BG 6.28 — Dhyāna-Yoga — Sūtrakṛt-Gītā

Bhagavad Gītā 6.28Chapter 6 · Dhyāna-Yoga · Krishna → Arjuna · anuṣṭubh

युञ्जन्नेवं सदात्मानं योगी विगतकल्मषः ।

सुखेन ब्रह्मसंस्पर्शमत्यन्तं सुखमश्नुते ॥

yuñjann evaṃ sadātmānaṃ yogī vigata-kalmaṣaḥ

sukhena brahma-saṃsparśam atyantaṃ sukham aśnute

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

meaning

The yogī who keeps disciplining the self this way, purified of all impurity, easily reaches the touch of Brahman and tastes a bliss without limit.

ekras · bhāṣya

The yogi who continuously yokes the self in this way, vigata-kalmasha, attains brahma-samsparsha — the touch of Brahman — easily, and tastes a bliss without limit. Sukhena is the verse's quietest emphasis. The fruit is not extracted by force; it arrives easily once the conditions hold.

Shankara reads brahma-samsparsha precisely: that bliss whose very constitution is the touch of the supreme Brahman — not a relationship with an other, but identity without remainder. Sukhena is therefore not relative ease compared to other paths; it is the natural mode of arrival when the inner instrument has been cleared. Vigata-kalmasha is the structural prerequisite, not a separate virtue.

Madhusudana clarifies the inner mechanism. The yogi vigata-kalmasha — free of samsara-causing dharma and adharma — attains brahma-samsparsha through Ishvara-pranidhana, surrender to the Lord, which removes all obstacles. He provides the classical taxonomy of the nine yogic obstacles from Patanjali: vyadhi, styana, samshaya, pramada, alasya, avirati, bhranti-darshana, alabdha-bhumikatva, anavasthitatva. Each is the friction that the path of surrender dissolves.

Ramanuja reads brahma-samsparsha as brahma-anubhava-rupa sukha — bliss whose form is the direct experience of Brahman. The yogi who has shed prachina-samasta-kalmasha, the entire past-impurity, enjoys this bliss aparimita, without measure, attained sukhena, with ease.

Madhva notes that this verse simply prapanchayati — unfolds — what 6.27 already stated, restating to fill out the description with the texture of arrival.

Vallabha reads atmanam as manas: the yogi who sarvatmana — wholly — dedicates the manas to Brahman, leaving no impurity, attains brahma-samsparsha as direct sakshatkara of akshara-Brahman.

Context

where

Chapter 6 · Dhyāna-Yoga · meter anuṣṭubh

who speaks

Krishna → Arjuna

preceded by — BG 6.27

Supreme happiness comes on its own to the yogin whose mind is stilled, whose restlessness has quieted, who stands free of stain, established in Brahman.

What's going on

The yogī who keeps disciplining the self this way, purified of all impurity, easily reaches the touch of Brahman and tastes a bliss without limit.

Sūtras through this verse (63)

RamsukhdasclassicalA

What binds you (and how to let go)between

6.1True renouncing acts; drops the inner hook.───→here6.28───→7.30Hold the Lord through every layer of life.

RāmānujaclassicalB

The śāstra is one bracket (2.12 → 18.66)between

2.39Practice seam begins.───→here6.28───→6.46The yogi outranks every other path.

MadhvaclassicalT2

Soul depends on Lord — the gap that does not closebetween

6.9Souls differ by nature not by accident alone.───→here6.28───→13.23Soul and Lord coexist in the body, not as one.

show all 63

Madhusūdanaclassicalmadhusudan_bhagavad_arpana

Madhusudan Bhagavad Arpanabetween · other

6.1Renouncer and yogi together───→here6.28───→9.22Yogakshema as offering returned

MadhusūdanaclassicalB

Different students need different teachingsbetween

6.1The renouncer and yogi are one under two views.───→here6.28───→7.16Four kinds of devotee, ranked by ripeness.

MadhusūdanaclassicalC

Action purifies before knowing can landbetween

6.1Renouncing too lives by purity of mind.───→here6.28───→16.1The dispositions decide who can even begin.

MadhusūdanaclassicalD

Offer the act to the Lord and it stops bindingbetween

6.1The fruit-unattached one is yogi and renouncer.───→here6.28───→9.22The undivided ones the Lord himself sustains.

MadhusūdanaclassicalG

Knowing and acting cannot run togetherbetween

6.1Calling a karma-yogi 'renouncer' is only a courtesy.───→here6.28───→18.1At the very end, the line still holds.

MadhusūdanaclassicalI

Liberation while alive — the body finishes its runbetween

3.1The architecture ends in living-liberation, then bodily.───→here6.28───→6.46The yogi with mind-stilled stands above mere knowing.

MadhusūdanaclassicalE

Devotion is how knowing actually arrivesapproach

───→here6.28───→7.1The chapter elaborates the prior bhajana-line.

MadhusūdanaclassicalF

Every middle chapter opens with a bow to the teacherapproach

───→here6.28───→7.1A bow to the bliss-cloud, Nanda's son, opens seven.

RamsukhdasclassicalB

This human birth — your one chance to actbetween

3.8Even keeping the body alive requires action.───→here6.28───→6.40A fallen seeker still keeps the human birth.

RamsukhdasclassicalC

Desire is the root — not actionbetween

6.24Renounce every desire born of will.───→here6.28───→18.49Free of longing everywhere — same goal.

RamsukhdasclassicalG

Equanimity in everythingbetween

6.8Clay, stone, and gold are all level to him.───→here6.28───→6.32Sees others' pain and joy as his own.

RamsukhdasclassicalH

All paths arrive at the same roombetween

5.4Insight and practice are not two paths.───→here6.28───→6.46The lover outranks every other yogi.

RamsukhdasclassicalK

The body is not yoursbetween

6.3Body, senses, and mind: none of them yours.───→here6.28───→13.20Nature causes the act; you only experience.

Ramsukhdasclassical

Sādhaka Sañjīvanī commentary at this versebetween

───→here6.28───→

RamsukhdasclassicalI

The Lord already inside the heartapproach

───→here6.28───→6.30See Me everywhere, I am never lost.

RāmānujaclassicalC

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

6.1The renouncer and yogi are the same person.───→here6.28───→7.1Open the second ṣaṭka: mind clung to Me.

RāmānujaclassicalD

Karma-yoga as kainkarya (worship)between

6.1The renouncer is the one who acts for Me.───→here6.28───→9.27Whatever you do, do it as offering.

MadhvaclassicalT3

Ranking is real — and it never collapsesbetween

6.9Devas, asuras, mortals are three native kinds.───→here6.28───→14.27Brahman has gradations within its own form.

MadhvaclassicalT6

Citation is the spine — texts carry the loadbetween

6.6Maitrāyaṇī defines the stilled mind.───→here6.28───→7.5Doubled prakṛti named from a single śruti.

MadhvaclassicalT7

Action and knowledge — never rivalsbetween

6.1The renouncer and yogi are one person, two names.───→here6.28───→18.2The ritualists' śruti fixes the closing definition.

MadhvaclassicalT8

Direct vision — the only proximate causebetween

6.7The stilled mind sees the seated supreme self.───→here6.28───→6.46The five-rung ladder ends in love, not knowledge.

MadhvaclassicalT9

Devotion and grace — what knowledge cannot do alonebetween

2.72Many lives of bhakti precede the final crossing.───→here6.28───→6.30Devotion brings what the seeker cannot earn.

MadhvaclassicalT12

Closure by gloss — the small repertoirebetween

6.20'Self' here is not soul but the Lord within.───→here6.28───→6.32'Self' as mind, not soul, when symmetry is needed.

VallabhaclassicalC

Drop the doer, not the deedbetween

6.1Real renouncing keeps the act alive.───→here6.28───→18.1The closing chapter reopens this question.

VallabhaclassicalD

Chapter-opening preludesbetween

6.1Prelude binds yoga to puṣṭi-bhakti.───→here6.28───→7.1Seven-verse prelude opens the bhakti-ṣaṭka.

VallabhaclassicalE

Three paths, one teaching orderbetween

6.1The two paths are one through fruit-renouncing act.───→here6.28───→6.46The lover outranks the wise and the disciplined.

VallabhaclassicalH

Stilling the mind — into the Lordbetween

2.48Yoga itself is just sameness of mind.───→here6.28───→6.46The yogi closing the ṣaṭka is a mind-stiller.

RāmānujaclassicalA

World as the Lord's body (antaryāmin)approach

───→here6.28───→7.4Two natures of the Lord: matter and selves.

RāmānujaclassicalE

Bhakti as continuous recollectionapproach

───→here6.28───→7.17I am dearest to him.

RāmānujaclassicalF

Two prakṛtis · jīva as eternal aṃśaapproach

───→here6.28───→7.4Lower nature: matter.

RāmānujaclassicalJ

Śeṣa-śeṣī · pati-vrata simileapproach

───→here6.28───→7.18He is My self; I cannot hold without him.

VallabhaclassicalB

Grace alone — the technical markapproach

───→here6.28───→7.18The wise one is Myself, by grace alone.

VallabhaclassicalK

Aphorism, gloss, full commentaryapproach

───→here6.28───→6.47Six chapters of aphorism close at this verse.

Gauravmodernchaplaincy_kit_of_tools

Chaplaincy Kit Of Toolsbetween

6.11Mudra and posture. 'Shuchau deshe pratishthapya sthiram asanam atmanah.' Establi───→here6.28───→9.26Puja and havan. 'Patram pushpam phalam toyam yo me bhaktya prayachchhati.' Whoev

Gauravmoderncivilizational_air_conditioning

Civilizational Air Conditioningbetween

6.5'Uddhared atmanatmanam natmanam avasadayet.' Lift yourself by yourself, do not l───→here6.28───→16.21'Tri-vidham narakasyedam dvaram nashanam atmanah, kamah krodhas tatha lobhah.' T

Gauravmodernheart_leadership

Heart Leadershipbetween

6.7'Jitatmanah prashantasya paramatma samahitah.' For the self-conquered, in-peace,───→here6.28───→6.35'Asamshayam maha-baho mano durnigraham chalam, abhyasena tu Kaunteya vairagyena

Gauravmodernthree_yogas_braid

Three Yogas Braidbetween

5.5'Yat sankhyaih prapyate sthanam tad yogair api gamyate.' The place reached by sa───→here6.28───→6.46'Tapasvibhyo'dhiko yogi jnanibhyo'pi mato'dhikah, karmibhyash chadhiko yogi tasm

Gauravmodernwitness_self_neti_neti

Witness Self Neti Netibetween

6.20'Yatroparamate chittam niruddham yoga-sevaya, yatra chaivatmana'tmanam pashyann ───→here6.28───→6.29'Sarva-bhuta-stham atmanam sarva-bhutani cha'tmani, ikshate yoga-yuktatma sarvat

ĀnandagiriclassicalB

Three hexads = tat tvam asibetween

2.1First hexad opens, tvam-pada implicit.───→here6.28───→6.46Inner-self hexad closes; pivot prepared.

ĀnandagiriclassicalC

Adhikāra: seeker vs. fulfilledbetween

5.1Two saṃnyāsas: fruit and means.───→here6.28───→6.46Yogin vs. jñānin: not synonyms.

ĀnandagiriclassicalK

Upasaṃhāra — recap as instrumentbetween

2.39Wisdom section wound up here.───→here6.28───→6.46Dhyāna section sealed: yogin is supreme.

ĀnandagiriclassicalI

Bhakti carries jñāna, never parallelapproach

───→here6.28───→7.1Upāsya and tat-pada in apposition. Anchor.

ĀnandagiriclassicalJ

Prakṛti is never autonomousapproach

───→here6.28───→7.4Two-fold prakṛti is the Lord's own power.

Śaṅkaraclassicalshankara_jnana_nishtha

Shankara Jnana Nishthabetween · other

6.1Soft sense of renouncer───→here6.28───→18.49Naishkarmya-siddhi by sannyāsa

ŚaṅkaraclassicalB

Knowledge alone, with all action laid downbetween

6.1The fire-keeper is renouncer only in a soft sense.───→here6.28───→18.49Action-freedom comes from full renunciation.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalF

Saṅgati — anticipation-and-resolutionbetween

3.1Arjuna's question resolves 2.49's hint.───→here6.28───→6.47Top-yogin clause — the chapter-7 hinge.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalG

Three yogas — three angles on one configurationbetween

6.1The renouncer and yogi are one figure.───→here6.28───→6.46The yogi outranks tapasvi, jñāni, karmin.

ŚrīdharaclassicalL

Chapter prefaces as the bhāṣya's spinebetween

6.1Pure mind is not yet release: now meditate.───→here6.28───→8.1Now, the questions of Brahman and self.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalI

The lover and the knower are one personapproach

───→here6.28───→7.16Of the four devotees, the knower is dearest.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalB

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

───→here6.28───→7.14Those who take refuge cross the māyā.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalI

9.24 — the standing citation for ārādhyaapproach

───→here6.28───→7.21Deity-worship: His self-arrangement of grace.

ŚrīdharaclassicalC

Devotion is both the way and the homeapproach

───→here6.28───→6.47Be a devotee: that is the meaning.

ŚrīdharaclassicalH

The grammar of single-pointednessapproach

───→here6.28───→7.14Undivided love crosses the great mist.

ŚrīdharaclassicalK

Death-memory as the test of daily habitapproach

───→here6.28───→8.5Whoever remembers Me at the last reaches Me.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalG

After knowing, act only to hold the worldexit

5.8I do nothing at all, says the knower.───→here6.28───→

Ekrasmodernmeditation

Meditation — the dhyāna tourbetween · v2

6.25Slowly, slowly───→here6.28───→6.29Self in all beings

Ekrasmodernvairagya

Vairāgya — dispassion as instrumentbetween · v2

6.4Renounced in resolve───→here6.28───→6.35Practice and dispassion

Ekrasmodernbhakti

Bhakti — devotion pathapproach · v2

───→here6.28───→7.16Four kinds of bhakta

JayatīrthaclassicalC

Refuting Śaṅkara-style readings, named or unnamedbetween

6.1Householder is not figurative saṁnyāsin.───→here6.28───→7.13Why this declaration? The gloss must answer.

JayatīrthaclassicalD

Saṅgati declared at the head of every adhyāyabetween

6.1Karma-yoga is outer; samādhi-yoga inner.───→here6.28───→7.1First ṣaṭka closed; new pratijñā opens.

Śabda · lemmas (12 unique · 13 occurrences)

सुखेन·सुखम् sukha ×2 — happiness, pleasure, ease · instrumental neuter singular noun / accusative neuter singular noun
योगी yogin — yogi (yoga + -in 'possessor of') · nominative masculine singular noun
युञ्जन् √yuj — to yoke, join, engage in (verbal root) · nominative masculine singular present participle verb · also at 6.15, 7.1
अश्नुते √aś — to eat / to pervade (verbal root, two homophonous roots) · present indicative 3rd person singular verb
विगत vi-√gam — to depart (vi- + √gam 'go') · compound participle (compound member)
कल्मषः kalmaṣa — stain, sin, impurity · nominative masculine singular noun

show all 12

एवम् evam — thus, in this way
सदा sadā — always, ever
आत्मानम् ātman — the Self, soul; one's own self · accusative masculine singular noun
ब्रह्म brahman — Brahman (the Absolute); also: the Veda; sacred utterance · compound · also at 1.1, 2.72, 3.14, 3.15, 4.21, 4.24 +40
संस्पर्शम् saṃsparśa — contact, touching (sam- + √spṛś) · accusative masculine singular noun
अत्यन्तम् atyanta — absolute, excessive (ati + anta) · accusative neuter singular noun

Praśna · so what (7)

01Śaṅkara uses 'vyāpnoti' (pervades) rather than 'prāpnoti' (reaches) — does this grammatical choice signal that the yogī does not travel toward bliss but recognizes an identity that was always already the case?
02Six commentators converge on 'sukhena anāyāsena' (effortlessly) — what does it mean that the supreme human attainment arrives without effort, and what has all the prior discipline been doing if not producing effort?

show all 7

03Madhva's near-silence on this verse (one sentence of forward-reference) raises a question: is brahma-saṃsparśa in the Dvaita framework a genuinely distinct experiential category, or does Dvaita's ontology of eternal difference make the verse's language structurally awkward?
04Vallabha glosses 'ātmānam' as 'manaḥ' — is the substitution doctrinally motivated (protecting the jīva's distinctness from being the object of yoga) or grammatically defensible on its own terms?
05Madhusūdana cites the Yoga-Sūtra nine-obstacle list at length inside a Gītā commentary — what does the cross-tradition import signal about the genre boundaries of bhāṣya, and is this a resource or a dilution?
06Both Śrīdhara and Vallabha call the result jīvan-mukti ('living liberation') while Śaṅkara calls it brahmaika-tva-darśana ('vision of Brahman-oneness') — are these the same state named differently or genuinely different soteriological claims?
07The verse's krama (sequence) presupposes vigata-kalmaṣa (purity) as prerequisite for brahma-saṃsparśa — all six schools assume purification precedes contact. What does this consensus about moral prerequisite imply for the relationship between ethics and mysticism in the Gītā's framework?

Vyavahāra · try it in your life

Advaita

When a practitioner notices that meditation has become something they are 'doing,' the Advaita reading of this verse is corrective: the text says the impurity goes (vigata-kalmaṣa) and bliss simply pervades (aśnute as vyāpnoti). In practical terms this means: stop treating samādhi as an achievement to be manufactured. Use sitting practice to remove what is covering the natural stillness — sankalpas, reactive patterns, self-comparison — and then simply remain. The bliss is not a reward; it is what remains when the effort to become has quieted.

Viśiṣṭādvaita

Rāmānuja's reading relocates this verse from the meditation cushion to the relational life. Brahma-anubhava-rūpa sukha is not a private inner state but the felt quality of being in Bhagavān's presence — which includes one's family, work, and community insofar as they are seen as His body. The everyday application: when dealing with any person or situation today, try seeing it explicitly as locus-of-Bhagavān. The 'ease' (anāyāsena) Rāmānuja emphasises comes from releasing the friction of treating the world as separate from what you love.

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Dvaita

The Dvaita emphasis on the jīva's eternal dependence (pāratantrya) on Hari makes this verse a reminder about the category of action. The yogī attaining brahma-saṃsparśa is not self-made; the bliss is Hari's anugraha arriving when obstacles are cleared. Applied daily: before any significant work, name the dependence explicitly — not as self-deprecation but as accurate metaphysics. Then act. The clarity that comes from not crediting oneself for results is itself a form of the vigata-kalmaṣa the verse requires.

Śuddhādvaita

Vallabha's lokottara (world-transcending) bliss and jīvan-mukti reading suggests an unusual daily practice: treat ordinary sensory pleasure as a pointer rather than an endpoint. When you taste something excellent, notice the quality of wholeness briefly accessible there — and then notice how quickly it forecloses. Vallabha's brahma-saṃsparśa is the contact where that foreclosure does not happen. The everyday application is a kind of comparative phenomenology: use small pleasures as calibration instruments for recognizing what boundless (aparimita) actually means.

Bhakti

Śrīdhara's identification of brahma-saṃsparśa with avidyā-removal points to the place where bhakti and inquiry meet. Practically: in conversations where you find yourself defending a fixed self-image, Śrīdhara's reading asks whether that defense is the very avidyā being named. The yogī's manas yuñjan ('yoking the mind') is not suppression but steady noticing. Each time the story of 'who I am' is questioned and survived, a layer of kalmaṣa goes. Fulfilment (kṛtārthatā) in this framework is not an event but an accumulating transparency.

Advaita-Bhakti

Madhusūdana's nine-obstacle taxonomy is directly practical: before blaming distraction on external conditions, run through the list — is today's difficulty vyādhi (physical imbalance), styāna (inertia), avirati (craving for a specific sense-object), or anavasthitatva (inability to stay even when the state is reached)? The diagnosis changes the remedy. More importantly, his prescription — īśvara-praṇidhāna (surrender-to-the-Lord) as the master antidote to all nine — translates to: when the obstacle is correctly identified but feels immovable, release the agenda of fixing it and refer the whole situation to something larger than personal will.

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 6, Verse 28: Krishna to Arjuna — Dhyāna-Yoga