BG 5.23 — Karma-Sannyāsa-Yoga

Bhagavad Gītā 5.23Chapter 5 · Karma-Sannyāsa-Yoga · Krishna → Arjuna · anuṣṭubh

शक्नोतीहैव यः सोढुं प्राक् शरीरविमोक्षणात् ।

कामक्रोधोद्भवं वेगं स युक्तः स सुखी नरः ॥

śaknotīhaiva yaḥ soḍhuṃ prāk śarīra-vimokṣaṇāt

kāma-krodhodbhavaṃ vegaṃ sa yuktaḥ sa sukhī naraḥ

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

meaning

Whoever can endure the surge of desire and anger while still alive and embodied is a true yogi, and that person alone is happy.

ekras · bhāṣya

The verse names the test and the time of the test. "He who can endure the vega born of kama and krodha here, before the body is released — sa yuktah sa sukhi narah." Iha eva — here, in this body, in this life. Prak sharira-vimokshanat — before, not after, the body falls. The verse refuses to defer the test to a quieter time; the work happens in the embodiment that contains the surge.

Shankara is precise on the bodily marks of the surge. Krodha shows in flushed eyes and trembling limbs; kama shows in horripilation and bright glances. The vega is observable; the test is not interior in some unverifiable register.

Madhusudana mounts the most elaborate analysis. Kama is the habituated longing for agreeable objects seen, heard, or remembered. Krodha is the blazing aversion to disagreeable ones. Their vega is the moment when that intensity, grown river-flood-strong, sweeps even the unwilling person into the pit of sense-objects and carries them downward into great naraka. The verse names the man who can stand against that current while still in the body that is its proper instrument.

Ramanuja softens the doctrine. The endurance is not cold suppression; it is the natural outgrowth of tasting the atma's bliss. Desire and anger simply cannot find purchase where atma-anubhava has begun to deliver its quieter joy.

Madhva reads the verse in the frame of praising renunciation: the human embodiment is precisely the arena of testing where the surge is most testing, and the conquest at that station is what qualifies the seeker for higher loka.

Vallabha is precise on the alternative: if one tolerates the vega yet does not forsake the sadhana, that alone marks the yukta who will taste brahma-ananda; otherwise, the release that comes after death is not what this verse is naming.

Context

where

Chapter 5 · Karma-Sannyāsa-Yoga · meter anuṣṭubh

who speaks

Krishna → Arjuna

preceded by — BG 5.22

Pleasures born of sense-contact are wombs of sorrow, Arjuna, bounded by a beginning and an end; a wise person finds no delight in them.

What's going on

Whoever can endure the surge of desire and anger while still alive and embodied is a true yogi, and that person alone is happy.

Sūtras through this verse (63)

ŚaṅkaraclassicalB

Knowledge alone, with all action laid downbetween

5.13Lay down all acts in mind; sit at ease, body free.───→here5.23───→6.1The fire-keeper is renouncer only in a soft sense.

ĀnandagiriclassicalA

The two-niṣṭhā axisbetween

5.1Every clause tagged jñāna or karma.───→here5.23───→7.1First hexad ends, middle hexad opens.

RamsukhdasclassicalA

What binds you (and how to let go)between

5.12Drop the wish for fruit, not the fruit itself.───→here5.23───→5.29The Lord owns every act, never you.

show all 63

RamsukhdasclassicalC

Desire is the root — not actionstation · anchor

───→here5.23───→

Śaṅkaraclassicalshankara_jnana_nishtha

Shankara Jnana Nishthabetween · other

5.13Nine-gated city, all karma laid down───→here5.23───→6.1Soft sense of renouncer

ŚaṅkaraclassicalC

Knowledge plus action will not save youbetween

5.2Each path bears fruit by its own working.───→here5.23───→18.66The combined-path view named and dismantled.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalD

The fit student vs the unfit studentbetween

5.6Renunciation is hard without yoga first.───→here5.23───→18.41Each order's work is born of its own nature.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalE

Ignorance is the only enemybetween

5.13Body-self confusion is the only error.───→here5.23───→13.2One Self lights every body as one sun lights all.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalK

Liberation while still embodiedbetween

5.13Nine-gated city: body remains, doership does not.───→here5.23───→5.29Knowing Me, all wandering ceases at once.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalH

The Lord is friend of every beingapproach

───→here5.23───→5.29Friend of all beings, the witness of every act.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalI

The lover and the knower are one personapproach

───→here5.23───→7.16Of the four devotees, the knower is dearest.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalG

After knowing, act only to hold the worldexit

5.8I do nothing at all, says the knower.───→here5.23───→

Madhvaclassicalmadhva_pratibimba

Madhva Pratibimbabetween · other

5.14Two tiers of rulership───→here5.23───→9.9Like one detached, not actually

MadhvaclassicalT1

Hari is supreme — the running reading-rulebetween

5.7'Self of all beings' just means the Lord.───→here5.23───→8.3The 'imperishable Brahman' is the supreme person.

MadhvaclassicalT2

Soul depends on Lord — the gap that does not closebetween

5.14The soul rules the inert; the Lord rules the soul.───→here5.23───→6.9Souls differ by nature not by accident alone.

MadhvaclassicalT5

Mirror-and-image — how seeming-action worksbetween

5.14The Lord rules the modes; the soul rules the body.───→here5.23───→9.9He sits like one detached, not actually detached.

MadhvaclassicalT7

Action and knowledge — never rivalsbetween

5.1Renouncing isn't quitting the householder's life.───→here5.23───→6.1The renouncer and yogi are one person, two names.

MadhvaclassicalT8

Direct vision — the only proximate causebetween

5.16Mediated knowing is just the first step.───→here5.23───→6.7The stilled mind sees the seated supreme self.

MadhvaclassicalT12

Closure by gloss — the small repertoirebetween

5.7'Self of all' resolves to the Lord himself.───→here5.23───→6.20'Self' here is not soul but the Lord within.

Ekrasmodernanger_management

Endure the urgestation · other · station 6/7

───→here5.23───→

RamsukhdasclassicalC

Desire is the root — not actionstation

───→here5.23───→

Ekrasmodernkarma_yoga

Karma yoga — the apprentice pathbetween · v2

5.12Peace of the released───→here5.23───→18.46Work as worship

Ekrasmodernvairagya

Vairāgya — dispassion as instrumentbetween · v2

2.58Tortoise withdrawing───→here5.23───→5.27Senses excluded

Ekrasmodernparadox_of_doership

Paradox of doership — kartṛtvabetween · v2

5.14Lord neither acts nor causes───→here5.23───→13.20Prakriti causes, puruṣa enjoys

ĀnandagiriclassicalC

Adhikāra: seeker vs. fulfilledbetween

5.1Two saṃnyāsas: fruit and means.───→here5.23───→6.46Yogin vs. jñānin: not synonyms.

ĀnandagiriclassicalD

Praśna-bīja chapter openingsbetween

5.1Recap-then-question becomes the rule.───→here5.23───→7.1Lord answers a question Arjuna did not ask.

ĀnandagiriclassicalF

Which karma? — fourfold typologybetween

5.1Body-residue karma vs. fruit-bearing karma.───→here5.23───→18.1Tyāga and saṃnyāsa named distinct.

ĀnandagiriclassicalH

Phala-saṃkalpa is the only upādhibetween

5.13All actions renounced by mind alone.───→here5.23───→18.1Tyāga = renouncing the relationship.

MadhusūdanaclassicalA

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

5.1Two chapters settled action and knowing.───→here5.23───→7.1First six unfold 'you,' middle six unfold 'that.'

MadhusūdanaclassicalB

Different students need different teachingsbetween

5.1Not combined, not optional; distributed by fitness.───→here5.23───→6.1The renouncer and yogi are one under two views.

MadhusūdanaclassicalC

Action purifies before knowing can landbetween

5.1Action for the ignorant: purification's only door.───→here5.23───→6.1Renouncing too lives by purity of mind.

MadhusūdanaclassicalG

Knowing and acting cannot run togetherbetween

5.13The knower's body acts; the knower does not.───→here5.23───→6.1Calling a karma-yogi 'renouncer' is only a courtesy.

RamsukhdasclassicalG

Equanimity in everythingbetween

5.19A mind in equality has already won.───→here5.23───→6.8Clay, stone, and gold are all level to him.

RamsukhdasclassicalH

All paths arrive at the same roombetween

5.4Insight and practice are not two paths.───→here5.23───→6.46The lover outranks every other yogi.

RamsukhdasclassicalK

The body is not yoursbetween

5.8The knower thinks, 'I do nothing at all.'───→here5.23───→6.3Body, senses, and mind: none of them yours.

Ekrasmodernmeditation

Meditation — the dhyāna tourapproach · v2

───→here5.23───→6.10Solitary seat

Ekrasmodernbhakti

Bhakti — devotion pathapproach · v2

───→here5.23───→7.16Four kinds of bhakta

ĀnandagiriclassicalI

Bhakti carries jñāna, never parallelapproach

───→here5.23───→7.1Upāsya and tat-pada in apposition. Anchor.

ĀnandagiriclassicalJ

Prakṛti is never autonomousapproach

───→here5.23───→7.4Two-fold prakṛti is the Lord's own power.

MadhusūdanaclassicalE

Devotion is how knowing actually arrivesapproach

───→here5.23───→7.1The chapter elaborates the prior bhajana-line.

MadhusūdanaclassicalF

Every middle chapter opens with a bow to the teacherapproach

───→here5.23───→7.1A bow to the bliss-cloud, Nanda's son, opens seven.

RamsukhdasclassicalI

The Lord already inside the heartapproach

───→here5.23───→6.30See Me everywhere, I am never lost.

RāmānujaclassicalC

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

5.1A four-clause summary of all of 2 through 4.───→here5.23───→6.1The renouncer and yogi are the same person.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalA

The carama-śloka as retroactive bracketbetween

5.16Knowledge dispels what mā śucaḥ will close.───→here5.23───→9.24The receiver of all rites is named one verse.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalG

Three yogas — three angles on one configurationbetween

5.5The fruit of either is one and the same.───→here5.23───→6.1The renouncer and yogi are one figure.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalH

Mā śucaḥ — the inclusio of evolving griefbetween

5.16Knowledge-darkness cleared — not yet refuge.───→here5.23───→16.5Daivī-asuric grief closed mid-text.

VallabhaclassicalC

Drop the doer, not the deedbetween

5.1Arjuna asks the wrong question. first.───→here5.23───→6.1Real renouncing keeps the act alive.

VallabhaclassicalD

Chapter-opening preludesbetween

5.1Single-verse prelude sets sannyāsa-yoga eka.───→here5.23───→6.1Prelude binds yoga to puṣṭi-bhakti.

VallabhaclassicalE

Three paths, one teaching orderbetween

5.5Where one path goes, the other reaches too.───→here5.23───→6.1The two paths are one through fruit-renouncing act.

RāmānujaclassicalA

World as the Lord's body (antaryāmin)approach

───→here5.23───→7.4Two natures of the Lord: matter and selves.

RāmānujaclassicalE

Bhakti as continuous recollectionapproach

───→here5.23───→7.17I am dearest to him.

RāmānujaclassicalF

Two prakṛtis · jīva as eternal aṃśaapproach

───→here5.23───→7.4Lower nature: matter.

RāmānujaclassicalJ

Śeṣa-śeṣī · pati-vrata simileapproach

───→here5.23───→7.18He is My self; I cannot hold without him.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalB

Prapatti — bhakti's access for those the long path defeatsapproach

───→here5.23───→7.14Those who take refuge cross the māyā.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalI

9.24 — the standing citation for ārādhyaapproach

───→here5.23───→7.21Deity-worship: His self-arrangement of grace.

VallabhaclassicalB

Grace alone — the technical markapproach

───→here5.23───→7.18The wise one is Myself, by grace alone.

VallabhaclassicalK

Aphorism, gloss, full commentaryapproach

───→here5.23───→6.47Six chapters of aphorism close at this verse.

ŚrīdharaclassicalE

Inner cleansing reconciles work and knowingbetween

5.5See sāṅkhya and yoga as one — see truly.───→here5.23───→8.7Without a clean mind, steady remembrance fails.

ŚrīdharaclassicalL

Chapter prefaces as the bhāṣya's spinebetween

5.1Settling the doubt: renounce or work?───→here5.23───→6.1Pure mind is not yet release: now meditate.

ŚrīdharaclassicalC

Devotion is both the way and the homeapproach

───→here5.23───→6.47Be a devotee: that is the meaning.

ŚrīdharaclassicalH

The grammar of single-pointednessapproach

───→here5.23───→7.14Undivided love crosses the great mist.

Gauravmodernkarma_yoga_hand

Karma Yoga Handbetween

5.18Ring finger. Samadrishti. 'Vidya-vinaya-sampanne brahmane gavi hastini, shuni ch───→here5.23───→9.22Pinky finger. Shraddha, faith. Gaurav lands shraddha with the Sushma Swaraj six-

Gauravmodernthree_yogas_braid

Three Yogas Braidbetween

5.5'Yat sankhyaih prapyate sthanam tad yogair api gamyate.' The place reached by sa───→here5.23───→6.46'Tapasvibhyo'dhiko yogi jnanibhyo'pi mato'dhikah, karmibhyash chadhiko yogi tasm

Śabda · lemmas (16 unique · 17 occurrences)

सुखी sukhin — happy one; possessor of sukha · nominative masculine singular noun
युक्तः √yuj — to yoke, join, engage in (verbal root) · nominative masculine singular participle noun · also at 2.28, 3.26, 4.18, 5.12, 6.14, 15.14 +1
प्राक् prāk — before, eastward, formerly

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स tad ×2 — that (distal demonstrative); also 3rd-person pronoun · nominative masculine singular noun
शक्नोति √śak — to be able, can (verbal root) · present indicative 3rd person singular verb
इह iha — here, in this world, in this life
एव eva — indeed, truly, only (emphatic particle)
यः yad — which, who (relative pronoun) · nominative masculine singular noun
सोढुम् sah — to bear, endure (verbal root) · infinitive
शरीर śarīra — body · compound
विमोक्षणात् vimokṣaṇa — release, liberation (vi- + √muc) · ablative neuter singular noun
काम kāma — desire, lust, sensual pleasure · compound
क्रोध krodha — anger, wrath · compound · also at 1.34, 1.35, 2.56, 2.62, 2.63, 3.37 +10
उद्भवम् udbhava — origin, arising (ud- + bhava, from √bhū) · accusative masculine singular noun
वेगम् vega — force, impulse, rush · accusative masculine singular noun
नरः nara — man, human · nominative masculine singular noun

Praśna · so what (7)

01If the surge of kāma and krodhа is most powerful and most available for conquest in the human body specifically (Madhva's point), what does that imply about how we should regard ordinary daily provocations — as obstacles or as the actual training ground?
02Śaṅkara insists the vega never stops arising until death; Rāmānuja says ātmā-anubhava joy naturally displaces it. Are these two prescriptions compatible, or do they map onto different stages of the practitioner?

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03Madhusūdana compares unmastered vega to a monsoon flood carrying one into a pit against one's will — what does 'against one's will' reveal about the relationship between willpower, habit-conditioning, and genuine choice?
04Vallabha insists that liberation after bodily death without inner work during life is mechanically achieved and involves no puruṣakāra; does that framing change how you think about the motivation to practice?
05Śrīdhara's image of the corpse unmoved by weeping mourners is deliberately stark — at what point does non-reactivity become genuine equanimity versus emotional deadness, and how do the commentators distinguish them?
06All six schools agree the time-limit is 'before bodily dissolution' — why is embodiment the necessary and sufficient arena for this work, and what does that say about disembodied or post-mortem states?
07Madhusūdana explicitly says one who cannot master this surge is merely an 'animal in human form' — is that a motivational provocation or a precise ontological claim, and how does each school interpret the stakes of failure?

Vyavahāra · try it in your life

Advaita

When irritation flares in a meeting or craving spikes while scrolling, treat the bodily signal itself — tightened chest, heated face — as the data Śaṅkara catalogues (signs of the vega). Pause before any outward action; the pause is the sādhanā. No philosophical realization is accessible while the flood is running; the discipline is simply to not act during the surge.

Viśiṣṭādvaita

Rāmānuja's key is that restraint flows from tasting a superior pleasure — ātmā-anubhava — not from white-knuckled suppression. In practice: cultivate any activity (prayer, chanting, stillness in nature) that genuinely produces inner joy, and lean into that joy when desire or anger arises. The competing pleasure must be real, not conceptual.

show all 6

Dvaita

Madhva's framing places the weight on this human birth as the unrepeatable forge. Practically: do not defer the work of managing reactivity to a more convenient season of life. The difficulty of embodied provocation is the very feature that makes the conquest meaningful; easier conditions would not produce the same result.

Śuddhādvaita

Vallabha's emphasis on not abandoning the means (sādhanā) even while under the pressure of vega suggests a practical rule: whatever your chosen practice is — japa, seva, kirtan — maintain it on the difficult days especially. The measure of the practice is whether it holds under pressure; performing it only when calm tests nothing.

Bhakti

Śrīdhara's image of the corpse held by weeping mourners is a daily thought-experiment: before responding to someone's anger or seduction, ask 'what would the response look like if I had no stake in the outcome?' That imagined distance is not indifference — it is the quality he calls yukta (composed, fit). Run the thought-experiment before hitting send.

Advaita-Bhakti

Madhusūdana's flood metaphor points to a specific intervention window: the vega must be stopped before it 'spills outward into action' — meaning the inner flame has already risen but the limbs have not yet moved. That gap between feeling and action is the only space that is actually workable. Training attention on that gap — through breath, body-scan, or a single deliberate pause — is what he means by vairāgya born of seeing faults in the sense-object.

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 5, Verse 23: Krishna to Arjuna — Karma-Sannyāsa-Yoga