BG 17.6 — Śraddhātraya-Vibhāga-Yoga

Bhagavad Gītā 17.6Chapter 17 · Śraddhātraya-Vibhāga-Yoga · Krishna → Arjuna · anuṣṭubh

कर्शयन्तः शरीरस्थं भूतग्राममचेतसः ।

मां चैवान्तःशरीरस्थं तान् विद्ध्यासुरनिश्चयान् ॥

karśayantaḥ śarīra-sthaṃ bhūta-grāmam acetasaḥ

māṃ caivāntaḥ-śarīra-sthaṃ tān viddhy āsura-niścayān

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

meaning

Without discernment, they torment the body and afflict the Lord dwelling within it. Know those of such cruel resolve to be demonic.

ekras · bhāṣya

Karshayantah — wasting — sharira-stham bhuta-gramam — the body-aggregate — achetasah — without discernment. Mam cha eva antah-sharira-stham — and Me also dwelling within the body. Tan viddhi asura-nishchayan — know them as those of asuric resolve.

Krishna names two harms in one act: the body's elements, and Bhagavan dwelling within. Unauthorized tapas damages both, and the doer is asura-nishchaya — fixed in demonic resolve.

Shankara reads those devoid of viveka torturing the aggregate of the five great elements constituting the body, and by refusing the Lord's anushasana — injunction — afflicting the inner witness-consciousness, the Narayana within. Not through physical assault but through the very act of ignoring His instruction. The verse's language is precise: ignoring Bhagavan's command is itself afflicting Bhagavan. The harm is structural and theological.

Madhusudana holds two lines of harm in parallel: the bhuta-grama is afflicted as bhogyam — object of experience — and by that very affliction the bhokta within — the sakshi-bhuta Ishvara as witness-consciousness — is also diminished, since the instrument of experience is being destroyed without discrimination. Their asura-nishchaya is fixed: the very resolve to perform unauthorized tapas is itself the marker of demonic orientation.

Ramanuja reads those who perform ashastra-vihita austerities, impelled by dambha and ahamkara, afflicting the body — which is Bhagavan's prakara constituted by prithivi-adi-bhutas — and simultaneously afflicting the jiva who is an amsha of the Lord dwelling within. Because the jiva is Bhagavan's body, any harm to it is direct harm to Bhagavan in His relational mode. The bhakta who recognizes the body as Krishna's body cannot torment it; one who torments it has structurally rejected the relational ground.

Madhva reads to afflict Bhagavan within the body as itself the mark of alpa-drishti — contracted vision: failure to perceive Hari as the mahan paramah puman who sustains all.

Madhva cites the shruti: 'one who does not thus behold that great supreme Person, that one is most sinful.' The division is absolute: devas are sattvika; daityas are rajasa-tamasa — there is no middle ground. The bheda-frame: real distinction, real damage to Hari's antaryamic presence, real classification as asura.

Vallabha reads karshayantah as vidurayantah — distancing, repelling. Those who torment body and antaryamin are driving Krishna's living presence away from themselves. This is the gravest impoverishment: violating His ajna severs the bhakta from the stream of pushti-prasada that alone sustains life. The asura-nishchaya is the resolve to keep Krishna at distance through self-injury that masquerades as discipline.

Shridhara is direct: these achetas waste the body through vritha-upavasa-adi — meaningless fasting and similar practices — harming the prarabdha-deha, the body that is the vehicle of present karma. By transgressing the Lord's command they afflict the antaryamin within. He glosses asura as ati-krura-nishchayan — those of exceedingly cruel resolve. The chapter delivers the diagnostic verdict on this entire category.

Context

where

Chapter 17 · Śraddhātraya-Vibhāga-Yoga · meter anuṣṭubh

who speaks

Krishna → Arjuna

preceded by — BG 17.5

People who inflict fierce austerities not ordained by scripture, driven by vanity, ego, desire, and attachment, torment both themselves and the divine presence within.

What's going on

Without discernment, they torment the body and afflict the Lord dwelling within it. Know those of such cruel resolve to be demonic.

Sūtras through this verse (29)

MadhvaclassicalT1

Hari is supreme — the running reading-rulebetween

15.1The world-tree's root is Viṣṇu above.───→here17.6───→17.23Oṃ-tat-sat names the Lord, three times.

RamsukhdasclassicalD

The three modes (sattva, rajas, tamas) at workbetween

17.2Even faith itself comes in three flavors.───→here17.6───→18.19Knowledge, action, doer, each one threefold.

JayatīrthaclassicalB

Pañcabheda — the five distinctions enforced verse by verseexit

15.17Three orders, each a distinct relatum.───→here17.6───→

show all 29

MadhvaclassicalT12

Closure by gloss — the small repertoirebetween

15.1'Above' is just Viṣṇu, the upward one.───→here17.6───→17.14'Worship of gods' is worship of the One.

MadhvaclassicalT3

Ranking is real — and it never collapsesexit

15.17Beyond all selves stands the Highest Person alone.───→here17.6───→

MadhvaclassicalT4

Liberation is bliss in body — not absorptionexit

15.6The supreme abode does not return its dwellers.───→here17.6───→

MadhvaclassicalT10

The deluder is named — three goddesses, one Lordexit

15.4Cut the world-tree by knowing whose play it is.───→here17.6───→

Gauravmodernchaplaincy_kit_of_tools

Chaplaincy Kit Of Toolsbetween

13.7Itihasa stories and the witness virtues. 'Amanitvam adambhitvam ahimsa kshantir ───→here17.6───→17.15Mantra and speech. 'Anudvega-karam vakyam satyam priya-hitam cha yat, svadhyaya-

Ramsukhdasclassical

Sādhaka Sañjīvanī commentary at this versebetween

───→here17.6───→

Gauravmoderncivilizational_air_conditioning

Civilizational Air Conditioningexit

16.21'Tri-vidham narakasyedam dvaram nashanam atmanah, kamah krodhas tatha lobhah.' T───→here17.6───→

Gauravmodernwitness_self_neti_neti

Witness Self Neti Netiexit

15.7'Mamaivamsho jiva-loke jiva-bhutah sanatanah.' A part of me, eternal, has become───→here17.6───→

JayatīrthaclassicalE

Vishnu-sarvottamatva read into apparently neutral wordsexit

15.16Uttama-puruṣa is Viṣṇu, beyond both.───→here17.6───→

JayatīrthaclassicalG

Citation as proof — śruti, smṛti, MB, Aṣṭādhyāyī, Pañcarātraexit

15.16Aṣṭādhyāyī 5.2.127 controls bhūta.───→here17.6───→

JayatīrthaclassicalJ

Reading the silence — iti śeṣaḥ and iti bhāvaḥexit

15.1Tat-prasaṅge alaukikaṁ — iti śeṣaḥ.───→here17.6───→

RamsukhdasclassicalJ

Divine vs demonic patternsexit

17.5Hard penance off-script is still demonic.───→here17.6───→

RamsukhdasclassicalK

The body is not yoursexit

15.7Self drags the senses like wind drags scent.───→here17.6───→

RāmānujaclassicalK

Tri-guṇa diagnostic for the bhaktabetween

17.2Even faith is sorted by the three modes.───→here17.6───→18.7Wrong renunciation.

VallabhaclassicalJ

Strategic silence — pointers, not absencesbetween

13.24The threefold-knower catalogue goes to silence.───→here17.6───→17.12The threefold yajña/dāna/tapas catalogue is skipped.

MadhusūdanaclassicalB

Different students need different teachingsbetween

17.1A third class: faith without textual training.───→here17.6───→18.1Three kinds of renouncing, one for each grade.

MadhusūdanaclassicalJ

Two kinds of nature — divine and demonicbetween

17.1A third class: faith outside the texts.───→here17.6───→18.1Even renouncing splits into three by disposition.

Ekrasmodernend_of_life

End of life — the threshold tourexit · v2

15.8Carrying the perfume───→here17.6───→

Ekrasmodernanger_management

Anger Managementexit · other

16.22Released from the three gates───→here17.6───→

ĀnandagiriclassicalG

Anūdyate, na vidhīyateexit

17.2Threefold faith: tagged at this site.───→here17.6───→

ĀnandagiriclassicalJ

Prakṛti is never autonomousexit

15.7Aṃśa pinned to the Lord, not free.───→here17.6───→

RāmānujaclassicalF

Two prakṛtis · jīva as eternal aṃśaexit

15.18Named Puruṣottama.───→here17.6───→

VallabhaclassicalK

Aphorism, gloss, full commentaryexit

15.15The bhāṣya-author is named by the Lord himself.───→here17.6───→

VedāntadeśikaclassicalI

9.24 — the standing citation for ārādhyabetween

17.4The mode of worship reveals the worshipper.───→here17.6───→18.46Karma-yoga's act IS indweller-worship.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalF

The Lord is born only as it wereexit

15.16Both the changing and changeless are below the supreme.───→here17.6───→

AbhinavaguptaclassicalF

Three guṇas: contractions of one consciousnessexit

17.2Even faith is graded through the three.───→here17.6───→

Śabda · lemmas (14 unique · 16 occurrences)

कर्शयन्तः √karśay — to torment, emaciate (caus. of √kṛś) · nominative masculine plural present participle verb
अचेतसः acetas — (a- + cetas: consciousness) · nominative masculine plural noun · also at 3.32, 15.11
आसुर āsura — demonic, of the asuras · compound

show all 14

शरीर śarīra ×2 — body · compound
स्थम् stha ×2 — standing, situated (suffix) · accusative masculine singular noun
भूत bhūta — being, creature; element; past, gone · compound
ग्रामम् grāma — village; collection · accusative masculine singular noun
माम् mad — I, me (1st person pronoun stem); also: to rejoice (verbal root) · accusative singular noun
च ca — and; (homonym: also the consonant ca)
एव eva — indeed, truly, only (emphatic particle)
अन्तर् antar — between, within
तान् tad — that (distal demonstrative); also 3rd-person pronoun · accusative masculine plural noun
विद्धि √vid — to know; to find (verbal root) · present imperative 2nd person singular verb
निश्चयान् niścaya — certainty, conviction (nis- + √ci 'gather completely') · accusative masculine plural noun

Praśna · so what (7)

01When personal discipline — diet, fasting, intense practice — is it possible to harm the very divine presence we imagine we are approaching through that discipline?
02All six schools agree these practitioners are 'acetas' (without discernment): what does genuine viveka look like as a prerequisite before any intensive tapas is undertaken?

show all 7

03Rāmānuja identifies the jīva as Bhagavān's body — does this mean every act of self-harm is simultaneously an act against God, making spiritual self-torment a theological contradiction?
04Madhva frames the divide as absolute (deva/daitya, sāttvika/rājasa-tāmasa): is there a point of no return in āsuric resolve, or does the Gīta leave open a path of return?
05Madhusūdana distinguishes bhoktā (experiencer) from bhogyam (body-instrument): how does damaging the instrument diminish the experiencer, and what does this imply for contemporary approaches to extreme physical discipline?
06Vallabha's reading — karśayantaḥ as vidurayantaḥ (driving the Lord away) — reframes harm as severance from grace rather than punishment: which framing motivates more genuine restraint?
07The verse ends with a command to 'know them' (viddhi): is this recognition meant for the listener's self-examination, or only for perceiving others, and how does that change its use?

Vyavahāra · try it in your life

Advaita

Before beginning any intense practice — extended fasting, severe sleep restriction, extreme cold exposure — pause and ask: 'Am I acting from viveka (discernment) aligned with the inner witness, or from ignorance masquerading as discipline?' Śaṅkara's point is that disobeying the intelligence that governs the body is itself the harm; the body is not the enemy to overcome but the instrument of the witness-self.

Viśiṣṭādvaita

Rāmānuja's insight applies directly to over-scheduling and burnout: your body is Bhagavān's mode (prakāra), and systematically depleting it in the name of productivity or piety is an act against Īśvara's body. Sustainable kainkarya (service) protects the instrument; austerity that destroys the capacity for service is āsuric however well-intentioned.

show all 6

Dvaita

Madhva's absolute clarity is useful in evaluating peer or social pressure toward extreme regimens: the binary is clean — does this practice increase or decrease one's capacity to perceive and serve Hari? If it produces contracted vision (alpa-dṛṣṭi), the resolve behind it is āsuric regardless of the external form of devotion.

Śuddhādvaita

Vallabha's reading offers a corrective to the idea that more suffering equals more sincerity in practice. Puṣṭi-mārga holds that Kṛṣṇa's grace flows toward those who remain open, not those who drive Him away through joyless violence against His gift of a body. Ease and joy in practice are not spiritual laziness; they may be the signal that the antaryāmin is present, not absent.

Bhakti

Śrīdhara's 'vṛthā-upavāsa' (pointless fasting) distinguishes purposeful fasting done with awareness from compulsive self-deprivation dressed in spiritual language. Applied today: check whether the austerity has a clear śāstric or teacher-authorized rationale, produces inner clarity, and is proportionate — if none of these hold, the label 'tapas' is covering something else.

Advaita-Bhakti

Madhusūdana's bhoktā/bhogyam distinction speaks to anyone managing chronic illness, high-performance training, or care-giving exhaustion. The self that experiences life requires the body as instrument; systematically destroying the instrument in the name of some higher goal (spiritual or otherwise) is not transcendence but metaphysical inversion. The corrective is to identify the actual śāstric or ethical ground for the hardship, and if none exists, to stop.

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 17, Verse 6: Krishna to Arjuna — Śraddhātraya-Vibhāga-Yoga