Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 5, Verse 27: Krishna to Arjuna — Karma-Sannyāsa-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Sound, touch, and the rest — sense-objects (viṣayāḥ) that have crept inward through the ear and eye — are cast back outside by simply refusing to think them. The gaze is held in the space between the brows (bhruvoḥ antare), and the two breaths, prāṇa and apāna, which travel within the nostrils (nāsābhyantara-cāriṇau), are equalized — not as an end in themselves but as the outer scaffolding for the true work: restraining senses, mind, and buddhi (yatendriyamanobuddhiḥ) so that the muni, the one who broods on liberation alone, stands already free. For Śaṅkara these are merely preparatory rungs; the real gate is jñāna, and the muktaḥ who keeps desire, fear, and anger absent is not approaching freedom — he is freedom.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Seated erect on the proper āsana, the yogin withdraws every outward sense-function (bāhyendriyavyāpāra), positions the gaze at the tip of the nose inside the brow-arch (nāsāgre bhruvoḥ antare), and makes prāṇa and apāna move at equal pace (samau kṛtvā) — inbreath and outbreath leveled so that the attention, no longer stolen by contact (sparśa), can rest without interruption on the ātman (ātmāvalokanāt anyatra pravṛttyanarha). Rāmānuja insists the purpose is not mere trance but sustained self-vision (ātmāvalokanśīla) that qualifies the worshipper for bhakti-yoga and ultimately for Bhagavān's grace; the yogin in the sādhana-stage is already as free as one in the siddha-stage.

• Madhvadvaita

  Madhva reads these half-verses as a precise technical prescription for dhyāna-yoga: the ear and other sense-organs are controlled (niyamya) by yoga so that external contacts (bāhyān sparśān) are literally held outside; the eye is fixed at the midpoint of the brows (bhruvoḥ madhyam avalokayan); and prāṇa-apāna are equalized in kumbhaka — the breath-retention stage (kumbhake sthitatvam) — just as the canon prescribes (nāsāgre vā bhruvoḥ madhye dhyānī cakṣur nidhāpayet). For Madhva the jīva is eternally distinct from Hari; every technical step of this yoga is an act of dependent worship, not a path to identity with Brahman.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha situates these two verses as the compact (samāsa) display of the yoga already announced at 5.24 — a yoga that, when rooted in Īśvara (Īśvarālambanayoga), ripens across many births into bhakti. External sense-objects (rūparasa and the rest) penetrate inward only through mental dwelling on them; withdrawing that dwelling (taccintātyāga) is what 'casting them outside' means. The half-closed eye (ardhoṇmīlita-locana) placed at the brow-centre, and prāṇa-apāna held in kumbhaka (kumbhayitvā) by way of prāṇāyāma-mime, serve to one-point the mind — but the goal is not yogic siddhi; it is moksaparāyaṇatā oriented entirely toward the Lord (para Īśvara tadālambana), so that the practitioner lives already liberated (jīvanmukta) within the world.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Śrīdhara explains that external sense-objects, already transformed into inner mental impressions (antaḥ praviṣṭāḥ) by the very act of thinking them, are evicted by abandoning that thinking (taccintātyāga). The gaze is placed at the brow-midpoint (bhrūmadhye) in the half-closed posture (ardhanimilana) — complete closure causes laya-sleep, full opening scatters the mind outward, so the middle position alone avoids both faults. Two interpretations of prāṇa-apāna equalization are offered: either the upward and downward breaths are arrested in kumbhaka (kumbhayitvā), or they are slowed so gently that both apāna and prāṇa wander only within the nostrils, neither entering deep nor escaping far — the nostril itself becomes the whole territory of breath.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusūdana situates 5.27–28 as the sūtra-verse for the entire sixth chapter, a dense seed that the chapter will unpack: these three ślokas compress karma-yoga → vairāgya → dhyāna-yoga → tattva-jñāna into a single arc. External objects penetrate only by force of rāga (attachment); vairāgya alone expels them (bāhyān iti viśeṣaṇam). The half-closed eye (ardhanimilana) is a five-fold citta-vṛtti remedy — full closure breeds laya (the sleep-modification), full opening breeds the four active vṛttis of distraction; the brow-midpoint posture cuts all five. Prāṇa-apāna kumbhaka cuts off upward and downward movement (ūrdhvādho-gati-viccheda), completing the inner withdrawal so that the muni — the one given to manana — lives at every moment as mukta, not approaching but already arrived.