BG 2.56 — Sāṅkhya-Yoga — Sūtrakṛt-Gītā

Bhagavad Gītā 2.56Chapter 2 · Sāṅkhya-Yoga · Krishna → Arjuna · anuṣṭubh

दुःखेष्वनुद्विग्नमनाः सुखेषु विगतस्पृहः ।

वीतरागभयक्रोधः स्थितधीर् मुनिरुच्यते ॥

duḥkheṣv anudvigna-manāḥ sukheṣu vigata-spṛhaḥ

vīta-rāga-bhaya-krodhaḥ sthita-dhīr munir ucyate

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

meaning

Whose mind stays untroubled in sorrow, free of craving in joy, and clear of attachment, fear, and anger, that steady-minded sage is called *sthita-dhī*.

ekras · bhāṣya

Krishna gives the second mark in three pairs. "Anudvigna-manas in duhkhas. Vigata-spriha in sukhas. Vita-raga, vita-bhaya, vita-krodha. Such a one is called sthita-dhir muni." Six conditions named in sequence, each addressing a different layer at which the ordinary mind is moved. Anudvigna — not stirred up — when sorrow comes. Vigata-spriha — without longing — when pleasure comes. And then three departures: raga, bhaya, krodha — attachment, fear, anger — all gone.

Madhusudana catches a precision that softens the picture. He distinguishes prarabdha-karmaja experience of raw duhkha from the second-order disturbance the ordinary mind adds to the raw experience. Even the sthita-prajna, in a body, may undergo the residual bodily fact of pain — heat, cold, hunger, illness — because the prarabdha karma is unspent. What he does not undergo is the second wave: the udvega, the agitation that the mind ordinarily piles on top of the bare experience. The pain is felt; the disturbance about the pain is absent.

Shankara names the three classes of duhkha — adhyatmika, adhibhautika, adhidaivika — those arising from the body-mind, those from other beings, those from cosmic forces. The sthita-prajna is anudvigna across all three. The closing word is muni — silent one. The internal silence is the ground from which all six absences become possible.

Krishna is not describing a man who has trained himself to seem calm. He is describing a man whose interior has stopped manufacturing the disturbances most lives spend their hours managing.

Context

where

Chapter 2 · Sāṅkhya-Yoga · meter anuṣṭubh

who speaks

Krishna → Arjuna

preceded by — BG 2.55

When someone casts off every desire lodged in the mind and rests content in the self alone, Krishna says, that one is called a person of steady wisdom.

What's going on

Whose mind stays untroubled in sorrow, free of craving in joy, and clear of attachment, fear, and anger, that steady-minded sage is called sthita-dhī.

Sūtras through this verse (111)

MadhvaclassicalT1

Hari is supreme — the running reading-rulebetween

2.18'Imperishable' is said to mark off the Lord.───→here2.56───→4.24Every word for ritual points back to Viṣṇu.

RamsukhdasclassicalA

What binds you (and how to let go)between

2.47Hold no mine-ness on body or on fruit.───→here2.56───→4.23Clinging to anything is what binds you.

ĀnandagiriclassicalA

The two-niṣṭhā axisbetween

2.39Wisdom closes, action opens. Same axis.───→here2.56───→3.3Three classes, one niṣṭhā each.

show all 111

Madhvaclassicalmadhva_pratibimba

Madhva Pratibimbabetween · other

2.18Image perishes, source endures───→here2.56───→4.13Creates yet uncreated

MadhvaclassicalT2

Soul depends on Lord — the gap that does not closebetween

2.20The soul is conscious but only as reflection.───→here2.56───→3.27Action is the modes'; the soul only seems to act.

MadhvaclassicalT3

Ranking is real — and it never collapsesbetween

2.52Higher devotion earns higher liberation.───→here2.56───→4.6Avatāras differ in their fullness of Hari.

MadhvaclassicalT4

Liberation is bliss in body — not absorptionbetween

2.50Release is embodied, blissful, never merging.───→here2.56───→2.72Body-loss in the verse is only material body.

MadhvaclassicalT5

Mirror-and-image — how seeming-action worksbetween

2.18The image perishes, but the source endures.───→here2.56───→4.13He creates and yet is uncreated by it.

MadhvaclassicalT6

Citation is the spine — texts carry the loadbetween

2.50Six texts in thirty lines carry the long excursus.───→here2.56───→2.72The verse closes with the Akṣapāda rejection.

MadhvaclassicalT7

Action and knowledge — never rivalsbetween

2.49Action without wisdom is the lower zone.───→here2.56───→3.3Two registers, one task, told two ways.

MadhvaclassicalT8

Direct vision — the only proximate causebetween

2.55Steady wisdom is what direct vision produces.───→here2.56───→2.59The taste fades only when the source is seen.

MadhvaclassicalT9

Devotion and grace — what knowledge cannot do alonebetween

2.50Even in liberation grace remains the agent.───→here2.56───→2.72Many lives of bhakti precede the final crossing.

MadhvaclassicalT11

Only revealed scripture decides — reason alone cannotbetween

2.24When two scriptures clash the higher one rules.───→here2.56───→2.72Akṣapāda and Kaṇāda are simply ruled out.

MadhvaclassicalT12

Closure by gloss — the small repertoirebetween

2.55'Self' here means mind — a single word redirects.───→here2.56───→4.11'Me' is glossed by what the speaker is doing.

MadhvaclassicalT10

The deluder is named — three goddesses, one Lordapproach

───→here2.56───→4.6Even the unborn descends through the deluder Durgā.

Śaṅkaraclassicalshankara_jnana_nishtha

Shankara Jnana Nishthabetween · other

2.10Thesis flat───→here2.56───→3.4Naishkarmya is not just non-doing

Gauravmodernheart_leadership

Heart Leadershipbetween

2.48'Yoga-sthah kuru karmani sangam tyaktva Dhananjaya, siddhy-asiddhyoh samo bhutva───→here2.56───→6.7'Jitatmanah prashantasya paramatma samahitah.' For the self-conquered, in-peace,

Gauravmodernkarma_yoga_hand

Karma Yoga Handbetween

2.50Thumb. Kausalam. 'Yogah karmasu kausalam' is the line Gaurav opens the whole mne───→here2.56───→3.27Palm, kartala. Akartritva, non-doership. 'Prakriteh kriyamanani gunaih karmani s

Gauravmodernmemorial_pastoral

Memorial Pastoralbetween

2.27'Jatasya hi dhruvo mrityur dhruvam janma mritasya cha.' Death is certain for the───→here2.56───→8.6'Yam yam vapi smaran bhavam.' Whatever state of being one remembers at the last

Gauravmodernsanatana_dharma_101

Sanatana Dharma 101between

2.22'Vasamsi jirnani yatha vihaya' — body as worn-out clothes. Sister verse to 2.13,───→here2.56───→3.27Karma pillar. The 'ahankara-vimudhatma kartaham iti manyate' line is where Gaura

Gauravmodernwitness_self_neti_neti

Witness Self Neti Netibetween

2.20'Na jayate mriyate va kadachit, nayam bhutva bhavita va na bhuyah, ajo nityah sh───→here2.56───→6.20'Yatroparamate chittam niruddham yoga-sevaya, yatra chaivatmana'tmanam pashyann

ŚaṅkaraclassicalA

Sorrow and delusion are the diseasebetween

2.11The wise mourn neither the living nor the dead.───→here2.56───→2.69Ignorance is night, wisdom alone wakes.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalB

Knowledge alone, with all action laid downbetween

2.10First lay down all action, then knowledge frees.───→here2.56───→3.4Mere not-doing is not renunciation at all.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalC

Knowledge plus action will not save youbetween

2.10Some say: combine knowledge with rites.───→here2.56───→3.1If insight is higher, why this dreadful work?

ŚaṅkaraclassicalD

The fit student vs the unfit studentbetween

2.39So far for the seeker of the real; now hear yoga.───→here2.56───→2.69Action holds only while ignorance still holds.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalJ

Scripture stands behind every claimbetween

2.10Pāṇḍitya is knowing the Self — Bṛhadāraṇyaka.───→here2.56───→3.4Brāhmaṇas seek the Self by Veda, then by rite.

JayatīrthaclassicalA

Body and embodied — the inference runs on the dehī sidebetween

2.24Uncuttable, unburnt, steady, all-pervading.───→here2.56───→13.5Field and knower: body-self cut returns.

JayatīrthaclassicalB

Pañcabheda — the five distinctions enforced verse by versebetween

2.24No jaḍa-property fits the dehin.───→here2.56───→7.5Higher prakṛti is Lakṣmī, not matter.

JayatīrthaclassicalC

Refuting Śaṅkara-style readings, named or unnamedbetween

2.13One-self-many-bodies runs out of grammar.───→here2.56───→2.72Old-age renunciation is off topic here.

JayatīrthaclassicalD

Saṅgati declared at the head of every adhyāyabetween

2.39Wrap prior section, then announce next.───→here2.56───→2.72Chapter closes here; upasaṁharati names it.

JayatīrthaclassicalG

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

2.50Smṛti runs nine citations deep.───→here2.56───→2.62Smṛti pins each link of the chain.

JayatīrthaclassicalH

Pūrva-pakṣa explicit — nanu / iti cet / ity ata āhabetween

2.50Nanu opens, smṛti runs nine deep.───→here2.56───→3.17No-kartavya rival staged then answered.

JayatīrthaclassicalI

Lakṣaṇā-control — literal preferred when availablebetween

2.39Sāṅkhya-yoga literal, not external schools.───→here2.56───→3.15If literal works, figurative is idle.

JayatīrthaclassicalJ

Reading the silence — iti śeṣaḥ and iti bhāvaḥbetween

2.50Each chain closes with iti śeṣaḥ.───→here2.56───→2.68Supply marks the chapter-seal gap.

RamsukhdasclassicalB

This human birth — your one chance to actbetween

2.47Only a human body can do new action.───→here2.56───→3.5No one can stop acting even for a moment.

RamsukhdasclassicalC

Desire is the root — not actionbetween

2.55Drop desire, and the sense of doing falls.───→here2.56───→2.62Object pulls gaze, gaze ends in ruin.

RamsukhdasclassicalD

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

2.47Even renouncing has three flavors.───→here2.56───→3.27The modes act, ego claims to do.

RamsukhdasclassicalE

Your own work as worshipbetween

2.33Refusal is not safe; it costs everything.───→here2.56───→3.35Your own flawed work beats another's perfect.

RamsukhdasclassicalF

Surrender — the single shelterbetween

2.41A one-pointed mind is the seeker's mark.───→here2.56───→7.1Mind on Me, refuge wholly in Me.

RamsukhdasclassicalG

Equanimity in everythingbetween

2.48Yoga itself is just sameness of mind.───→here2.56───→5.18See a sage, a cow, a dog as one.

RamsukhdasclassicalH

All paths arrive at the same roombetween

2.55Each path names its sage in its own words.───→here2.56───→4.23Action's flagship verse: it dissolves itself.

Ramsukhdasclassical

Sādhaka Sañjīvanī commentary at this versebetween

───→here2.56───→

Gauravmodernchaplaincy_kit_of_tools

Chaplaincy Kit Of Toolsapproach

───→here2.56───→4.34Paramparā / direct transmission. 'Tad viddhi pranipatena pariprashnena sevaya, u

Gauravmoderncivilizational_air_conditioning

Civilizational Air Conditioningapproach

───→here2.56───→2.62'Dhyayato vishayan pumsah sangas teshupajayate, sangat sanjayate kamah.' The out

Gauravmoderninterfaith_cosmology

Interfaith Cosmologyapproach

───→here2.56───→4.11'Ye yatha mam prapadyante tams tathaiva bhajamy aham.' As they approach me, so I

Gauravmodernthree_yogas_braid

Three Yogas Braidapproach

───→here2.56───→3.3'Loke'smin dvi-vidha nishtha pura prokta mayanagha, jnana-yogena samkhyanam karm

ŚaṅkaraclassicalE

Ignorance is the only enemyapproach

───→here2.56───→2.69Wisdom rises; ignorance fades like dawn-darkness.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalF

The Lord is born only as it wereapproach

───→here2.56───→4.6I appear as if born, never really, by māyā.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalG

After knowing, act only to hold the worldapproach

───→here2.56───→3.20Janaka acted only to hold the world together.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalK

Liberation while still embodiedapproach

───→here2.56───→2.72Standing in this state, one reaches Brahman..

JayatīrthaclassicalE

Vishnu-sarvottamatva read into apparently neutral wordsapproach

───→here2.56───→3.15Brahmodbhavam — born of parabrahman.

JayatīrthaclassicalF

Bhakti-tāratamya: gradation among devotees, gradation in fruitapproach

───→here2.56───→4.11Fruit proportional to the service offered.

RamsukhdasclassicalJ

Divine vs demonic patternsapproach

───→here2.56───→3.37The enemy is desire turning into anger.

RamsukhdasclassicalK

The body is not yoursapproach

───→here2.56───→3.27The modes act, but ego claims the deed.

Gauravmoderneminem_dsm_arjuna

Eminem Dsm Arjunaexit

2.11'Ashochyan anvashochas tvam prajna-vadamsh cha bhashase.' You grieve those not t───→here2.56───→

Ekrasmodernkarma_yoga

Karma yoga — the apprentice pathbetween · v2

2.47Right to action───→here2.56───→3.3Two paths, named

Ekrasmodernend_of_life

End of life — the threshold tourbetween · v2

2.22Worn-out garments───→here2.56───→8.5Last-thought rule

Ekrasmodernstress

Stress — panic to shelterbetween · v2

2.22Worn-out garments───→here2.56───→4.16Even the wise are confused

Ekrasmodernvairagya

Vairāgya — dispassion as instrumentbetween · v2

2.55Sthitaprajna defined───→here2.56───→2.58Tortoise withdrawing

Ekrasmoderntrigunametry

Trigunametry — guṇas as embodied statesbetween · v2

2.41Single-pointed buddhi───→here2.56───→9.22Yogakshema for the undivided

ĀnandagiriclassicalB

Three hexads = tat tvam asibetween

2.1First hexad opens, tvam-pada implicit.───→here2.56───→6.46Inner-self hexad closes; pivot prepared.

ĀnandagiriclassicalC

Adhikāra: seeker vs. fulfilledbetween

2.55Same words: fruit for one, means for one.───→here2.56───→3.3Three classes, each its own niṣṭhā.

ĀnandagiriclassicalE

Pūrvapakṣa via nanu / āśaṅkyabetween

2.47Four objections in one paragraph. Anchor.───→here2.56───→7.1Doubt about refuge, blocked by mad-āśraya.

ĀnandagiriclassicalF

Which karma? — fourfold typologybetween

2.47No-fruit ≠ no-karma: kāmya-tyāga ≠ nitya-tyāga.───→here2.56───→3.3Vaidika action sorted by life-stage rule.

ĀnandagiriclassicalG

Anūdyate, na vidhīyatebetween

2.55A description, not a command. Anchor.───→here2.56───→12.12Bhakta's gradient read as description.

ĀnandagiriclassicalH

Phala-saṃkalpa is the only upādhibetween

2.48Yogasthaḥ kuru karmāṇi: stand and act.───→here2.56───→3.4No mokṣa from mere non-starting.

ĀnandagiriclassicalK

Upasaṃhāra — recap as instrumentbetween

2.39Wisdom section wound up here.───→here2.56───→6.46Dhyāna section sealed: yogin is supreme.

ĀnandagiriclassicalL

Akṣarayojanā — word-fit firstbetween

2.10Word-fit holds even at the dialogue's pivot.───→here2.56───→3.1Chapter-1 verse opens with word-fit, then bīja.

Ekrasmodernleadership

Leadership — svadharma in actionapproach · v2

───→here2.56───→3.20Janaka, lokasangraha

Ekrasmodernparadox_of_doership

Paradox of doership — kartṛtvaapproach · v2

───→here2.56───→3.27Modes act, ego claims

Ekrasmodernanger_management

Anger Managementapproach · other

───→here2.56───→2.62Brooding breeds attachment

ĀnandagiriclassicalD

Praśna-bīja chapter openingsapproach

───→here2.56───→3.1Buddhi-vyākulatva named the seed.

Ekrasmodernfamily_conflict

Family Conflictexit · other

2.8No grief-remover I see───→here2.56───→

Madhusūdanaclassicalmadhusudan_bhagavad_arpana

Madhusudan Bhagavad Arpanabetween · other

2.47Fruit-free action cannot bind───→here2.56───→3.30Offer all your acts

VallabhaclassicalD

Chapter-opening preludesbetween

2.1Six-verse prelude lays out the whole map.───→here2.56───→3.1Four-verse prelude frames renunciation.

VallabhaclassicalE

Three paths, one teaching orderbetween

2.39The yoga-mind is just the sāṅkhya-mind, retold.───→here2.56───→5.4Only the foolish call the two paths different.

VallabhaclassicalF

Soul as part of the highest Personbetween

2.16Real and unreal sort into pure and impure.───→here2.56───→7.4Lower nature is eight-fold; higher is the soul-collective.

VallabhaclassicalH

Stilling the mind — into the Lordbetween

2.48Yoga itself is just sameness of mind.───→here2.56───→6.46The yogi closing the ṣaṭka is a mind-stiller.

VallabhaclassicalI

A closed three-source citation gridbetween

2.11Vallabha quotes his own Nibandha at verse two.───→here2.56───→3.30The Nibandha is cited again on threefold drop.

MadhusūdanaclassicalB

Different students need different teachingsbetween

2.39Two minds, two paths, never one rule for all.───→here2.56───→3.3Arjuna's mixed question gets a sorted answer.

MadhusūdanaclassicalC

Action purifies before knowing can landbetween

2.47The unready can only act, not yet know.───→here2.56───→3.30Even a seeker not-yet-pure offers, drops fruit-claim.

MadhusūdanaclassicalD

Offer the act to the Lord and it stops bindingbetween

2.47Action offered, fruit-free, cannot bear bondage.───→here2.56───→3.30Offer all your acts; fight without fruit-claim.

MadhusūdanaclassicalG

Knowing and acting cannot run togetherbetween

2.39Like light and dark, they cannot share a place.───→here2.56───→2.69The knower wakes to what the world sleeps to.

MadhusūdanaclassicalK

Arjuna's grief has two roots, not onebetween

2.11Anchor: two confusions — one universal, one yours alone.───→here2.56───→11.1Arjuna marks the universal moha cured.

VallabhaclassicalA

Two paths — rule-bound and grace-onlyapproach

───→here2.56───→4.11Each soul takes the path Krishna assigns to it.

VallabhaclassicalC

Drop the doer, not the deedapproach

───→here2.56───→3.1Drop something inside the act, not the act.

VallabhaclassicalG

The Lord plays — calf-affection, not contractapproach

───→here2.56───→4.7When dharma weakens, the Lord descends to play.

MadhusūdanaclassicalA

Three groups of six: you, the Lord, the joiningapproach

───→here2.56───→3.1The whole map laid out at chapter three's door.

MadhusūdanaclassicalI

Liberation while alive — the body finishes its runapproach

───→here2.56───→3.1The architecture ends in living-liberation, then bodily.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalA

The carama-śloka as retroactive bracketbetween

2.12From here to 18.66: one Krishna-utterance.───→here2.56───→5.16Knowledge dispels what mā śucaḥ will close.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalE

Pūrva-pakṣa — name the rival, close the doorbetween

2.39Sāṅkhya-yoga split: not two methods, two angles.───→here2.56───→7.18The jñānin is dearest; not interchangeable.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalF

Saṅgati — anticipation-and-resolutionbetween

2.39What chapter 3 will resolve, named here.───→here2.56───→3.1Arjuna's question resolves 2.49's hint.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalG

Three yogas — three angles on one configurationbetween

2.39Sāṅkhya and yoga: not two roads.───→here2.56───→3.3Two paths, one orientation toward Me.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalH

Mā śucaḥ — the inclusio of evolving griefbetween

2.11First grief — chapter-1 cowardice — closed.───→here2.56───→5.16Knowledge-darkness cleared — not yet refuge.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalC

Antaryāmin — the indweller as standing referentapproach

───→here2.56───→3.30'Mayi sarvāṇi karmāṇi': read as antaryāmin.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalD

Adhikāra — eligibility as architecture, not exceptionapproach

───→here2.56───→4.11'Yathā' is open; the verb is the gate.

ŚrīdharaclassicalA

The Gītā as raft across griefbetween

2.11Confusing self with body is the source of grief.───→here2.56───→13.2For their rescue, truth-knowledge is uttered.

ŚrīdharaclassicalE

Inner cleansing reconciles work and knowingbetween

2.39Work polishes the inner instrument first.───→here2.56───→3.3One path, two grades: impure, then pure mind.

ŚrīdharaclassicalD

The path that turns no one awayapproach

───→here2.56───→4.11However they come, I meet them so.

ŚrīdharaclassicalF

The Lord inside as inner rulerapproach

───→here2.56───→3.30Lay every act in Me; I move within.

ŚrīdharaclassicalI

His evenness as ground for refugeapproach

───→here2.56───→4.11I meet each one as that one approaches.

ŚrīdharaclassicalJ

Insight given as a gift, not earned aloneapproach

───→here2.56───→4.34Knowers will pass it to you by teaching.

AbhinavaguptaclassicalA

Knowing and acting are one powerbetween

2.24The self is one unbroken awareness.───→here2.56───→3.1Knowing versus acting is the wrong cut.

AbhinavaguptaclassicalF

Three guṇas: contractions of one consciousnessbetween

2.45Exit the modes — not better modes are the goal.───→here2.56───→7.12Modes from the Lord — the Lord not in them.

AbhinavaguptaclassicalG

Saṃvit: one referent under many namesbetween

2.20Cit alone — the self cannot be destroyed.───→here2.56───→8.3Brahman, ātman, all facets of one Lord.

AbhinavaguptaclassicalB

Recognition, not additionapproach

───→here2.56───→4.14Recognize, do not learn — the verb shifts.

AbhinavaguptaclassicalD

Avatāra: appearance without departureapproach

───→here2.56───→4.1Teaching descends; the teacher does not move.

RāmānujaclassicalB

The śāstra is one bracket (2.12 → 18.66)between

2.39Practice seam begins.───→here2.56───→6.46The yogi outranks every other path.

RāmānujaclassicalD

Karma-yoga as kainkarya (worship)between

2.47Act, but not for the fruit of acting.───→here2.56───→3.3Action without claim = worship.

RāmānujaclassicalG

Māyā is real causal powerapproach

───→here2.56───→4.6Self-power, not self-illusion.

RāmānujaclassicalH

Prapatti / śaraṇāgati — universal upāyaapproach

───→here2.56───→4.11As they approach Me, so do I receive them.

Śabda · lemmas (14 unique · 14 occurrences)

सुखेषु sukha — happiness, pleasure, ease · locative neuter plural noun
उच्यते √vac — to speak (verbal root) · present indicative pass 3rd person singular verb
क्रोधः krodha — anger, wrath · nominative masculine singular noun

show all 14

दुःखेषु duḥkha — suffering, sorrow, pain · locative neuter plural noun
अनुद्विग्न anudvigna — unagitated (an- + udvigna) · compound
मनाः manas — mind (lower mind), the inner organ of perception · nominative masculine singular noun
विगत vi-√gam — to depart (vi- + √gam 'go') · compound participle (compound member)
स्पृहः spṛhā — longing, desire · nominative masculine singular noun
वीत √vī — to go, lead (verbal root) · compound participle (compound member)
राग rāga — passion, attachment, color · compound
भय bhaya — fear · compound
स्थित √sthā — to stand, remain (verbal root) · compound participle (compound member)
धीः dhī — thought, intellect, intuition · nominative masculine singular noun
मुनिः muni — sage, silent ascetic (from √man 'think') · nominative masculine singular noun

Praśna · so what (7)

01Śaṅkara claims that distress at sorrow is not the sorrow itself but a secondary bhramarūpa reaction rooted in avidyā — if that is so, does eliminating the secondary reaction require first eliminating avidyā entirely, or can partial viveka begin dismantling it incrementally?
02Rāmānuja defines rāga as spṛhā toward what is not yet possessed, but the verse also addresses present pleasure (sukha) — in his framework, is desire for present sukha governed by a different mechanism than rāga toward absent objects, or are they the same passion at different temporal phases?

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03Madhva isolates rāga as śobhanādhyāsa — the false attribution of beauty — which implies that the problem is epistemic (wrong attribution) not merely volitional (strong desire). Does this mean a Dvaita practitioner addresses rāga through corrected cognition of Hari as sole locus of śobhana, rather than through austerity or suppression?
04Vallabha insists these qualities are svābhāvika (natural, interior gifts of prasāda) rather than sādhya (achievable through human effort). If they cannot be striven for, what is the role of sādhana in Puṣṭi-mārga — is it creating receptivity for prasāda or simply expressing gratitude for what is already given?
05The verse lists the three departed passions in the compound vīta-rāga-bhaya-krodha. Madhusūdana treats each as a distinct citta-vṛtti with a distinct causal structure (rāga from adhyāsa, bhaya from a sense of powerlessness before threat, krodha from a sense of power against threat). Do they dissolve sequentially or simultaneously in the practitioner's experience?
06The term muni appears — Śaṅkara glosses it as saṃnyāsī, Rāmānuja as ātma-manaśīla (one given to reflection on the self). These are not identical: is the verse describing a renunciant of outer life or a renunciant of inner reactions, and does that distinction bear on whether a householder can qualify as sthita-dhī?
07Both Śaṅkara and Madhusūdana note that prārabdha karma can still deliver bare duḥkha to the jñānin — so the sthita-prajña is not pain-free, only reaction-free. What does this say about the purpose of the sthitaprajña portrait: is it a phenomenological description of inner life, a normative ideal, or a diagnostic criterion for measuring one's own progress?

Vyavahāra · try it in your life

Advaita

When a project fails or a relationship ends, the Advaita practitioner is invited to notice the two-layer structure: the bare fact of loss (prārabdha-delivered duḥkha) versus the self-amplifying commentary — 'I am a failure,' 'I deserved better,' 'this must be fixed immediately' — which Śaṅkara calls the bhramarūpa tāmasa udvegarūpa reaction born of false self-identification. The daily practice is not to suppress grief but to interrupt the commentary layer with the question: 'Who exactly is agitated?' — returning attention from the turbulent citta-vṛtti to the witnessing awareness that is not agitated, which Śaṅkara locates as the ātman itself. Over time this habitual return to the witnessing position loosens the mechanical equation of self-worth with outcome, which is the experiential face of what he calls avidyā-dissolution.

Viśiṣṭādvaita

In the Rāmānuja framework, every sorrow that arrives — a health setback, the loss of something precious — is the occasion to re-anchor in the recognition that the jīva-ātman as śeṣa belongs entirely to Nārāyaṇa and cannot be ultimately harmed by what the antaryāmin has permitted to approach. The practical form is to shift the inner question from 'how do I remove this suffering?' to 'what is the Lord, who dwells within this very suffering, inviting me to relinquish?' This reframing does not spiritualise away the pain but changes its valence: sorrow becomes the site of kainkarya (service-in-surrender) rather than a demand on one's depleted resources. For the practitioner of Vaiṣṇava bhakti this means maintaining the habitual prayer 'Bhagavān is the ground' even when — especially when — the ground feels absent.

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Dvaita

Madhva's diagnosis of rāga as śobhanādhyāsa — attributing beauty or worth to objects that have it only derivatively — gives the Dvaita practitioner a clean cognitive test for everyday moments of craving: 'Am I treating this person, possession, or outcome as if its worth were self-originating, or am I recognising that every śobhana is Hari's śobhana on loan?' This is not indifference but re-attribution — the energy of appreciation is fully present but directed to its correct source. In practice it means cultivating the habit of mentally returning each enjoyment to Bhagavān Viṣṇu as its actual owner and source, so that the rāga-chain (craving → fear of loss → anger at obstruction) cannot gain traction because its first premise — that the object is autonomously beautiful — has been falsified.

Śuddhādvaita

Vallabha's teaching that anudvigna-manas and vigata-spṛhā are svābhāvika (natural gifts of Kṛṣṇa's grace) rather than achievable by striving reframes the practitioner's relationship to inner turbulence: when rāga or krodha arises, the Puṣṭi-mārga response is not shame or redoubled effort but honest confession to Kṛṣṇa that the prasāda-flower has not yet fully bloomed here. The sādhana is therefore primarily one of surrender and transparency — offering both the turbulence and the longing for peace to Śrī Kṛṣṇa, trusting that the stillness described in this verse will descend as an act of divine grace rather than being constructed from below. Daily life becomes a series of small offerings: 'This irritation is yours, this craving is yours, this grief is yours' — until the practitioner begins to sense that even the offering itself is Kṛṣṇa's līlā moving through them.

Bhakti

Śrīdhara's gloss emphasises that rāga is prīti — affective attachment — the most intimate and therefore most difficult of the three passions to recognise as a problem. His everyday application is a discipline of honest self-watching: notice not the dramatic eruptions of fear or anger but the quieter, warmer web of prīti — the special pleasure taken in a particular colleague's praise, the disproportionate weight given to one relationship's approval — and ask whether these preferences are clouding the mind's capacity to meet whatever arrives with equanimity. The bhakti-philological approach does not counsel emotional flatness but a loving vigilance toward one's own attachments, offered back to Bhagavān as part of the devotional practice, so that the inner landscape gradually clears not through suppression but through honest seeing and repeated surrender.

Advaita-Bhakti

Madhusūdana's careful parsing — raw duḥkha from prārabdha persists, but the secondary tāmasa reaction does not — teaches the practitioner to stop evaluating spiritual progress by whether life is smooth, and instead to watch the gap between event and reaction. In daily life this means: when a painful event lands, note the bare sensation (prārabdha's delivery), then observe whether the second-order collapse follows — the self-accusation, the catastrophising, the vain wish that the past were different. Narrowing that gap is the concrete experiential work of what Madhusūdana calls the dissolution of viparīta. Because he frames this dissolution as simultaneously a Kṛṣṇa-bhakti realisation, the practitioner can hold both the Advaitic inquiry ('who is reacting?') and the bhakti orientation ('Lord, I offer this reaction to you') not as competing disciplines but as two voices in the same inner movement toward the unobstructed clarity he calls the sthita-prajña state.

Adhiṣṭhāna · substrate signature

substratev2.6-frozen

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

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

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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 2, Verse 56: Krishna to Arjuna — Sāṅkhya-Yoga