BG 15.12 — Puruṣottama-Yoga — Sūtrakṛt-Gītā

Bhagavad Gītā 15.12Chapter 15 · Puruṣottama-Yoga · Krishna → Arjuna · anuṣṭubh

यदादित्यगतं तेजो जगद् भासयते ऽखिलम् ।

यच् चन्द्रमसि यच् चाग्नौ तत् तेजो विद्धि मामकम् ॥

yad āditya-gataṃ tejo jagad bhāsayate 'khilam

yac candramasi yac cāgnau tat tejo viddhi māmakam

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

meaning

The radiance that lights the whole world through the sun, through the moon, through fire, know that radiance to be Mine.

Bhāṣyakāra purports

Śaṅkaraadvaita
The luminosity (tejas) dwelling in the sun that illuminates the entire world, the luminosity in the moon, the luminosity in fire — know all that to be Mine, the light of Visnu. Sankara reads ‘tejas' as consciousness-light (caitanya-atmaka jyotis): the same awareness that shines equally through all beings appears more manifestly in the sun and moon only because their sattva-guna is exceedingly pure, just as a face is reflected in a mirror but not in wood — the face itself is unchanged, only the medium differs.
divergence: Sankara: ‘yad adityagatam tejas caitanyatmakam jyotih... tat tejas viddhi mamakam' — the qualifier ‘adityagatam' does not mean the light is quantitatively greater there, but that the sattvic clarity of the sun-medium allows the identical brahma-caitanya to manifest more fully (avistarena).
Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita
The tejas (radiance) of the sun, moon, and fire that illuminates the entire world is My own radiance, given by Me to those luminaries after they have worshipped Me. Ramanuja reads this as Bhagavan's real and direct gift of power to dependent realities: the sun and moon are not independent sources but recipients of Isvara's grace-radiation, which He confers upon them as their indwelling inner controller.
divergence: Ramanuja: ‘tais tair aradhitena maya tebhyo dattam iti viddhi' — the light was given by Me, worshipped by them; the luminaries are Bhagavan's sarira (body), dependent and sustained by His antaratman.
Madhvadvaita
Pūrvoktam eva jñānam (the very knowledge stated before) is here prapañcayati (unfolded in detail) — so Madhva opens his reading of yad āditya-gataṃ and the verses following. The tejo (luminous power) in sun, moon, and fire that illuminates the whole jagat is māmakam — Hari's own, belonging solely to the svatantra Lord. Jayatīrtha presses the question: since Krishna already declared na tad bhāsayate (15.6), why continue? The answer: adhaś ca mūlāny anusantatāni (15.2) conveyed the knowledge of sarvāntaryāmi-svarūpa (the form as inner-controller of all); the superlative ūrdhva registered sarvoттamatva (the Lord's all-surpassing excellence); and the remainder of the chapter — beginning with yad āditya-gatam — prapañcayati that same knowledge. The pañca-bheda (the five-fold real distinction) is operative throughout: the jīva (the individual self) is never the source of cosmic tejas, only the paratantra (eternally dependent) recipient of what the svatantra Hari alone emits.
divergence: Madhva: pūrvoktam eva jñānam prapañcayati — yad āditya-gatam ity ādinā — treating 15.12–14 as a single unfolding of the sarvāntaryāmi-svarūpa established earlier; Jayatīrtha specifies that both the inner-controller knowledge (adhaś ca mūlāny anusantatāni) and the Lord's sarvoттamatva (signaled by ūrdhva) are what these verses extend. The jīva‘s utter paratantra with respect to tejas confirms svabheda (essential distinction) rather than any shared luminosity.
Vallabhaśuddhādvaita
The radiance in sun, moon, and fire is a portion (amsa) of Me, Krsna, the one eternal-bliss-consciousness-abode (sadananda-cid-rupa-dhama); even the insentient transformation of matter that produces light is My vibhuti. Vallabha stresses that even the acit (material) side of light — the dispersal of darkness that enables the senses to function — is Bhagavan's gift-grace (prasada), not a natural mechanical fact.
divergence: Vallabha: ‘aditiyadisu mamaivamso tejo yatha jivaloke jivabhuta iti' — the tejas in the sun is Krsna's own amsa just as the jiva is His amsa; the Maitrayani-sruti (‘yo'sav aditye purusah so'sav aham') confirms this as the adhidaivata meaning.
Śrīdharabhakti
After establishing in the prior verses that Bhagavan's supreme dhama is beyond the light of sun, moon, and fire, the Lord now reveals His infinite-power form: the very tejas by which sun, moon, and fire illuminate the world is nothing other than the Lord's own radiance. Sridhara reads these four verses as a connected demonstration of ananta-saktitva: the devotee who sees the world lit should recognise that light as Isvara's direct self-disclosure.
divergence: Sridhara: ‘idanim tad eva paramasvaram rupam anantasaktitve nirUpayati — yad ity adi caturbhih' — the entire range of cosmic illumination is gathered under the single fact ‘tat tejo madiyam eva janIhi'.
Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti
The sruti declares both ‘na tatra suryo bhati' (that supreme abode needs no sun) and ‘tasya bhasa sarvam idam vibhati' (by His light all this shines); Madhusudana reads 15.12 as the explication of the second half: every tejas — solar, lunar, fire — is caitanya-jyotis, the one brahma-consciousness shining through sattvic mediums of varying purity. Yet this is also Krsna's own vibhuti: jnana and bhakti here converge, for the light one adores in the sun is the same brahman one recognises in self-inquiry.
divergence: Madhusudan: ‘tameva bhantam anu bhati sarvam tasya bhasa sarvam idam vibhati iti srutyardham anena vyakhyayate' — 15.12 is the Gita's commentary on the Mundaka/Katha passage; yad adityagatam is the empirical entry-point to the non-dual tejas.

ekras · bhāṣya

The tejas in aditya — the sun — that lights the entire world; the tejas in chandra and agni — moon and fire. Viddhi — know — that tejas is mamakam — Mine.

Krishna re-locates the cosmic luminaries' light. The sun does not light by itself; the moon does not light by itself; fire does not light by itself. The tejas they apparently radiate is Krishna's, lent to them.

Shankara reads tejas as chaitanya-atmaka jyotis — consciousness-light. The same awareness that shines equally through all beings appears more manifestly in the sun and moon only because their sattva-guna is denser. The light is not three different lights from three different sources; it is one light, manifesting through three sattva-saturated apparatus. The bhakta who recognizes this stops attributing primary luminosity to the heavenly bodies.

Madhusudana reads 15.12 as the explication of the second half of the Mundaka shruti — tasya bhasa sarvam idam vibhati: by His light all this shines. Every tejas — solar, lunar, fire — is chaitanya-jyotis, the one brahma-consciousness shining through sattvic mediums of varying purity. Yet this is also Krishna's own vibhuti — the lordly manifestation by which the bhakta recognizes Bhagavan in cosmic phenomena. Both registers hold: chaitanya for jnana, vibhuti for bhakti.

Ramanuja reads the tejas of sun, moon, fire that illuminates the entire world as Krishna's own radiance, given by Him to those luminaries after they have worshipped Him.

Bhagavan's real and direct gift of power to dependent realities: the sun and moon are not independent sources but recipients of Ishvara's grace-radiation, which He confers as their inherent capacity. Aditya, chandra, agni are devata-bodies of Bhagavan; their light is His light through them.

Madhva reads the verse as prapanchayati — unfolding in detail — the jnana stated before. The tejo in sun, moon, fire that illuminates the whole jagat is mamakam — Hari's own, belonging solely to svatantra.

Jayatirtha presses: since Krishna is one and the lights are many, how is the tejas attributed to Him alone? Answer: the lights are paratantra-bodies; their luminous-capacity is Hari's. The bheda is preserved; the dependence is named.

Vallabha reads the radiance in sun, moon, fire as a portion of Krishna, the one sat-ananda-chid-rupa-dhama. Even the insentient transformation of matter that produces light is His vibhuti. Even the achit side of light — the dispersal of darkness that enables the senses to function — is Bhagavan's prasada-gift. The pushti-marga reading: the bhakta sees Krishna's lila in every photon.

Shridhara reads after establishing in the prior verses that Bhagavan's supreme dhama is beyond the light of sun, moon, fire, the Lord now reveals His infinite-power form. The very tejas by which sun, moon, fire illuminate the world is nothing other than the Lord's own radiance.

Shridhara reads the four verses 15.12-15 as a connected demonstration of ananta-shaktitva: the bhakta who sees the world's light correctly sees Krishna in it, which is itself a step toward the chapter's recognition.

Context

where

Chapter 15 · Puruṣottama-Yoga · meter anuṣṭubh

who speaks

Krishna → Arjuna

preceded by — BG 15.11

Striving yogins see this self settled within, but those who strive without a prepared mind, their understanding still impure, do not see it at all.

What's going on

The radiance that lights the whole world through the sun, through the moon, through fire, know that radiance to be Mine.

Vyavahāra · try it in your life

Dvaita

Madhva's reading is a direct cure for the subtle inflation that says 'my talent, my brilliance, my light.' When your work illuminates a room, a student, a problem — Hari's tejas did it through you. Precisely accounting for that distinction, without self-deprecation or false modesty, is the Dvaita practitioner's daily discipline.

Advaita

When you switch on a light at night and the room becomes visible, pause: Sankara's reading invites you to recognise that the capacity of any light to reveal is the one consciousness (caitanya-jyotis) using a sattvic medium. Cleaning one's mind — reducing rajas and tamas — is literally increasing the sattva through which that same light shines more clearly in you.

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Bhakti

Sridhara's reading of these four verses as a single demonstration of Isvara's ananta-saktitva (infinite power) gives the bhakta a contemplative practice: when you see sunlight falling on water, or firelight in a dark room, mentally trace it back — not to a star or to combustion chemistry, but to the one whose infinite power underwrites every photon. Let that recognition trigger a moment of surrender.

Advaita-Bhakti

Madhusudana holds both halves of the Mundaka verse simultaneously: the supreme abode needs no sun, and yet the sun's light is that very brahman shining. In daily life this translates as: pursue your work and relationships in the world of light and form (the second half), while holding lightly the knowledge that this entire lit world points back to a source that transcends it (the first half). Neither world-denial nor world-addiction — both lit by the same tejas.

Adhiṣṭhāna · substrate signature

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

mūlaGRETIL e-text of the Bhagavadgītā with Śaṅkara's commentary (data entry: Gaudiya Grantha Mandira) for chapters 1-17; sanskritdocuments.org sd_bgnew.itx for chapter 18; ingested via a local Ambuda TEI build; per-verse repairs logged in post_generation_repairs

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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 15, Verse 12: Krishna to Arjuna — Puruṣottama-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports