BG 2.9 — Sāṅkhya-Yoga — Sūtrakṛt-Gītā

Bhagavad Gītā 2.9Chapter 2 · Sāṅkhya-Yoga · Krishna → Arjuna · Guḍākeśa (also: Paranṭapa) · anuṣṭubh

संजय उवाचsaṃjaya uvāca

संजय उवाच एवमुक्त्वा हृषीकेशं गुडाकेशः परन्तपः ।

न योत्स्य इति गोविन्दमुक्त्वा तूष्णीं बभूव ह ॥

evam uktvā hṛṣīkeśaṃ guḍākeśaḥ parantapaḥ

na yotsya iti govindam uktvā tūṣṇīṃ babhūva ha

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

meaning

Sañjaya said: Having spoken thus to Hṛṣīkeśa, Arjuna, scorcher of enemies, told Govinda he would not fight, and fell silent.

ekras · bhāṣya

Sanjaya enters again to mark the silence. "Having spoken thus to Hrishikesha — Gudakesha, the scorcher of foes — saying to Govinda 'I will not fight,' fell silent." The verse is doing more than narrating. Three names of Krishna appear in two lines — Hrishikesha, Govinda — and three names of Arjuna — Gudakesha, Parantapa, the implicit Partha. Each name carries its weight. Hrishikesha — master of the senses. The teacher whose senses are perfectly under his command is being addressed by a man whose senses are drying up. Gudakesha — the one who has conquered sleep. The one who never sleeps is now sitting in the chariot floor refusing the fight he came for. Parantapa — scorcher of foes. The scorcher of foes is refusing to scorch. Govinda — protector of the cows, the easy-natured one. The address to Govinda is the soft one Arjuna chooses for his refusal: I will not fight.

Ramsukhdas Maharaj catches the precise shape of the silence. Arjuna had argued his side. He had heard Krishna's first sharp words. He had taken the diagnosis. He had become the shishya. And now, having said all that, he says one more thing: na yotsye — I will not fight. Then he is quiet. The silence is not surrender to Krishna. It is surrender of his own arguing. He has nothing more to say from his side. The next move belongs entirely to the teacher. The Gita as upadesh begins after this silence.

Context

where

Chapter 2 · Sāṅkhya-Yoga · meter anuṣṭubh

who speaks

Krishna → Arjuna · vocative Guḍākeśa (also: Paranṭapa)

preceded by — BG 2.8

I cannot see anything that would carry away this grief scorching my senses dry, not an uncontested kingdom on earth, not even lordship over the gods.

What's going on

Sañjaya said: Having spoken thus to Hṛṣīkeśa, Arjuna, scorcher of enemies, told Govinda he would not fight, and fell silent.

Sūtras through this verse (111)

ĀnandagiriclassicalA

The two-niṣṭhā axisbetween

1.1Means and end set out as one paired axis.───→here2.9───→2.39Wisdom closes, action opens. Same axis.

MadhvaclassicalT1

Hari is supreme — the running reading-ruleapproach

───→here2.9───→2.12Every soul named here is a real distinct self.

RamsukhdasclassicalA

What binds you (and how to let go)approach

───→here2.9───→2.47Hold no mine-ness on body or on fruit.

show all 111

Madhvaclassicalmadhva_pratibimba

Madhva Pratibimbaapproach · other

───→here2.9───→2.18Image perishes, source endures

MadhvaclassicalT2

Soul depends on Lord — the gap that does not closeapproach

───→here2.9───→2.18The mirror breaks but the sun is unhurt.

MadhvaclassicalT3

Ranking is real — and it never collapsesapproach

───→here2.9───→2.23Even great gods are unequal in their glory.

MadhvaclassicalT4

Liberation is bliss in body — not absorptionapproach

───→here2.9───→2.50Release is embodied, blissful, never merging.

MadhvaclassicalT5

Mirror-and-image — how seeming-action worksapproach

───→here2.9───→2.18The image perishes, but the source endures.

MadhvaclassicalT6

Citation is the spine — texts carry the loadapproach

───→here2.9───→2.23Nāradīya names what reason cannot prove.

MadhvaclassicalT7

Action and knowledge — never rivalsapproach

───→here2.9───→2.39The two paths name one practice, one fruit.

MadhvaclassicalT8

Direct vision — the only proximate causeapproach

───→here2.9───→2.46Scripture is a small well when the flood arrives.

MadhvaclassicalT9

Devotion and grace — what knowledge cannot do aloneapproach

───→here2.9───→2.23Without worship of Hari no one ever crosses.

MadhvaclassicalT10

The deluder is named — three goddesses, one Lordapproach

───→here2.9───→4.6Even the unborn descends through the deluder Durgā.

MadhvaclassicalT11

Only revealed scripture decides — reason alone cannotapproach

───→here2.9───→2.13Self-survival is settled by śruti, not by reason.

MadhvaclassicalT12

Closure by gloss — the small repertoireapproach

───→here2.9───→2.55'Self' here means mind — a single word redirects.

Gauravmoderneminem_dsm_arjuna

Eminem Dsm Arjunabetween

2.7'Karpanya-doshopahata-svabhavah prichchhami tvam dharma-sammudha-chetah, shishya───→here2.9───→2.11'Ashochyan anvashochas tvam prajna-vadamsh cha bhashase.' You grieve those not t

Ramsukhdasclassical

Sādhaka Sañjīvanī commentary at this versebetween

───→here2.9───→

Śaṅkaraclassicalshankara_jnana_nishtha

Shankara Jnana Nishthaapproach · other

───→here2.9───→2.10Thesis flat

Gauravmodernchaplaincy_kit_of_tools

Chaplaincy Kit Of Toolsapproach

───→here2.9───→4.34Paramparā / direct transmission. 'Tad viddhi pranipatena pariprashnena sevaya, u

Gauravmoderncivilizational_air_conditioning

Civilizational Air Conditioningapproach

───→here2.9───→2.62'Dhyayato vishayan pumsah sangas teshupajayate, sangat sanjayate kamah.' The out

Gauravmodernheart_leadership

Heart Leadershipapproach

───→here2.9───→2.48'Yoga-sthah kuru karmani sangam tyaktva Dhananjaya, siddhy-asiddhyoh samo bhutva

Gauravmoderninterfaith_cosmology

Interfaith Cosmologyapproach

───→here2.9───→4.11'Ye yatha mam prapadyante tams tathaiva bhajamy aham.' As they approach me, so I

Gauravmodernkarma_yoga_hand

Karma Yoga Handapproach

───→here2.9───→2.47Middle finger. Nishkama karma plus the failure-gym. 'Karmany evadhikaras te, ma

Gauravmodernmemorial_pastoral

Memorial Pastoralapproach

───→here2.9───→2.13The memorial-register anchor. 'Dehino'smin yatha dehe kaumaram yauvanam jara, ta

Gauravmodernsanatana_dharma_101

Sanatana Dharma 101approach

───→here2.9───→2.13Reincarnation pillar. 'Dehino'smin yatha dehe kaumaram yauvanam jara, tatha deha

Gauravmodernthree_yogas_braid

Three Yogas Braidapproach

───→here2.9───→3.3'Loke'smin dvi-vidha nishtha pura prokta mayanagha, jnana-yogena samkhyanam karm

Gauravmodernwitness_self_neti_neti

Witness Self Neti Netiapproach

───→here2.9───→2.13Body changes. 'Dehino'smin yatha dehe kaumaram yauvanam jara.' Gaurav opens the

ŚaṅkaraclassicalA

Sorrow and delusion are the diseaseapproach

───→here2.9───→2.10Sorrow and delusion are the seed of saṁsāra.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalB

Knowledge alone, with all action laid downapproach

───→here2.9───→2.10First lay down all action, then knowledge frees.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalC

Knowledge plus action will not save youapproach

───→here2.9───→2.10Some say: combine knowledge with rites.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalD

The fit student vs the unfit studentapproach

───→here2.9───→2.39So far for the seeker of the real; now hear yoga.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalE

Ignorance is the only enemyapproach

───→here2.9───→2.69Wisdom rises; ignorance fades like dawn-darkness.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalF

The Lord is born only as it wereapproach

───→here2.9───→4.6I appear as if born, never really, by māyā.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalG

After knowing, act only to hold the worldapproach

───→here2.9───→3.20Janaka acted only to hold the world together.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalJ

Scripture stands behind every claimapproach

───→here2.9───→2.10Pāṇḍitya is knowing the Self — Bṛhadāraṇyaka.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalK

Liberation while still embodiedapproach

───→here2.9───→2.72Standing in this state, one reaches Brahman..

JayatīrthaclassicalA

Body and embodied — the inference runs on the dehī sideapproach

───→here2.9───→2.13Same I as a child is now in this body.

JayatīrthaclassicalB

Pañcabheda — the five distinctions enforced verse by verseapproach

───→here2.9───→2.12Plurals block monistic absorption.

JayatīrthaclassicalC

Refuting Śaṅkara-style readings, named or unnamedapproach

───→here2.9───→2.13One-self-many-bodies runs out of grammar.

JayatīrthaclassicalD

Saṅgati declared at the head of every adhyāyaapproach

───→here2.9───→2.39Wrap prior section, then announce next.

JayatīrthaclassicalE

Vishnu-sarvottamatva read into apparently neutral wordsapproach

───→here2.9───→3.15Brahmodbhavam — born of parabrahman.

JayatīrthaclassicalF

Bhakti-tāratamya: gradation among devotees, gradation in fruitapproach

───→here2.9───→4.11Fruit proportional to the service offered.

JayatīrthaclassicalG

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

───→here2.9───→2.13Pratyabhijñā backed by śruti citation.

JayatīrthaclassicalH

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

───→here2.9───→2.13Two objections, three pādas glossed.

JayatīrthaclassicalI

Lakṣaṇā-control — literal preferred when availableapproach

───→here2.9───→2.13Recognition is literal across bodies.

JayatīrthaclassicalJ

Reading the silence — iti śeṣaḥ and iti bhāvaḥapproach

───→here2.9───→2.11Madhva first speaks, Jayatīrtha supplies.

RamsukhdasclassicalB

This human birth — your one chance to actapproach

───→here2.9───→2.47Only a human body can do new action.

RamsukhdasclassicalC

Desire is the root — not actionapproach

───→here2.9───→2.55Drop desire, and the sense of doing falls.

RamsukhdasclassicalD

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

───→here2.9───→2.45Rise above the modes, said in chapter two.

RamsukhdasclassicalE

Your own work as worshipapproach

───→here2.9───→2.31A warrior's own duty is the war he faces.

RamsukhdasclassicalF

Surrender — the single shelterapproach

───→here2.9───→2.41A one-pointed mind is the seeker's mark.

RamsukhdasclassicalG

Equanimity in everythingapproach

───→here2.9───→2.14Bear pleasure and pain as a passing season.

RamsukhdasclassicalH

All paths arrive at the same roomapproach

───→here2.9───→2.55Each path names its sage in its own words.

RamsukhdasclassicalJ

Divine vs demonic patternsapproach

───→here2.9───→3.37The enemy is desire turning into anger.

RamsukhdasclassicalK

The body is not yoursapproach

───→here2.9───→3.27The modes act, but ego claims the deed.

Ekrasmodernstress

Stress — panic to shelterbetween · v2

1.30Skin burns, mind reels───→here2.9───→2.20The unborn dehī

ĀnandagiriclassicalB

Three hexads = tat tvam asibetween

2.1First hexad opens, tvam-pada implicit.───→here2.9───→6.46Inner-self hexad closes; pivot prepared.

ĀnandagiriclassicalE

Pūrvapakṣa via nanu / āśaṅkyabetween

1.1Dialectical chain present from line one.───→here2.9───→2.39Nanu… tatrāha: one pair, named.

ĀnandagiriclassicalL

Akṣarayojanā — word-fit firstbetween

1.2Same form repeats on the next verse.───→here2.9───→2.10Word-fit holds even at the dialogue's pivot.

Ekrasmodernkarma_yoga

Karma yoga — the apprentice pathapproach · v2

───→here2.9───→2.47Right to action

Ekrasmodernend_of_life

End of life — the threshold tourapproach · v2

───→here2.9───→2.13Bodies pass, the dehī does not

Ekrasmodernvairagya

Vairāgya — dispassion as instrumentapproach · v2

───→here2.9───→2.55Sthitaprajna defined

Ekrasmodernleadership

Leadership — svadharma in actionapproach · v2

───→here2.9───→3.20Janaka, lokasangraha

Ekrasmoderntrigunametry

Trigunametry — guṇas as embodied statesapproach · v2

───→here2.9───→2.41Single-pointed buddhi

Ekrasmodernparadox_of_doership

Paradox of doership — kartṛtvaapproach · v2

───→here2.9───→3.27Modes act, ego claims

Ekrasmodernanger_management

Anger Managementapproach · other

───→here2.9───→2.62Brooding breeds attachment

ĀnandagiriclassicalC

Adhikāra: seeker vs. fulfilledapproach

───→here2.9───→2.47Primary fitness needs ripened conditions.

ĀnandagiriclassicalD

Praśna-bīja chapter openingsapproach

───→here2.9───→3.1Buddhi-vyākulatva named the seed.

ĀnandagiriclassicalF

Which karma? — fourfold typologyapproach

───→here2.9───→2.47No-fruit ≠ no-karma: kāmya-tyāga ≠ nitya-tyāga.

ĀnandagiriclassicalG

Anūdyate, na vidhīyateapproach

───→here2.9───→2.55A description, not a command. Anchor.

ĀnandagiriclassicalH

Phala-saṃkalpa is the only upādhiapproach

───→here2.9───→2.47Action stays; the wish for fruit goes.

ĀnandagiriclassicalK

Upasaṃhāra — recap as instrumentapproach

───→here2.9───→2.39Wisdom section wound up here.

Ekrasmodernfamily_conflict

Family Conflictexit · other

2.8No grief-remover I see───→here2.9───→

VallabhaclassicalD

Chapter-opening preludesbetween

2.1Six-verse prelude lays out the whole map.───→here2.9───→3.1Four-verse prelude frames renunciation.

MadhusūdanaclassicalK

Arjuna's grief has two roots, not onebetween

2.1Pity and despair treated as guests, not host.───→here2.9───→2.10Krishna smiles, then names what's wrong precisely.

Madhusūdanaclassicalmadhusudan_bhagavad_arpana

Madhusudan Bhagavad Arpanaapproach · other

───→here2.9───→2.47Fruit-free action cannot bind

VallabhaclassicalA

Two paths — rule-bound and grace-onlyapproach

───→here2.9───→4.11Each soul takes the path Krishna assigns to it.

VallabhaclassicalC

Drop the doer, not the deedapproach

───→here2.9───→3.1Drop something inside the act, not the act.

VallabhaclassicalE

Three paths, one teaching orderapproach

───→here2.9───→2.39The yoga-mind is just the sāṅkhya-mind, retold.

VallabhaclassicalF

Soul as part of the highest Personapproach

───→here2.9───→2.12The eternal among the eternal, conscious among the conscious.

VallabhaclassicalG

The Lord plays — calf-affection, not contractapproach

───→here2.9───→4.7When dharma weakens, the Lord descends to play.

VallabhaclassicalH

Stilling the mind — into the Lordapproach

───→here2.9───→2.48Yoga itself is just sameness of mind.

VallabhaclassicalI

A closed three-source citation gridapproach

───→here2.9───→2.11Vallabha quotes his own Nibandha at verse two.

MadhusūdanaclassicalA

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

───→here2.9───→3.1The whole map laid out at chapter three's door.

MadhusūdanaclassicalB

Different students need different teachingsapproach

───→here2.9───→2.39Two minds, two paths, never one rule for all.

MadhusūdanaclassicalC

Action purifies before knowing can landapproach

───→here2.9───→2.39Pure mind for knowing, impure mind for acting.

MadhusūdanaclassicalD

Offer the act to the Lord and it stops bindingapproach

───→here2.9───→2.47Action offered, fruit-free, cannot bear bondage.

MadhusūdanaclassicalG

Knowing and acting cannot run togetherapproach

───→here2.9───→2.39Like light and dark, they cannot share a place.

MadhusūdanaclassicalI

Liberation while alive — the body finishes its runapproach

───→here2.9───→3.1The architecture ends in living-liberation, then bodily.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalA

The carama-śloka as retroactive bracketapproach

───→here2.9───→2.10The teaching opens at the carama-bracket.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalC

Antaryāmin — the indweller as standing referentapproach

───→here2.9───→3.30'Mayi sarvāṇi karmāṇi': read as antaryāmin.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalD

Adhikāra — eligibility as architecture, not exceptionapproach

───→here2.9───→4.11'Yathā' is open; the verb is the gate.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalE

Pūrva-pakṣa — name the rival, close the doorapproach

───→here2.9───→2.12Plurals refute the unitary-self read.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalF

Saṅgati — anticipation-and-resolutionapproach

───→here2.9───→2.39What chapter 3 will resolve, named here.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalG

Three yogas — three angles on one configurationapproach

───→here2.9───→2.39Sāṅkhya and yoga: not two roads.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalH

Mā śucaḥ — the inclusio of evolving griefapproach

───→here2.9───→2.10Krishna smiles before the first mā-śucaḥ.

ŚrīdharaclassicalA

The Gītā as raft across griefbetween

2.7I am sunk in pity; ask, do not order.───→here2.9───→2.11Confusing self with body is the source of grief.

ŚrīdharaclassicalD

The path that turns no one awayapproach

───→here2.9───→4.11However they come, I meet them so.

ŚrīdharaclassicalE

Inner cleansing reconciles work and knowingapproach

───→here2.9───→2.39Work polishes the inner instrument first.

ŚrīdharaclassicalF

The Lord inside as inner rulerapproach

───→here2.9───→3.30Lay every act in Me; I move within.

ŚrīdharaclassicalI

His evenness as ground for refugeapproach

───→here2.9───→4.11I meet each one as that one approaches.

ŚrīdharaclassicalJ

Insight given as a gift, not earned aloneapproach

───→here2.9───→4.34Knowers will pass it to you by teaching.

AbhinavaguptaclassicalA

Knowing and acting are one powerapproach

───→here2.9───→2.24The self is one unbroken awareness.

AbhinavaguptaclassicalB

Recognition, not additionapproach

───→here2.9───→4.14Recognize, do not learn — the verb shifts.

AbhinavaguptaclassicalD

Avatāra: appearance without departureapproach

───→here2.9───→4.1Teaching descends; the teacher does not move.

AbhinavaguptaclassicalF

Three guṇas: contractions of one consciousnessapproach

───→here2.9───→2.45Exit the modes — not better modes are the goal.

AbhinavaguptaclassicalG

Saṃvit: one referent under many namesapproach

───→here2.9───→2.20Cit alone — the self cannot be destroyed.

RāmānujaclassicalB

The śāstra is one bracket (2.12 → 18.66)approach

───→here2.9───→2.10Bracket opens here.

RāmānujaclassicalD

Karma-yoga as kainkarya (worship)approach

───→here2.9───→2.47Act, but not for the fruit of acting.

RāmānujaclassicalG

Māyā is real causal powerapproach

───→here2.9───→4.6Self-power, not self-illusion.

RāmānujaclassicalH

Prapatti / śaraṇāgati — universal upāyaapproach

───→here2.9───→4.11As they approach Me, so do I receive them.

Śabda · lemmas (14 unique · 15 occurrences)

उवाच √vac — to speak (verbal root) · past indicative 3rd person singular verb
गुडाकेशः guḍākeśa — Guḍākeśa (epithet of Arjuna, 'thick-haired' or 'conqueror of sleep') · nominative masculine singular noun
बभूव √bhū — to be, become; the earth (verbal root / noun) · past indicative 3rd person singular verb

show all 14

उक्त्वा vac ×2 — to speak (verbal root) · conv
संजयः saṃjaya — Saṃjaya (the charioteer-narrator of the Gītā); also: victory · nominative masculine singular noun
एवम् evam — thus, in this way
हृषीकेशम् hṛṣīkeśa — lord of the senses (epithet of Kṛṣṇa: hṛṣīka 'sense' + īśa 'lord') · accusative masculine singular noun
परन्तपः paraṃtapa — scorcher of foes (para 'foe' + tap 'burn') · nominative masculine singular noun
न na — not (negation particle)
योत्स्ये √yudh — to fight (verbal root); battle · future indicative 1st person singular verb
इति iti — thus (quotative particle)
गोविन्दम् govinda — Govinda (epithet of Kṛṣṇa, 'cow-finder/herder') · accusative masculine singular noun
तूष्णीम् tūṣṇīm — silently (adv.)
ह ha — indeed, surely (emphatic particle)

Praśna · so what (7)

01Arjuna was capable, informed, and morally serious — and he still reached a point where he went completely silent and couldn't act. What does that tell us about the limits of competence as a solution to inner conflict?
02Is there a difference between the silence that comes from having thought something through completely and the silence that comes from being overwhelmed? How do you tell which one you're in?

show all 7

03Rāmānuja says Kṛṣṇa 'smiled' before speaking the entire Gītā. What is the significance of the teacher's equanimity in the face of the student's collapse?
04Arjuna is addressed here as paraṃtapa — burner of enemies — at the exact moment he refuses to fight. What happens when someone is called by their strength at the moment of their weakness?
05When you have said everything you can think of to say and it still hasn't changed anything, what is the right next move?
06Vallabha reads the word 'Govinda' here as 'lord of the senses to whom the refuge-seeker comes.' Does naming the person you're asking for help matter — and if so, how?
07Rāmānuja frames the entire Gītā as a response to this moment — Kṛṣṇa speaking from 2.12 to 18.66 because of Arjuna's collapse here. What does it take to be in the kind of trouble that unlocks a teaching of that scale?

Vyavahāra · try it in your life

Advaita

There is a particular kind of silence that is not rest — when you have argued your position, considered all the angles, and still cannot move, not because you are calm but because the machinery has jammed. Advaita reads Arjuna's silence as that kind of stoppage: the knot of self-misidentification drawn tight enough to shut down volition. If you have been in a crisis — professional, relational, existential — where thinking harder produced nothing useful, this is the diagnostic Śaṅkara will address beginning at 2.10: the problem is not that you lack information, it is that the one doing the thinking is itself part of the confusion. The practical move is not to generate another strategy but to sit with the question of who is suffering — not as a philosophical puzzle, but as a serious pause before the next move.

Viśiṣṭādvaita

Rāmānuja's reading of this verse places extraordinary weight on what Bhagavān does in response to Arjuna's collapse: he smiles, and then speaks the entire Gītā. The teacher's equanimity in the face of the student's breakdown is not indifference — it is the signal that the situation is already held, already known, already soluble from the teacher's side. If you have ever been in the presence of a guide, mentor, or teacher who remained unshaken when you fell apart — and found that their steadiness, more than their words, was what began to restore you — this is the experiential register Rāmānuja is pointing at. The application is to seek out relationships in which the other person's stability is real, not performed, and to allow yourself to be genuinely received rather than merely advised.

show all 6

Dvaita

Madhva's tradition holds that the jīva (individual self) is permanently dependent on Hari — not as a deficit to be corrected but as an accurate description of the structure of things. Arjuna's silence in this verse is, from this angle, the most accurate thing he has done yet: he has stopped pretending to be the final source of resolution and arrived at the posture of a dependent being before its ground. If you spend significant energy maintaining the fiction of complete self-sufficiency — in decisions, in relationships, in work — and that effort produces exhaustion rather than strength, Dvaita offers a reframe: dependence on a source larger than yourself is not immaturity, it is structural honesty. The application is to identify one area where you have been carrying full weight that is not yours to carry alone, and to redirect it deliberately.

Śuddhādvaita

Vallabha's gloss inserts the word śaraṇāgataḥ — one who has taken shelter — into a verse where Arjuna says nothing except 'I will not fight.' The shelter is not declared; it is enacted by the going-silent itself. Puṣṭi-mārga holds that grace flows into the emptied vessel, not the full one — and the practical implication is specific: the moments when you stop performing competence, stop producing output, stop explaining yourself, and simply become still before something larger than you, those are not failures of agency. They are, in Vallabha's reading, the exact condition in which Govinda — the one who presides over the senses — can actually be received rather than merely addressed.

Bhakti

Śrīdhara calls this verse spaṣṭārthaḥ — self-evident, requiring no gloss. There is a practical discipline in that restraint: not every significant moment requires elaborate interpretation. Sometimes the most honest and useful thing a tradition can do is acknowledge a turning point plainly — Arjuna said he would not fight, and then went silent — and let the weight of that stand without immediately explaining it away. If you are in a moment of genuine transition, the pressure to immediately make sense of it, to frame it for others, to already know what it means, can prevent you from actually inhabiting it. The application is to allow a significant silence to be what it is, rather than rushing to fill it with interpretation before the teaching that belongs to it has had time to arrive.

Advaita-Bhakti

Madhusūdana's reading of the three epithets in this verse is a quiet piece of reassurance built into the verse's own grammar: Arjuna is addressed by his nature (jitālasya — conqueror of sloth) at the moment his nature has been temporarily covered; Kṛṣṇa is named as both the inner-controller of the senses that have been paralyzed (Hṛṣīkeśa) and as omniscient (Govinda — finder of Veda-speech). The structure of the verse, for Madhusūdana, implies that the one who has gone silent is not constitutively broken, and the one being addressed has both the knowledge and the capacity to restore what has been covered. The practical application: if you have found yourself in a period of uncharacteristic paralysis — not your nature, but grief or confusion temporarily covering it — the tradition's counsel is that the paralysis is not the truth of you, and that turning toward something genuinely omniscient (a teaching, a practice, a teacher) is not desperation but the structurally correct move.

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 2, Verse 9: Krishna to Arjuna — Sāṅkhya-Yoga