Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 6, Verse 16: Krishna to Arjuna — Dhyāna-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Śaṅkara reads nāty-aśnataḥ through the Śatapatha-śruti rule: ātma-saṃmita (body-commensurate) food sustains without harming; excess produces ajīrṇa (indigestion) that disorders the inner instrument required for samādhi. The yoga-śāstra's fourfold partition — half the stomach for food, a quarter for water, a quarter left empty for vāyu (vital breath) — is the operative measure; transgressing it upward or downward equally forecloses dhāraṇā. Excessive sleep diffuses the antaḥkaraṇa (inner organ) in tamasic inertia; excessive wakefulness agitates it in rajas; only the yukta-mātra (measured mean) keeps the citta transparent enough for jñāna's light.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Rāmānuja lists four paired extremes — ati-aśana/anaśana (overeating/fasting), ati-vihāra/avihāra (excessive movement/immobility), ati-svapna/ati-jāgara (excessive sleep/wakefulness), ati-āyāsa/anāyāsa (excessive exertion/lassitude) — each as a virodhin (obstructing factor) to yoga-sādhana dedicated to Bhagavān. Because the sādhaka's body is the instrument of kainkarya (loving service) to Śrī-Viṣṇu, its impairment is not merely personal failure but a failure of bhakta-dharma. Regulated āhāra and vihāra are therefore themselves acts of devotion, preserving the body as Bhagavān's possession.

• Madhvadvaita

  Madhva frames the prohibitions contextually: the injunction against anaśana (fasting) applies to the aśakta (one incapable of sustained nirāhāra), not to the advanced sādhaka for whom the Nāradīya-smṛti prescribes open-eyed, motionless dhyāna free of sleep, food, fear, and breath-disturbance. For the śakta (capable one), complete cessation of bodily functions is the apex of yoga; for the common aspirant, measured āhāra keeps jīva-cetanā (individual consciousness) fit to worship Hari without the distraction of hunger or sloth. The distinction preserves Hari's absolute sovereignty: no rule overrides his grace, and incapacity is no dishonor.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha reads 6.16 paired with 6.17 as a single teaching: the verse first negates extremes (nāty-aśnataḥ) precisely to establish yukta-āhāra-vihāra as the condition under which yoga becomes duḥkha-hā (destroyer of suffering). In Puṣṭi-mārga, the body is Kṛṣṇa's instrument of līlā-anubhava (experience of divine play); its nourishment must be neither the renunciant's mortification nor the enjoyer's indulgence, but exactly the prasāda-measure Kṛṣṇa himself would accept. Over- or under-feeding the body withdraws it from Kṛṣṇa's service as surely as a broken vīṇā (lute) cannot render rāga.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Śrīdhara reads the verse as a yogābhyāsa-niṣṭha (one established in yoga-practice) rule covering four conditions: aty-aśana (eating excessively), aikāntam-anaśana (absolute non-eating), ati-nidrā (chronic oversleeping), and ati-jāgara (chronic sleeplessness) each prevent samādhi from arising. His gloss is direct and philological — samādhi is the referent of yoga here, and the verse states conditions of impossibility rather than moral prohibition. The implied middle is the yukta-mātra, which he elaborates in 6.17 without further embellishment.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusūdana synthesizes the Śatapatha-śruti standard with the yoga-śāstra fourfold formula, grounding both in physiology: food that is digested and renders the body kārya-kṣama (functionally capable) is ātma-saṃmita; excess causes ajīrṇa-doṣa (digestive disorder) with its attendant vyādhi (disease), while deficiency causes rasa-poṣaṇa-abhāva (lack of vital-fluid nourishment) making the body kārya-akṣama (incapable). He then cites Mārkaṇḍeya-purāṇa to extend the principle to environmental conditions — extreme cold, heat, or wind equally obstruct the dhyāna-tatpara (meditation-intent) yogī. The double ca in the mūla points to two distinct sets of obstacles: the stated āhāra-nidrā extremes, and the unstated environmental extremes — a comprehensive topology of impediments to the Kṛṣṇa-bhakta's contemplative practice.