{ "verse_id": "8.25", "mūla": { "devanāgarī": "धूमो रात्रिस् तथा कृष्णः षण्-मासा दक्षिणायनम् | तत्र चान्द्रमसं ज्योतिर् योगी प्राप्य निवर्तते", "iast": "dhūmo rātris tathā kṛṣṇaḥ ṣaṇ-māsā dakṣiṇāyanam | tatra cāndramasaṃ jyotir yogī prāpya nivartate", "chapter_position": "Chapter 8 (Akṣara-Brahma-Yoga (The Yoga of the Imperishable Brahman)), verse 25", "speaker": "Krishna", "addressed_to": "Arjuna" }, "word_by_word": [ { "surface_form": "dhūmaḥ", "lemma": "dhūma", "grammar": "nominative masculine singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "धूमः" }, { "surface_form": "rātriḥ", "lemma": "rātri", "grammar": "nominative feminine singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "रात्रिः" }, { "surface_form": "tathā", "lemma": "tathā", "grammar": "", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "तथा" }, { "surface_form": "kṛṣṇaḥ", "lemma": "kṛṣṇa", "grammar": "nominative masculine singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [ { "sense": "कृष्णपक्षदेवता", "school": "advaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "shankara" ] } ], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "कृष्णः" }, { "surface_form": "ṣaṭ", "lemma": "ṣaṣ", "grammar": "nominative masculine plural noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "षट्" }, { "surface_form": "māsāḥ", "lemma": "māsa", "grammar": "nominative masculine plural noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "मासाः" }, { "surface_form": "dakṣiṇāyanam", "lemma": "dakṣiṇāyana", "grammar": "nominative neuter singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [ { "sense": "इति च पूर्ववत् देवतैव। तत्र चन्द्रमसि भवं चान्द्रमसं ज्योतिः फलम् इष्टादिकारी योगी कर्मी प्राप्य भुक्त्वा तत्क्षयात् इह", "school": "advaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "shankara" ] } ], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "दक्षिणायनम्" }, { "surface_form": "tatra", "lemma": "tatra", "grammar": "", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "तत्र" }, { "surface_form": "cāndramasam", "lemma": "cāndramasa", "grammar": "accusative neuter singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "चान्द्रमसम्" }, { "surface_form": "jyotiḥ", "lemma": "jyotis", "grammar": "accusative neuter singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "ज्योतिः" }, { "surface_form": "yogī", "lemma": "yogin", "grammar": "nominative masculine singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [ { "sense": "कर्मी प्राप्य भुक्त्वा तत्क्षयात् इह पुनः निवर्तते", "school": "advaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "shankara" ] }, { "sense": "कर्मयोगीष्टापूर्तदत्तकारी प्राप्य यावत्संपातमुषित्वा निवर्तते", "school": "advaita-bhakti", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "madhusudan" ] } ], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "योगी" }, { "surface_form": "prāpya", "lemma": "prāp", "grammar": "conv", "senses_attested_in_panel": [ { "sense": "भुक्त्वा तत्क्षयात् इह पुनः निवर्तते", "school": "advaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "shankara" ] }, { "sense": "सुखभोगानन्तरमावृत्ती राजसी", "school": "śuddhādvaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "vallabha" ] }, { "sense": "तत्रेष्टापूर्तकर्मफलं भुक्त्धा पुनरावर्तते", "school": "bhakti", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "sridhara" ] }, { "sense": "यावत्संपातमुषित्वा निवर्तते", "school": "advaita-bhakti", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "madhusudan" ] } ], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "प्राप्य" }, { "surface_form": "nivartate", "lemma": "ni-√vṛt", "grammar": "present indicative 3rd person singular verb", "senses_attested_in_panel": [ { "sense": "। संपतत्यनेनेति संपातः कर्म। तस्मादेतस्मादावृत्तिमार्गादनावृत्तिमार्गः श्रेयानित्यर्थः।", "school": "advaita-bhakti", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "madhusudan" ] } ], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "निवर्तते" } ], "intertextual_panel": [ { "verse": "8.24", "type": "next-verse continuation", "score": 0.9158, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8658, "theme_graph": 0.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 16.2071, "stem_prefix": 5.0 } }, { "verse": "18.78", "type": "long-distance thematic echo", "score": 0.8987, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8487, "theme_graph": 1.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 5.8159, "stem_prefix": 4.0 } }, { "verse": "6.37", "type": "cross-chapter thematic parallel", "score": 0.8926, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8426, "theme_graph": 1.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 6.3758, "stem_prefix": 4.0 } }, { "verse": "5.24", "type": "shared-vocabulary echo", "score": 0.8882, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8582, "theme_graph": 0.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 11.6179, "stem_prefix": 3.0 } }, { "verse": "18.39", "type": "thematic-similarity", "score": 0.8785, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8385, "theme_graph": 0.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 3.9598, "stem_prefix": 4.0 } }, { "verse": "6.34", "type": "cross-chapter thematic parallel", "score": 0.878, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.838, "theme_graph": 1.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 6.0782, "stem_prefix": 3.0 } }, { "verse": "14.6", "type": "shared-vocabulary echo", "score": 0.8748, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8348, "theme_graph": 0.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 7.1725, "stem_prefix": 4.0 } }, { "verse": "5.1", "type": "cross-chapter thematic parallel", "score": 0.8743, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8443, "theme_graph": 1.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 5.0191, "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_8.25", "anandgiri_8.25" ], "score": 0.5, "english_rendering": "Śaṅkara reads each term — dhūma (smoke), rātri (night), kṛṣṇa (dark fortnight), and the six months of dakṣiṇāyana — not as literal cosmological stations but as the presiding deities (abhimāni-devatā) of those phenomena, who conduct the departing soul along the pitṛyāna. The karmī who performs iṣṭa (Vedic rite) and pūrta (charitable work) reaches the cāndramasa-jyotis, enjoys the fruit of merit, and upon its exhaustion returns (nivartate) to rebirth. For Śaṅkara the contrast with 8.24 is stark: the jñānī who traverses the arcirādi-mārga does not return; the sakāma-karmī always does — hence the verse functions as a refutation-by-contrast urging the student toward jñāna." }, "viśiṣṭādvaita": { "reading_summary": "(reading summary extraction pending; ENABLE_READING_SUMMARIES=true to generate)", "key_cross_references": [], "witness_passages": [ "ramanuja_8.25", "vedantadeshika_8.25" ], "score": 0.5, "english_rendering": "Rāmānuja's gloss is deliberately compressed: this verse simply exhibits the pitṛloka-ādi stations on the dhūmādi-mārga, and the term yogī here means one whose 'yoga' is punya-karma — meritorious ritual action — rather than the niṣkāma-upāsaka of 8.24. The soul's return from candraloka is not a cosmological accident but a consequence of acting for personal fruit rather than as kainkarya (service) to Bhagavān; the path itself is Bhagavān's ordination, but the traveller on it is still bound by svārtha (self-interest). Rāmānuja's brevity signals that the verse needs no elaborate treatment: it serves as the foil that makes the archirādi-mārga's irreversibility theologically luminous." }, "dvaita": { "reading_summary": "(reading summary extraction pending; ENABLE_READING_SUMMARIES=true to generate)", "key_cross_references": [], "witness_passages": [ "madhva_8.25", "jayatirtha_8.25" ], "score": 0.5, "english_rendering": "[NOTE: Madhvācārya did not compose a bhāṣya on this verse; the following is constructed from Dvaita doctrinal principles.] In Dvaita logic the soul traversing the pitṛyāna is a nitya-baddha jīva whose karma-phala is real and distinct from Hari's own will; the cāndramasa-jyotis is an actual loka governed by a deity who is herself a dependent instrument (paratantra) of Viṣṇu. Return (nivartate) confirms the jīva's essential difference (bheda) from Brahman: only the mukta reaches Vaikuṇṭha and never returns, whereas the sakāma traveller oscillates in saṃsāra because his very action is motivated by ego-possession rather than surrender to Hari." }, "śuddhādvaita": { "reading_summary": "(reading summary extraction pending; ENABLE_READING_SUMMARIES=true to generate)", "key_cross_references": [], "witness_passages": [ "vallabha_8.25" ], "score": 0.5, "english_rendering": "Vallabha frames this verse as the āvṛtti-mārga of the sakāma-agnihotrin — one who performs Vedic rites with desire — and maps three grades of return: the sātvikī path (niṣkāma karma with Bhagavad-arpaṇa, leading to krama-mukti), the rājasī path (kāmya-karma → candraloka → bhoga → āvṛtti), and the tāmasī path (prohibited action → naraka-bhoga → āvṛtti). The dhūmādi sequence is the Śruti-declared rājasī corridor; the pivotal insight is that even this corridor is Kṛṣṇa's līlā-prasāda — the universe arranges itself to exhaust karma and return the jīva until it surrenders to puṣṭi-bhakti, the only path that dissolves the cycle entirely." }, "bhakti": { "reading_summary": "(reading summary extraction pending; ENABLE_READING_SUMMARIES=true to generate)", "key_cross_references": [], "witness_passages": [ "sridhara_8.25" ], "score": 0.5, "english_rendering": "Śrīdhara Svāmī identifies four presiding deities (abhimāninī-devatā): dhūma, rātri, kṛṣṇa-pakṣa, and the six-month dakṣiṇāyana, echoing the Chāndogya-śruti (te dhūmam abhisambhavanti… pitṛlokāc candram). The karma-yogī who travels this path reaches the cāndramasa-jyotis — the lunar loka — enjoys the fruit of iṣṭa-pūrta karma, and returns. Śrīdhara then explicitly maps all four exit-types: nivṛtti-karma with upāsanā → krama-mukti; kāmya-karma → svarga-bhoga → āvṛtti; niṣiddha-karma → naraka → āvṛtti; kṣudra-karma → immediate rebirth without cosmic travel. The verse thus situates the pitṛyāna within a complete graduated soteriology, with bhakti-informed upāsanā as the only route to permanent liberation." }, "advaita-bhakti": { "reading_summary": "(reading summary extraction pending; ENABLE_READING_SUMMARIES=true to generate)", "key_cross_references": [], "witness_passages": [ "madhusudan_8.25" ], "score": 0.5, "english_rendering": "Madhusūdana reads the verse as a deliberate foil to glorify the devayāna: the pitṛyāna's four named deities (dhūma, rātri, kṛṣṇa-pakṣa, dakṣiṇāyana) are explicitly called upalakaṣaṇa — indicators pointing to the fuller Chāndogya list (pitṛloka, ākāśa, candramā). The karma-yogī who performs iṣṭa-pūrta-dāna reaches the cāndramasa-jyotis, dwells there yāvat-sampātam (until karma is exhausted), and returns — the term sampāta (the karma that depletes) marking the precise mechanism of inevitable return. The structural purpose is rhetorical: anāvṛtti-mārga (8.24) is proven superior by contrast, and Kṛṣṇa-bhakti, which grants that anāvṛtti, emerges as the culmination of both jñāna and karma disciplines." } }, "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": "कृष्ण", "role": "supporting", "other_verses_in_list": [ "1.1", "1.28", "1.29", "1.30", "1.32", "1.41", "5.1", "6.34", "6.37", "6.39", "8.26", "11.35", "11.41", "17.1", "18.75", "18.78" ] } ], "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": [ "nivartate: nivṛt -> ni-√vṛt" ] } ] }, "so_what_questions": [ "Why does the Gītā list cosmological waypoints (smoke, night, dark fortnight, dakṣiṇāyana) rather than simply saying 'those who act for reward return'? What work does the mythological geography do that a bare doctrinal statement cannot?", "Śaṅkara insists the terms refer to presiding deities, not physical phenomena — what is at stake in that move? How does it protect the Vedāntic claim that Brahman alone is ultimately real?", "All six schools agree that the pitṛyāna culminates in return; yet Madhva calls the soul's difference from Brahman permanent while Advaita calls it apparent. Does the verse itself adjudicate between them, or is it neutral?", "Vallabha adds a tāmasī-rājasī-sātvikī tri-partite structure not explicit in the mūla. Is this an interpolation from Purāṇic cosmology, an extension of Śruti, or a genuine reading of the half-verse? What method licenses such expansion?", "The Chāndogya-śruti passage cited by Śrīdhara and Madhusūdana says the soul becomes 'food for the gods' on the moon (tad devānām annam). What is the soteriological implication of a soul serving as divine nourishment before rebirth?", "Both 8.24 and 8.25 address the moment of death, but contemporary practitioners do not control the lunar calendar or season of dying. How do the commentators — particularly Śaṅkara and Rāmānuja — re-appropriate this cosmological determinism as something practically actionable in life?", "Madhusūdana's term sampāta (the karma-mechanism of return) implies a precise depletion-and-return logic. Does this make saṃsāra fundamentally entropic, and if so, what prevents indefinite oscillation? Where does liberation enter the model?" ], "everyday_applications": { "advaita": "When you notice yourself performing a dutiful action — volunteering, giving, disciplining the body — specifically to accumulate merit, goodwill, or a positive future, recognise that as the sakāma-karmī's mode that Śaṅkara says leads to return. The practice is to pause and ask: 'Is the doer real, or is this action arising through the instrument of the body-mind?' Sustained inquiry into the doer (kartā) is the daily Advaita application of this verse.", "viśiṣṭādvaita": "Rāmānuja's point is that every action performed for personal reward — even a generous one — keeps the agent on the return-path. The practical reorientation is to dedicate each act explicitly as kainkarya (service) to Bhagavān before undertaking it: not a verbal formula but a genuine shift in motivation from 'I want this outcome' to 'this is my offering.' Over time this trains the will away from svārtha and toward the permanent archirādi-mārga.", "dvaita": "Madhva's framework locates the error in imagining that you and Hari share the same nature. The daily application is a discipline of radical attribution: in each success or failure, consciously acknowledge Hari as the independent controller (svatantra) and yourself as the dependent instrument (paratantra). This is not passivity — it is the precision of an engineer who correctly identifies the power source — and it dismantles the ego-appropriation that binds the jīva to the pitṛyāna.", "śuddhādvaita": "Vallabha's three-tier model (sātvikī/rājasī/tāmasī) is a diagnostic tool. At day's end, review your significant actions and classify each: was it kāmya (desired outcome), niṣiddha (prohibited), niṣkāma with Bhagavad-arpaṇa, or kṣudra (trivial habit)? The classification is not for guilt but for honest self-knowledge about which corridor you are actually building. Puṣṭi-mārga practice then redirects the rājasī impulses through joyful Kṛṣṇa-smaran (remembrance) rather than suppression.", "bhakti": "Śrīdhara's graduated soteriology makes the verse a planning framework: the quality of your liberation depends on the quality of your action now. The practical instruction is to pair any charitable or ritual act (iṣṭa-pūrta) with an act of upāsanā (contemplative practice), because iṣṭa-pūrta alone yields only temporary svarga. Even fifteen minutes of daily bhakti-oriented contemplation after external service shifts the trajectory from āvṛtti toward krama-mukti.", "advaita-bhakti": "Madhusūdana's rhetorical purpose — foil-to-glorify — suggests a meditative practice: whenever you feel the weight of cyclical effort (working hard, getting results, losing them, starting over), use that fatigue as a pointer. The exhaustion is sampāta — the karma depleting. Rather than doubling down on the effort, let the depletion become a doorway to Kṛṣṇa-bhakti, which Madhusūdana positions as the anāvṛtti path that ends the cycle. Weariness with return is itself a form of viveka (discernment)." }, "primary_meaning": "Traveling by the path of smoke, night, the dark fortnight, and the six southern months, the soul reaches the lunar world, enjoys its merit there, and returns." }