Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 6, Verse 14: Krishna to Arjuna — Dhyāna-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  The meditator whose inner organ (antaḥkaraṇa) is wholly calmed—whose fear has dissolved and who keeps the brahmacarya (celibacy-and-discipline) vow—should draw the mind's movements inward and remain seated with consciousness fixed on the Supreme Lord. Śaṅkara sharply distinguishes the rāgin whose mind follows a woman yet whose deepest allegiance is to some king or deity: this sādhaka's allegiance and awareness rest in Kṛṣṇa alone, mat-para (having Me as the highest). That non-dual absorption, not devotional sentiment, is the operative reality here.

  divergence: प्रकर्षेण शान्तः आत्मा अन्तःकरणं यस्य — the inner organ radically pacified; mnaḥ saṃyamya = vṛttis gathered back; mat-citta + mat-para distinguished by analogy to the rāgin.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Holding body, head, and neck steady and erect in supported stillness (sāpāśrayatayā sthiram), not glancing toward any direction but gazing at the tip of the nose, the sādhaka whose mind is utterly at rest (atyanta-nirvṛta-manāḥ) and who has shed fear should restrain the mind, abide absorbed in Me, and contemplate Me alone. For Rāmānuja the phrase mat-para carries weight: Bhagavān is the indwelling Inner Controller of the individual soul (jīva) which is His body, so abiding 'in Me' is the soul resting within its own proper locus.

  divergence: अत्यन्तनिर्वृतमनाः विगतभीः ब्रह्मचर्ययुक्तो — total tranquillity of mind, fearlessness, and celibacy-discipline as the triune preparation; māmeva cintayan āsīta = contemplate Me alone.

• Madhvadvaita

  Madhva's bhāṣya on 6.14 is compressed into a shared gloss spanning verses 6.12–6.14: 'yuñjyāt' (he should yoke) refers to samādhi-yoga, the disciplined concentration in which the jīva (eternally distinct soul) worships Hari. The brevity is deliberate—Madhva's polemical method identifies the binding fact: this yoga is not self-subsisting realisation but dependent alignment of the eternally separate soul toward Hari.

  divergence: योगं समाधियोगं युञ्ज्यात् — sparse combined gloss on 6.12–6.14; samādhi-yoga as the named discipline; bhāṣya detail for 6.14 specifically is absent in this panel corpus.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha reads 'praśānta-ātmā' through the lens of the Yoga-Sūtra: the sādhaka is free of the five kleśas (afflictions, including avidyā) because he has cultivated maitrī and the other citta-parikarmas. The phrase 'manaḥ saṃyamya mac-citta' describes samprajñāta-samādhi: the restrained mind becomes citta by transforming into the form of Vāsudeva (vāsudevādhiṣṭhitaṃ citta-rūpeṇa pariṇamate). Thus 'mat-citta' is not metaphor—it is the mind literally shaped by Kṛṣṇa's indwelling presence, and 'yuktaḥ mat-para āsīta' names the bhakti-bond that results.

  divergence: मैत्र्यादिचित्तपरिकर्म — citta-parikarma as antecedent; वासुदेवाधिष्ठितं चित्तरूपेण परिणमते — mind shaped into Vāsudeva-form; युक्तस्य भक्तिसम्बन्धित्वमुक्तम् — yuktatā as bhakti-bond.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Śrīdhara offers a clean grammatical unpacking: praśānta ('calmed') qualifies ātmā here as citta (mind-stuff); vigata-bhī is fearlessness; brahma-cāri-vrate sthitaḥ means established in the brahmacarya observance. Drawing the mind back inward (pratyāhṛtya), the sādhaka for whom I alone am the supreme puruṣārtha (mat-paraḥ) should remain seated thus united. The verse is read as disciplined sequence: calm → fearless → vow-keeping → withdrawal → absorption → Me-as-the-end.

  divergence: प्रशान्त आत्मा चित्तं यस्य — ātmā glossed as citta; मय्येव चित्तं — exclusive absorption; अहमेव परः पुरुषार्थो — I alone as the supreme aim.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusūdana opens with a precise psychological definition: 'praśānta' means the inner organ emptied of rāga and other defects through removal of their root causes (nidāna-nivṛtti); 'vigata-bhī' means the doubt—whether complete renunciation of action is compatible with yoga—has been resolved by firm scriptural conviction. He allows mat-citta to function toward Bhagavān either saguṇa or nirguṇa, quoting the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad ('preyaḥ putrāt…antarataraḥ') to show why Kṛṣṇa surpasses even sons or wealth as the object of deepest affection. Yukta (absorbed in samprajñāta-samādhi) means one should not rise of one's own will (na svecchayā vyuttiṣṭhet).

  divergence: निदाननिवृत्तरूपेण प्रकर्षेण शान्तो रागादिदोषरहित — root-cause removal; शास्त्रीयनिश्चयदार्ढ्याद्विगतभीः — fear dissolved by scriptural certainty; प्रेयः पुत्रात् BṚU quotation; न स्वेच्छया व्युत्तिष्ठेत् — no self-willed exit from samādhi.