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Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 2, Verse 61: Krishna to Arjuna — Sāṅkhya-Yoga

Bhagavad Gītā 2.61Chapter 2 · Sāṅkhya-Yoga · Krishna → Arjuna · anuṣṭubh
तानि सर्वाणि संयम्य युक्त आसीत मत्परः ।
वशे हि यस्येन्द्रियाणि तस्य प्रज्ञा प्रतिष्ठिता ॥
tāni← tad(305 verses)accusative neuter plural nounthat (distal demonstrative); also 3rd-person pronounattested in commentariesadvaitaसर्वाणि संयम्य संयमनं वशीकरणं कृत्वा युक्तः समाहितः सन् आसीत मत्परः अहं वासुदेवः सर्वप्रत्यगात्मा परो यस्य सः मत्परः नdvaitaसर्वाणीति किमुच्यत इत्यतोऽन्तरापतितां शङ्कां निवर्तयितुमेतदिति भावेनाह तर्ही तिadvaita-bhaktiतद्वश्यान्येव भवन्तीति भावः sarvāṇi← sarva(138 verses)accusative neuter plural nounall, entireattested in commentariesadvaitaसंयम्य संयमनं वशीकरणं कृत्वा युक्तः समाहितः सन् आसीत मत्परः अहं वासुदेवः सर्वप्रत्यगात्मा परो यस्य सः मत्परः न अन्योऽहंdvaitaसंयम्यासीतेति किमेतदुच्यते इत्यत आह बहुयत्ने तिśuddhādvaitaप्रथमं बुद्ध्या संयम्य युक्तो य आसीत मत्परः तस्यैव प्रतिष्ठिता प्रज्ञाऽवसेयाadvaita-bhaktiज्ञानकर्मसाधनभूतानि संयम्य वशीकृत्य युक्तः समाहितो निगृहीतमनाः सन्नासीत निर्व्यापारस्तिष्ठेत् saṃyamya← saṃyam(4 verses)convto restrain (sam- + √yam 'restrain')attested in commentariesadvaitaसंयमनं वशीकरणं कृत्वा युक्तः समाहितः सन् आसीत मत्परः अहं वासुदेवः सर्वप्रत्यगात्मा परो यस्य सः मत्परः न अन्योऽहं तस्मातviśiṣṭādvaitaचेतसः शुभाश्रय भूते मयि मनः अवस्थाप्य समाहितः आसीतśuddhādvaitaयुक्तो य आसीत मत्परः तस्यैव प्रतिष्ठिता प्रज्ञाऽवसेयाbhaktiमत्परः सन्नासीतadvaita-bhaktiवशीकृत्य युक्तः समाहितो निगृहीतमनाः सन्नासीत निर्व्यापारस्तिष्ठेत् yukta← √yuj(47 verses)nominative masculine singular participle nounto yoke, join, engage in (verbal root) āsīta← √ās(6 verses)present optative 3rd person singular verbto sit, remain (verbal root)attested in commentariesadvaitaमत्परः अहं वासुदेवः सर्वप्रत्यगात्मा परो यस्य सः मत्परः न अन्योऽहं तस्मात् इति आसीत इत्यर्थःviśiṣṭādvaita। मनसि मद्विषये सति निर्दग्धाशेषकल्मषतया निर्मलीकृतं विषयानुरागरहितं मन इन्द्रियाणि स्ववशानि करोति। ततो वश्येन्द्रियं मनśuddhādvaitaमत्परः तस्यैव प्रतिष्ठिता प्रज्ञाऽवसेया mat-paraḥ← para(58 verses)nominative masculine singular nounhighest, supreme, beyond, other
vaśe← vaśa(4 verses)locative masculine singular nounwill, control, power hi← hi(70 verses)for, indeed, because (particle) yasy← yad(218 verses)genitive masculine singular nounwhich, who (relative pronoun)attested in commentariesadvaitaसः मत्परः न अन्योऽहं तस्मात् इति आसीत इत्यर्थःdvaitaस मत्परःbhaktiवशे वशवर्तीनिadvaita-bhaktiस मत्परःendriyāṇi tasya← tad(305 verses)genitive masculine singular nounthat (distal demonstrative); also 3rd-person pronounattested in commentariesadvaitaप्रज्ञा प्रतिष्ठिताviśiṣṭādvaitaप्रज्ञा प्रतिष्ठिता इति prajñā← prajñā(9 verses)nominative feminine singular nounwisdom, insight, discriminating intelligenceattested in commentariesadvaitaप्रतिष्ठिताviśiṣṭādvaitaप्रतिष्ठिता इति pratiṣṭhitā← prati-√ṣṭhā(5 verses)nominative feminine singular participle nounfoundation, support, established position (prati- + √sthā)attested in commentariesadvaita।। अथेदानीं पराभविष्यतः सर्वानर्थमूलमिदमुच्यतेviśiṣṭādvaitaइति। एवं मयि अनिवेश्य मनः स्वयत्नगौरवेण इन्द्रियजये प्रवृत्तो विनष्टो भवति इत्याहśuddhādvaitaप्रज्ञाऽवसेया
spokensingle-voice recital; rendered via IndicF5 conditioned on a Sanskrit reference clip
meaning

Restrain all the senses and sit steady with Me as your highest refuge; wisdom stands firm in the one who holds the senses in check.

Bhāṣyakāra purports

  • Śaṅkaraadvaita

    Having restrained (saṃyamya) all the senses entirely, the disciplined one should abide as mat-paraḥ — meaning: I, Vāsudeva, am the inner Self of all (sarva-pratyag-ātmā), and there is no other beside Me; this is the understanding in which the yogī rests, not as devotional surrender but as recognition of non-difference. For one who, by the force of sustained practice (abhyāsa-bala), holds the senses under control, wisdom (prajñā) becomes firmly established — the sthita-prajñā who sees only the Self. Mat-paraḥ here names epistemic orientation, not relational worship: to take the Supreme as one's sole reference-point is to cease taking the modifications of prakṛti as real.

    divergence: Advaita reads mat-paraḥ as cognitive non-difference, not devotional surrender; the Self recognised IS Kṛṣṇa, so 'orientation toward Me' collapses into jñāna. Pratiṣṭhā (steadiness) is the fruit of this recognition, not of bhakti.

  • Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

    Because the senses, inflamed by attachment to objects (viṣaya-anurāga), are exceedingly difficult to conquer, the seeker should restrain them and fix the mind (manas) on Me as its auspicious refuge (śubhāśraya) — for when the mind rests in Bhagavān, impurities are burnt away as fire set in dry grass by wind (Viṣṇu Purāṇa 6.7.74), and the purified mind then brings the senses into its own sway. Thus mat-paraḥ names real āśraya (refuge in a personal Lord who is the soul's mode, viśeṣaṇa), not mere cognitive alignment; the one who bypasses this Lordly support and relies on personal effort alone perishes. When the senses are thus brought to heel, prajñā is established — the intelligence capable of ātma-darśana.

    divergence: Rāmānuja insists mat-paraḥ is substantive: the Lord is a real Refuge whose grace (prasāda) alone can burn the residue that individual effort cannot. The Viṣṇu Purāṇa citation is in the bhāṣya and grounds this claim empirically within the tradition.

  • Madhvadvaita

    Though the senses seem unconquerable, the verse answers: they can be subdued by determined effort (bahu-yatna), for Bhagavān — who is utterly supreme above all (sarvasmād utkṛṣṭa) — is the object and ground of the mind's yoga; mat-paraḥ means precisely this: one for whom I alone am the highest (para), superior to every other reality including the jīva's own intelligence. The dependent jīva (jīva-pārādhīnatva), offered wholly to Hari, finds that this very dependence disarms the senses — they lose their autonomous pull when the will is anchored in the Lord. The fruit is explicit: for such a one, prajñā is established.

    divergence: Dvaita reads mat-paraḥ against an ontological backdrop of eternal jīva-Brahman distinction: 'I am supreme over all' is Kṛṣṇa asserting categoric supremacy, not inviting non-dual recognition. The emphasis falls on the jīva's active effortful surrender (bahu-yatna) rather than on bhakti's emotional absorption.

  • Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

    Vallabha reads 2.60–61 together: because the senses assault even the striving yogī (yatatopi), the better path is first to use the intellect (buddhi) to restrain them wholesale (tāni sarvāṇi prathamaṃ buddhyā saṃyamya), and then to abide as mat-paraḥ — one wholly immersed in Kṛṣṇa's blissful nature (ānanda-svarūpa), for this verse establishes that only the one who is thus Kṛṣṇa-oriented achieves avaseya (definitive, settled) prajñā. In Puṣṭi-mārga the entire movement of restraint is Kṛṣṇa's own grace-act (puṣṭi); the practitioner does not earn the steadiness but receives it as prasāda once the intellect stops competing with the Lord's will.

    divergence: Vallabha's bhāṣya joins this verse to 2.60, making the two-verse unit a single teaching about effort's limit and grace's sufficiency. Mat-paraḥ is not a technique but a state of being wholly absorbed in Kṛṣṇa's own blissful nature — puṣṭi, not sādhana.

  • Śrīdharabhakti

    The yogī (yukta), having restrained all the senses (tāni saṃyamya), should abide as mat-paraḥ — devoted to Me as the supreme — and the senses become subject to one so established (vaśa-vartīni). Śrīdhara reads this as the direct answer to the question 'how should one abide?' posed in the prior verse: the answer is two-fold — controlled senses AND orientation toward the Lord — neither alone is sufficient. The steadiness of prajñā belongs not to mere restraint practiced in isolation but to restraint exercised within the field of devotion (bhakti-yukta-saṃyama): the word mat-paraḥ carries full devotional weight, naming Kṛṣṇa as ultimate refuge and object of the yogī's being.

    divergence: Against Advaita, Śrīdhara preserves the relational valence of mat-paraḥ: it is not a cognitive position but a devotional orientation. The verse's structure (saṃyamya ... mat-paraḥ ... vaśe ... prajñā) is a four-step causal chain in which surrender to the Lord is the indispensable middle term.

  • Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

    Madhusūdana names the problem precisely: the senses are pramāthin (violently agitating) — so how can the yogī subdue them by personal strength alone? The answer is mat-paraḥ: by becoming an ekānta-bhakta, exclusively devoted to Me (Vāsudeva, the universal Self), one shelters under a power that is not one's own, just as a traveler who takes refuge with a powerful king finds that the bandits who threatened him suddenly become obedient to that king and thus to him. The bhakti here is not in tension with jñāna but is its efficient cause: 'there is no inauspiciousness anywhere for those devoted to Vāsudeva' (na vāsudeva-bhaktānām aśubhaṃ vidyate kvacit). Once the senses are tamed through this Lordly shelter, prajñā is established — and that establishment is simultaneously the fruit of bhakti and the door to Advaita recognition.

    divergence: Madhusūdana's synthesis is structural: bhakti subdues what jñāna-sādhana alone cannot, because the Lord is antaryāmin (inner controller) of those very senses. The king-and-bandit analogy (in the bhāṣya) makes mat-paraḥ neither purely cognitive (Advaita) nor purely relational (bhakti) but causally instrumental: devotion is the mechanism by which the inward sovereign disarms the faculties.

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