) that Vallabha locates in Arjuna is not weakness — it is the posture that makes genuine learning possible rather than confirming what you already think.", "bhakti": "When a teacher plants seeds in a previous session, write them down and return with specific questions. Arjuna's seven questions are the fruit of attentive listening; the disciple's job is to harvest the open ends and bring them back formed.", "advaita-bhakti": "When asking a question of someone genuinely more capable than you, name their competence in the address itself ('you who knows this fully') — not as flattery but as a clarifying act that frames the conversation correctly and signals you are prepared to receive a non-partial answer." }, "primary_meaning": "Arjuna asks: what is Brahman, what is *adhyātma*, what is karma, O Puruṣottama, and what are called *adhibhūta* and *adhidaiva*?" }