BG 10.35 — Vibhūti-Yoga — Sūtrakṛt-Gītā

Bhagavad Gītā 10.35Chapter 10 · Vibhūti-Yoga · Krishna → Arjuna · anuṣṭubh

बृहत्साम तथा साम्नां गायत्री छन्दसामहम् ।

मासानां मार्गशीर्षो ऽहमृतूनां कुसुमाकरः ॥

bṛhat-sāma tathā sāmnāṃ gāyatrī chandasām aham

māsānāṃ mārgaśīrṣo 'ham ṛtūnāṃ kusumākaraḥ

spokensingle-voice recital; rendered via IndicF5 conditioned on a Sanskrit reference clip

meaning

Among the Sāman chants I am the Bṛhat-sāman, among metres the Gāyatrī, among months Mārgaśīrṣa, and among seasons I am spring.

ekras · bhāṣya

Among the Saman chants, the Brihat-saman; among meters, the Gayatri; among months, Marga-shirsha; among seasons, the kusuma-akara — the spring. Four chiefs of four classes: ritual chant, prosodic meter, calendar month, season.

Shankara reads each precisely. The Brihat-saman is the chief among the Saman chants — the most exalted in the Sama-veda. The Gayatri is the chief meter, the foundational tri-pada that opens the Veda's dawn. Marga-shirsha is the chief month — by some calendrical reckonings the year's beginning, marked by abundant harvest and auspicious activity. Kusuma-akara — the flower-bearer — is vasanta, spring, the season of regeneration.

Madhusudana reads each as the chief of its class for the meditator's recognition.

Ramanuja reads each as Bhagavan's sharira-mode in the relevant ritual or temporal class.

Madhva reads on the bheda-frame: each chief is paratantra; recognition channels through.

Vallabha reads through pushti-marga: each is prasada's chosen channel — the spring's blooming, the Gayatri's chant, the Marga-shirsha's auspiciousness.

Shridhara reads cleanly: four chiefs.

Context

where

Chapter 10 · Vibhūti-Yoga · meter anuṣṭubh

who speaks

Krishna → Arjuna

preceded by — BG 10.34

I am death the all-devourer, and the source of all that is yet to be born; among women I am fame, fortune, speech, memory, discernment, steadfastness, and patience.

What's going on

Among the Sāman chants I am the Bṛhat-sāman, among metres the Gāyatrī, among months Mārgaśīrṣa, and among seasons I am spring.

Sūtras through this verse (21)

RāmānujaclassicalA

World as the Lord's body (antaryāmin)between

10.21Highest of each kind.───→here10.35───→10.39No exception outside Me.

ŚrīdharaclassicalJ

Insight given as a gift, not earned alonebetween

10.11I dispel the dark of unknowing for them.───→here10.35───→18.65By My grace, you reach Me through what is given.

AbhinavaguptaclassicalC

Vision is the structural centerbetween

10.18Even more detail asked, Abhinava already framed.───→here10.35───→11.1Instruction yields, experience opens up.

show all 21

Ekrasmoderntrigunametry

Trigunametry — guṇas as embodied statesbetween · v2

9.29Equal to all───→here10.35───→10.36Sattva of the strong

RāmānujaclassicalC

Three ṣaṭkas (1–6 / 7–12 / 13–18)between

10.1His glory becomes the chapter's evidence.───→here10.35───→11.1The aiśvarya-delusion now to be removed.

RāmānujaclassicalE

Bhakti as continuous recollectionbetween

10.10I give the buddhi-yoga to those who love.───→here10.35───→11.54Undivided love beholds it.

RāmānujaclassicalI

Vibhūti as evidence for antaryāminbetween

10.21Highest of every kind.───→here10.35───→10.39No exception is possible.

Ekrasmodernforgiveness

Forgivenessapproach · other

───→here10.35───→12.13Friendly, compassionate

Ekrasmodernmeditation

Meditation — the dhyāna tourexit · v2

8.12Om at the close───→here10.35───→

ŚrīdharaclassicalD

The path that turns no one awayexit

9.32Women, śūdras, all, also reach the goal.───→here10.35───→

ŚrīdharaclassicalE

Inner cleansing reconciles work and knowingexit

8.7Without a clean mind, steady remembrance fails.───→here10.35───→

ŚrīdharaclassicalK

Death-memory as the test of daily habitexit

8.14Remembrance comes only from constant daily practice.───→here10.35───→

MadhusūdanaclassicalF

Every middle chapter opens with a bow to the teacherbetween

10.1Royal knowledge, royal secret, Kāśirāja.───→here10.35───→11.1I worship the unborn, the self-luminous teacher.

MadhusūdanaclassicalH

Krishna with form is the ground beneath formless Brahmanbetween

10.8From Me everything flows; wise ones know this and worship.───→here10.35───→11.55The crystal verse names the saguṇa in absolute form.

RamsukhdasclassicalI

The Lord already inside the heartbetween

10.20I am the Self in every heart.───→here10.35───→13.17The Knowable lives as the inner light.

Ramsukhdasclassical

Sādhaka Sañjīvanī commentary at this versebetween

───→here10.35───→

ŚaṅkaraclassicalH

The Lord is friend of every beingbetween

9.13The great know Me as beginning of beings.───→here10.35───→10.42With one part I pervade this whole world, and stand.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalC

Antaryāmin — the indweller as standing referentbetween

10.20I am the Self seated in every heart.───→here10.35───→13.2'Cāpi' marks two — not one identity.

VallabhaclassicalA

Two paths — rule-bound and grace-onlybetween

10.14Faith comes only from the Lord's own giving.───→here10.35───→11.55Grace-soul acts only when the Lord wills.

AbhinavaguptaclassicalI

Anugraha: grace as the active powerapproach

───→here10.35───→11.8The eye is given; seeing is grace.

Gauravmodernmemorial_pastoral

Memorial Pastoralexit

8.6'Yam yam vapi smaran bhavam.' Whatever state of being one remembers at the last ───→here10.35───→

Śabda · lemmas (10 unique · 12 occurrences)

गायत्री gāyatrī — the Gāyatrī (Vedic meter and prayer) · nominative feminine singular noun
कुसुमाकरः kusumākara — spring ('flower-mine', kusuma + ākara) · nominative masculine singular noun

show all 10

साम·साम्नाम् sāman ×2 — song, sacred chant (the Sāmaveda) · nominative neuter singular noun / genitive neuter plural noun
अहम् mad ×2 — I, me (1st person pronoun stem); also: to rejoice (verbal root) · nominative singular noun
बृहत् bṛhant — great, large, vast · nominative neuter singular noun
तथा tathā — thus, in that manner; likewise
छन्दसाम् chandas — meter, prosody; the Vedic hymns · genitive neuter plural noun
मासानाम् māsa — month · genitive masculine plural noun
मार्गशीर्षः mārgaśīrṣa — Mārgaśīrṣa (lunar month, Nov-Dec) · nominative masculine singular noun
ऋतूनाम् ṛtu — season, period · genitive masculine plural noun

Praśna · so what (7)

01Why does Kṛṣṇa identify Himself with particular excellence rather than with each thing equally — what does selectivity in the vibhūti-list teach about how Brahman (or Bhagavān) is to be recognized in the world?
02The Bṛhat-sāman praises Indra as sarvaiśvara, yet Kṛṣṇa claims it — what does this say about the relationship between the Vedic devas and the Gītā's one Supreme?

show all 7

03The Gāyatrī is cited by Śaṅkara, Śrīdhara, Vallabha, and Madhusūdana all for different reasons (metre-excellence, dvija-initiation, soma-retrieval, matsvarūpa-revelation) — does the same sacred utterance genuinely mean all these things, or is polysemy here a problem to be resolved?
04Mārgaśīrṣa is identified as the pre-eminent month — a calendrical claim rooted in agricultural and liturgical abundance — how does temporal excellence relate to the timeless (nitya) nature of Brahman?
05Spring (vasanta) appears in Vallabha as the season that 'perpetually pervades Vṛndāvana' — is this a metaphorical intensification or a literal doctrinal claim about sacred geography?
06Each school gives a different justification for the Gāyatrī's supremacy; what does this divergence reveal about whether vibhūti-recognition is primarily a matter of learning, liturgy, or direct experience?
07If a practitioner cannot recognize Kṛṣṇa in the most beautiful thing of each category, does the teaching of vibhūti-yoga have a practical method, or is it purely a contemplative pointer?

Vyavahāra · try it in your life

Advaita

When you encounter something of arresting excellence — a piece of music, a mathematical proof, a moment of natural beauty — train the discriminating faculty (viveka) to pause and ask: what is the substratum that makes this the best of its kind? That inquiry, honestly pursued, is itself a form of the jñāna-mārga.

Viśiṣṭādvaita

In your work or family life, identify the one person, tool, or practice that is clearly the best available to you right now. Recognize and honour it — not as mere utility, but as the mode in which Bhagavān is most visibly present in that domain today.

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Dvaita

When you are tempted to take credit for excellence — your best work, your finest hour — recall that Hari is the sole independent ground of all excellence and yours is a dependent reflection. Offer the praise explicitly: 'this is yours, not mine.'

Śuddhādvaita

Find one sensory delight this season — a flower, a scent, a texture of light — and dwell in it as Kṛṣṇa's prasāda rather than as a possession to be extended or replicated. Let the enjoyment itself be the worship.

Bhakti

Each morning recite the Gāyatrī with the conscious intention that the very metre carrying the mantra is Bhagavān's form — let the form of the utterance, not only its semantic content, be the object of devotion.

Advaita-Bhakti

When the śāstras (Gītā, Upaniṣads, a teacher's words) converge on a single point from multiple angles — as Madhusūdana cites five śruti passages for spring — treat that convergence itself as evidence of a deeper unity and let it deepen rather than complicate your practice.

Adhiṣṭhāna · substrate signature

substratev2.6-frozen

parserByT5-Sanskrit-multitask (Nehrdich/Hellwig/Keutzer EMNLP 2024)

mūlaBelvalkar critical edition (BORI 1947), via Ambuda multi-witness

show all metadata

weightsa=1 · b=0.01 · e_v=0.005 · z=0.2 · h=0 · th=0.01

anchorfit on Ramsukhdas's Sādhak Sañjīvanī (1980), frozen across the eight-commentator panel; cross-validated R@4 = 71.6% on Śaṅkara

extracted2026-04-21

methodPaper 1, Section II.B

↓ view raw per-verse object (JSON)↗ per-verse-object schema ↗ substrate code (MIT) + data (CC-BY 4.0)

The schema generalizes to any bounded-polysemy corpus with discrete primary text units, attested witness traditions, identifiable schools, and formal substrate. Port the per-verse object; refit weights on a domain-appropriate Layer-3 anchor; ship.

Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 10, Verse 35: Krishna to Arjuna — Vibhūti-Yoga