BG 4.39 — Jñāna-Karma-Sannyāsa-Yoga

Bhagavad Gītā 4.39Chapter 4 · Jñāna-Karma-Sannyāsa-Yoga · Krishna → Arjuna · anuṣṭubh

श्रद्धावांल् लभते ज्ञानं तत्परः संयतेन्द्रियः ।

ज्ञानं लब्ध्वा परां शान्तिमचिरेणाधिगच्छति ॥

śraddhāvāṃl labhate jñānaṃ tat-paraḥ saṃyatendriyaḥ

jñānaṃ labdhvā parāṃ śāntim acireṇādhigacchati

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

meaning

The one with faith who is wholly intent on that teaching and keeps the senses restrained gains knowledge, and having gained it, reaches supreme peace without delay.

ekras · bhāṣya

The verse names the qualified seeker. "The shraddhavant — full of faith — tat-parah — wholly intent on that — samyatendriya — restrained in the senses — receives jnana. Having received it, he reaches parama shanti achirena — without delay." Three qualifications, one result. Shraddhavant — faith.

Madhusudana defines this precisely as prama-rupa astikya-buddhi — the conviction-of-genuine-trust toward the guru's teaching and the Vedanta-vakya. Not credulity; the trained openness to take seriously what shastra says when one has not yet seen it for oneself. Tat-parah — wholly intent on that. The mind that does not divide itself between many goals; the entire orientation pointed at one place. Samyatendriya — restrained in the senses. The outer apparatus is held in check; the inner apparatus has space to receive what it is being given. Three together describe a particular kind of student. The result is two-fold: receiving the jnana, and then reaching para shanti — supreme peace — achirena, without delay. The peace is not a separate result that has to be cultivated after jnana; it follows immediately from the receiving.

Vallabha reads the verse from the guru's angle: before transmitting such supreme knowledge, the guru must test whether the shishya has shraddha — and shraddha is the precondition not because the teacher demands it but because without it the transmission cannot land.

Madhva adds the deeper point: shraddha is not an autonomous human faculty; it is anugraha-purva, consequent upon Hari's grace. Even the qualifying disposition itself is gifted.

Context

where

Chapter 4 · Jñāna-Karma-Sannyāsa-Yoga · meter anuṣṭubh

who speaks

Krishna → Arjuna

preceded by — BG 4.38

Nothing in this world purifies like knowledge of the Self, and one who is ripened through yoga finds it arising in time, within oneself.

What's going on

The one with faith who is wholly intent on that teaching and keeps the senses restrained gains knowledge, and having gained it, reaches supreme peace without delay.

Sūtras through this verse (51)

ŚrīdharaclassicalB

The Lord descends out of compassionbetween

4.9His acts are willed only to bless others.───→here4.39───→11.1By high compassion He showed the world-form.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalA

Sorrow and delusion are the diseasebetween

2.69Ignorance is night, wisdom alone wakes.───→here4.39───→4.42Cut the heart's doubt with the sword of knowledge.

MadhvaclassicalT1

Hari is supreme — the running reading-rulebetween

4.24Every word for ritual points back to Viṣṇu.───→here4.39───→5.7'Self of all beings' just means the Lord.

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ŚrīdharaclassicalE

Inner cleansing reconciles work and knowingstation

───→here4.39───→

Madhvaclassicalmadhva_pratibimba

Madhva Pratibimbabetween · other

4.14Acts without clinging───→here4.39───→5.14Two tiers of rulership

MadhvaclassicalT3

Ranking is real — and it never collapsesbetween

4.6Avatāras differ in their fullness of Hari.───→here4.39───→6.9Devas, asuras, mortals are three native kinds.

MadhvaclassicalT5

Mirror-and-image — how seeming-action worksbetween

4.14He acts but does not cling to the act.───→here4.39───→5.14The Lord rules the modes; the soul rules the body.

MadhvaclassicalT6

Citation is the spine — texts carry the loadbetween

4.8Ṛgveda khilas explain the descent as play.───→here4.39───→6.6Maitrāyaṇī defines the stilled mind.

MadhvaclassicalT10

The deluder is named — three goddesses, one Lordbetween

4.6Even the unborn descends through the deluder Durgā.───→here4.39───→7.4Eight elements name the inert side of nature.

MadhvaclassicalT12

Closure by gloss — the small repertoirebetween

4.25'Divine' just means the Lord, named indirectly.───→here4.39───→5.7'Self of all' resolves to the Lord himself.

ŚrīdharaclassicalD

The path that turns no one awaybetween

4.11However they come, I meet them so.───→here4.39───→7.16Four kinds of seekers, all good-hearted.

ŚrīdharaclassicalI

His evenness as ground for refugebetween

4.11I meet each one as that one approaches.───→here4.39───→9.29Even to all — yet near to those who turn.

ŚrīdharaclassicalJ

Insight given as a gift, not earned alonebetween

4.34Knowers will pass it to you by teaching.───→here4.39───→10.10I give them buddhi by which they come.

ŚrīdharaclassicalC

Devotion is both the way and the homeapproach

───→here4.39───→6.47Be a devotee: that is the meaning.

ŚrīdharaclassicalL

Chapter prefaces as the bhāṣya's spineapproach

───→here4.39───→5.1Settling the doubt: renounce or work?

ŚaṅkaraclassicalE

Ignorance is the only enemybetween

4.18See not-doing in doing, doing in not-doing.───→here4.39───→5.13Body-self confusion is the only error.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalF

The Lord is born only as it werebetween

4.9My birth and acts are not of this world.───→here4.39───→7.14Divine illusion is hard to cross alone.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalG

After knowing, act only to hold the worldbetween

4.18The post-knowledge actor does no action at all.───→here4.39───→5.8I do nothing at all, says the knower.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalJ

Scripture stands behind every claimbetween

4.13The four orders are the Puruṣa's own body.───→here4.39───→15.1The world-tree is the tree of the Kaṭha.

RamsukhdasclassicalA

What binds you (and how to let go)between

4.23Clinging to anything is what binds you.───→here4.39───→5.12Drop the wish for fruit, not the fruit itself.

RamsukhdasclassicalE

Your own work as worshipbetween

4.13The four orders are His own creation.───→here4.39───→18.41Each order's work is born of its nature.

RamsukhdasclassicalH

All paths arrive at the same roombetween

4.36Knowledge ferries you across the ocean.───→here4.39───→5.4Insight and practice are not two paths.

Ramsukhdasclassical

Sādhaka Sañjīvanī commentary at this versebetween

───→here4.39───→

ŚaṅkaraclassicalH

The Lord is friend of every beingapproach

───→here4.39───→5.29Friend of all beings, the witness of every act.

RamsukhdasclassicalI

The Lord already inside the heartapproach

───→here4.39───→6.30See Me everywhere, I am never lost.

Ekrasmodernkarma_yoga

Karma yoga — the apprentice pathbetween · v2

4.18Action in inaction───→here4.39───→5.6Renunciation needs the path

Ekrasmodernstress

Stress — panic to shelterbetween · v2

4.16Even the wise are confused───→here4.39───→7.14Cross the maya

Gauravmodernchaplaincy_kit_of_tools

Chaplaincy Kit Of Toolsbetween

4.34Paramparā / direct transmission. 'Tad viddhi pranipatena pariprashnena sevaya, u───→here4.39───→6.11Mudra and posture. 'Shuchau deshe pratishthapya sthiram asanam atmanah.' Establi

Gauravmoderninterfaith_cosmology

Interfaith Cosmologybetween

4.11'Ye yatha mam prapadyante tams tathaiva bhajamy aham.' As they approach me, so I───→here4.39───→7.21'Yo yo yam yam tanum bhaktah shraddhayarchitum ichchhati.' Whatever form the dev

Gauravmodernsanatana_dharma_101

Sanatana Dharma 101between

4.8'Paritranaya sadhunam vinashaya cha dushkritam, dharma-samsthapana-arthaya sambh───→here4.39───→9.27Dharma-as-offering pillar. 'Yat karoshi yad ashnasi yaj juhoshi dadasi yat.' Gau

RāmānujaclassicalD

Karma-yoga as kainkarya (worship)between

4.24Brahman the offering, Brahman the offerer.───→here4.39───→6.1The renouncer is the one who acts for Me.

RāmānujaclassicalG

Māyā is real causal powerbetween

4.6Self-power, not self-illusion.───→here4.39───→7.14Māyā is real wonder, not unreality.

RāmānujaclassicalH

Prapatti / śaraṇāgati — universal upāyabetween

4.11As they approach Me, so do I receive them.───→here4.39───→7.14Surrender alone crosses the māyā.

VallabhaclassicalA

Two paths — rule-bound and grace-onlybetween

4.11Each soul takes the path Krishna assigns to it.───→here4.39───→9.4The Lord pervades all, yet stays untouched.

VallabhaclassicalD

Chapter-opening preludesbetween

4.1Four-verse prelude names avatāra-līlā.───→here4.39───→5.1Single-verse prelude sets sannyāsa-yoga eka.

VallabhaclassicalG

The Lord plays — calf-affection, not contractbetween

4.8A mother chastising her child is no cruelty.───→here4.39───→7.1The play-Person of every form opens chapter 7.

Ekrasmodernmeditation

Meditation — the dhyāna tourapproach · v2

───→here4.39───→6.10Solitary seat

RāmānujaclassicalC

Three ṣaṭkas (1–6 / 7–12 / 13–18)approach

───→here4.39───→5.1A four-clause summary of all of 2 through 4.

VallabhaclassicalK

Aphorism, gloss, full commentaryapproach

───→here4.39───→6.47Six chapters of aphorism close at this verse.

Ekrasmodernfamily_conflict

Family Conflictexit · other

2.8No grief-remover I see───→here4.39───→

Gauravmoderneminem_dsm_arjuna

Eminem Dsm Arjunaexit

2.11'Ashochyan anvashochas tvam prajna-vadamsh cha bhashase.' You grieve those not t───→here4.39───→

JayatīrthaclassicalD

Saṅgati declared at the head of every adhyāyabetween

4.1Three blocks named at the chapter head.───→here4.39───→6.1Karma-yoga is outer; samādhi-yoga inner.

JayatīrthaclassicalE

Vishnu-sarvottamatva read into apparently neutral wordsbetween

4.11Mām is Viṣṇu, not generic absolute.───→here4.39───→7.5Higher prakṛti is Śrī, not the eight-fold.

JayatīrthaclassicalF

Bhakti-tāratamya: gradation among devotees, gradation in fruitbetween

4.11Fruit proportional to the service offered.───→here4.39───→7.21Other deities give what Viṣṇu permits.

ĀnandagiriclassicalF

Which karma? — fourfold typologybetween

4.18Action-in-inaction needs the typology.───→here4.39───→5.1Body-residue karma vs. fruit-bearing karma.

ĀnandagiriclassicalH

Phala-saṃkalpa is the only upādhibetween

4.18Action-in-inaction: the upādhi seen. Anchor.───→here4.39───→5.13All actions renounced by mind alone.

AbhinavaguptaclassicalB

Recognition, not additionbetween

4.14Recognize, do not learn — the verb shifts.───→here4.39───→7.24Failure of seeing, not absence of presence.

AbhinavaguptaclassicalD

Avatāra: appearance without departurebetween

4.13Four orders made by the one who stays equal.───→here4.39───→9.4He pervades, yet is not in any of it.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalD

Adhikāra — eligibility as architecture, not exceptionbetween

4.11'Yathā' is open; the verb is the gate.───→here4.39───→9.22Yoga-kṣemam: the Lord's work, not the seeker's caste.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalG

Three yogas — three angles on one configurationbetween

4.33Knowledge-rite outranks mere material rites.───→here4.39───→5.4Whoever sees them as one, sees rightly.

MadhusūdanaclassicalG

Knowing and acting cannot run togetherbetween

4.34Approach a knower; knowing is not earned by action.───→here4.39───→5.1Neither combined, nor optionally substituted.

Śabda · lemmas (11 unique · 13 occurrences)

लभते √labh — to obtain, get (verbal root) · present indicative 3rd person singular verb
लब्ध्वा labh — to obtain, get (verbal root) · conv
शान्तिम् śānti — peace, tranquillity (from √śam) · accusative feminine singular noun
अचिरेण acireṇa — soon, quickly (instr. of acira) · also at 12.5

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ज्ञानम् jñāna ×2 — knowledge, wisdom, cognition · accusative neuter singular noun
परः·पराम् para ×2 — highest, supreme, beyond, other · nominative masculine singular noun / accusative feminine singular noun
श्रद्धावान् śraddhāvat — endowed with faith (śraddhā + -vat 'possessor of') · nominative masculine singular noun
तद् tad — that (distal demonstrative); also 3rd-person pronoun · compound
संयत saṃ-√yam — to restrain (sam- + √yam 'restrain') · compound participle (compound member)
इन्द्रियः indriya — sense, sense-organ; the eleven indriyas (5 jñānendriyas + 5 karmendriyas + manas) · nominative masculine singular noun
अधिगच्छति adhi-√gam — (adhi- + gam: to go) · present indicative 3rd person singular verb

Praśna · so what (7)

01If śraddhā is the necessary precondition for jñāna, what distinguishes it from mere belief or docile acceptance — and how does the sādhaka cultivate it without first having the jñāna that would confirm its object?
02Śaṅkara and Madhusūdana both insist that praṇipāta and outer observances are 'contingent' (anaikāntika) while śraddhā is 'certain' (aikāntika) — what does this imply for communities that over-index on ritual compliance as the primary criterion for discipleship?

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03The verse promises acireṇa — swiftness — once jñāna is secured. Does this create a false expectation of sudden liberation, or is Kṛṣṇa making a structural claim that once the cause is complete the effect cannot be delayed?
04Rāmānuja introduces jñāna-vipāka — a ripened, mature form of knowledge — rather than knowledge as a single event. How does the model of gradual ripening challenge or complement the Advaita lamp-metaphor of instantaneous destruction of ignorance?
05Vallabha locates the guru's discriminating gaze on the disciple's śraddhā before transmission. What does this imply for pedagogical responsibility: is the teacher accountable for verifying the precondition, or is śraddhā self-certifying in the student?
06All six schools concur that indriya-saṃyama (sense-restraint) is not sufficient alone — it must be coupled with śraddhā and one-pointed intent. What does this say about ascetic practices divorced from faith and doctrinal engagement?
07If Madhva's reading is correct that śraddhā is downstream of Hari's anugraha (grace) rather than an autonomous human faculty, does the verse shift from a description of sādhana to a description of what grace looks like from the inside?

Vyavahāra · try it in your life

Advaita

When studying a difficult philosophical text or sitting with a mentor whose teaching challenges your assumptions, notice whether you are holding the material with śraddhā — pramā-rūpa āstikya, genuine epistemic trust — or with the defensive skepticism that forecloses inquiry. Śaṅkara's point is that outer compliance (asking the right questions, attending class) is anaikāntika; the inner orientation of trusting the teaching enough to sit with it is the actual lever. Practice by choosing one proposition from a trusted teacher and dwelling with it single-pointedly for a week before judging it.

Viśiṣṭādvaita

Rāmānuja's jñāna-vipāka model suggests that understanding ripens over time when held in the right conditions. In a relationship — professional mentorship, parenting, friendship — the lesson is that trust (śraddhā) and dedicated attention (tat-paraḥ) must precede comprehension, not follow it. When you are learning something you do not yet understand, ask: have I actually committed myself to this teaching long enough for it to ripen, or have I evaluated it prematurely? The paramā śānti available here is the peace of a skill or understanding that has settled into competence.

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Dvaita

In Madhva's frame, the recognition that you are āśrita (dependent) rather than svatantra (independent) is itself the content of the jñāna this verse promises. The everyday practice is this: before any significant decision, pause and acknowledge the limits of your autonomy — not as self-deprecation but as accurate ontology. Śraddhā here is trust in a reality larger than your own will. The practical discipline is to routinely locate yourself as a participant in a system (family, institution, cosmos) rather than its author — and to act from that location.

Śuddhādvaita

Vallabha's reading spotlights śraddhā as receptivity to grace rather than an effort one generates. In daily life this translates to the practice of active surrender before beginning any creative or devotional work: instead of asking 'what do I know?' ask 'what is already available through this channel if I stay open?' The citta-upaśama (mind-stilling) promised is not achieved by force but by allowing the śakti already present to settle. Try beginning one task a day with thirty seconds of deliberate receptivity — śraddhā as posture — before engaging.

Bhakti

Śrīdhara's structural point — karma-yoga for purification before jñāna; after jñāna nothing further required — maps cleanly onto stages of learning in any domain. In a professional or creative discipline, there is a phase of disciplined practice (karma-yoga for śuddhi) where showing up consistently, doing the boring work, and building foundational skill is non-negotiable. There is a later phase where a genuine insight reorganizes everything and the prior scaffolding drops away. Resist the temptation to skip the purification phase; resist equally the temptation to keep practicing the scaffolding after the insight has landed.

Advaita-Bhakti

Madhusūdana's lamp metaphor is the everyday anchor: a lit lamp requires no further act to dispel darkness — the dispelling is simultaneous with the arising. When a genuine insight occurs (about a relationship, a pattern, a belief you have held), do not then ask 'what must I now do to make it stick?' The insight is the event; it does its own work. The practical implication: stop rehearsing conclusions you have already genuinely reached. Madhusūdana explicitly rejects prasaṃkhyāna (repeated contemplative reinforcement) as unnecessary once true jñāna has arisen — trust the lamp.

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 4, Verse 39: Krishna to Arjuna — Jñāna-Karma-Sannyāsa-Yoga