Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 6, Verse 2: Krishna to ArjunaDhyāna-Yoga

Bhagavad Gītā 6.2Chapter 6 · Dhyāna-Yoga · KrishnaArjuna · Pāṇḍava · anuṣṭubh
यं संन्यासमिति प्राहुर् योगं तं विद्धि पाण्डव
न ह्यसंन्यस्तसंकल्पो योगी भवति कश्चन
yaṃyad(218 verses)accusative masculine singular nounwhich, who (relative pronoun) saṃnyāsamsaṃnyāsa(10 verses)accusative masculine singular nounrenunciation, casting off (sam- + ni- + √as 'throw down')attested in commentariesadvaitaइति प्राहुः श्रुतिस्मृतिविदः योगं कर्मानुष्ठानलक्षणं तं परमार्थसंन्यासं विद्धि जानीहि itiiti(73 verses)thus (quotative particle) prāhu√prāh(6 verses)past indicative 3rd person plural verbto declare, expound (variant of pravac)r yogaṃyoga(73 verses)accusative masculine singular nounyoga; union, discipline, application taṃtad(305 verses)accusative masculine singular nounthat (distal demonstrative); also 3rd-person pronoun viddhi√vid(76 verses)present imperative 2nd person singular verbto know; to find (verbal root)attested in commentariesadvaitaजानीहिviśiṣṭādvaita। तद् उपपादयति न ह्यसंन्यस्तसंकल्पो योगी भवति कश्चन इति। आत्मयाथात्म्यानुसन्धानेन अनात्मनि प्रकृतौ आत्मसंकल्पः संन्यस्तःśuddhādvaitaयत्रत्यकर्मसु फलसङ्कल्पत्यागस्य निरूप्यमाणत्वात्advaita-bhakti। हे पाण्डव अब्रह्मदत्तं ब्रह्मदत्तमित्याह तं वयं मन्यामहे ब्रह्मदत्तसदृशोऽयमिति न्यायात्परशब्दः परत्र प्रयुज्यमानः सादृ pāṇḍavapāṇḍava(11 verses)vocative masculine singular nounson of Pāṇḍu (the five Pāṇḍava brothers)attested in commentariesadvaita। कर्मयोगस्य प्रवृत्तिलक्षणस्य तद्विपरीतेन निवृत्तिलक्षणेन परमार्थसंन्यासेन कीदृशं सामान्यमङ्गीकृत्य तद्भाव उच्यते इत्यपadvaita-bhaktiअब्रह्मदत्तं ब्रह्मदत्तमित्याह तं वयं मन्यामहे ब्रह्मदत्तसदृशोऽयमिति न्यायात्परशब्दः परत्र प्रयुज्यमानः सादृश्यं बोधयति
nana(252 verses)not (negation particle) hy asaṃnyastaasaṃnyastacompound (compound member)unrelinquished (a- + sam- + nyasta)-saṃksaṃkalpa(4 verses)nominative masculine singular nounintention, resolve (sam- + √kḷp 'arrange')alpo yogīyogin(28 verses)nominative masculine singular nounyogi (yoga + -in 'possessor of')attested in commentariesadvaitaसमाधानवान् भवति न संभवतीत्यर्थः फलसंकल्पस्य चित्तवेक्षेपहेतुत्वात्viśiṣṭādvaitaभवति कश्चन इतिdvaitaचेत्युक्त्या प्राप्तात्यन्तभेदशङ्कानिवृत्त्यर्थमिति शेषःśuddhādvaitaन भवतिbhaktiभवति। अतः फलसंकल्पत्यागसाम्यात्संन्यासात्संन्यासी च फलसंकल्पत्यागादेव चित्तविक्षेपाभावाद्योगी च भवत्येव स इत्यर्थः।advaita-bhaktiन भवति अपितु सर्वो योगी त्यक्तफलसंकल्प bhavati√bhū(51 verses)present indicative 3rd person singular verbto be, become; the earth (verbal root / noun)attested in commentariesadvaitaन संभवतीत्यर्थः फलसंकल्पस्य चित्तवेक्षेपहेतुत्वात्viśiṣṭādvaitaकश्चन इतिśuddhādvaita। तादृशकर्मकर्त्ता चेद्योग्येव न। तथा चेद्योग्येवेति भावः।bhakti। अतः फलसंकल्पत्यागसाम्यात्संन्यासात्संन्यासी च फलसंकल्पत्यागादेव चित्तविक्षेपाभावाद्योगी च भवत्येव स इत्यर्थः।advaita-bhaktiअपितु सर्वो योगी त्यक्तफलसंकल्प kaścanakaścana(5 verses)nominative masculine singular nounanyone, anything (with negation: no one)attested in commentariesadvaitaकश्चिदपि कर्मी योगी समाधानवान् भवति न संभवतीत्यर्थः फलसंकल्पस्य चित्तवेक्षेपहेतुत्वात्viśiṣṭādvaitaइति। आत्मयाथात्म्यानुसन्धानेन अनात्मनि प्रकृतौ आत्मसंकल्पः संन्यस्तः परित्यक्तो येन स संन्यस्तसंकल्पः अनेवंभूतो यः स असadvaita-bhaktiकश्चिदपि योगी न भवति अपितु सर्वो योगी त्यक्तफलसंकल्प
spokensingle-voice recital; rendered via IndicF5 conditioned on a Sanskrit reference clip
meaning

What people call renunciation, Arjuna, know that to be yoga itself, for no one becomes a true yogin while still harboring desire for results.

Bhāṣyakāra purports

  • Śaṅkaraadvaita

    What the Śruti-knowers call sannyāsa (renunciation), O Pāṇḍava, know that very same to be yoga — for both share the inner act of abandoning saṅkalpa (intention toward fruit). The karma-yogī, even while performing action, renounces the saṅkalpa directed at results, exactly as the paramārtha-sannyāsī renounces all karma and its fruits entirely. No one whatsoever becomes a yogī — a mind-steadied one — while retaining unsurrendered saṅkalpa, because fruit-directed intention is itself the cause of mental distraction (citta-vikṣepa).

    divergence: Direct — Śaṅkara's commentary explicitly glosses yoga as karma-karma-phala-parityāga-lakṣaṇa and identifies the shared element as kartṛ-dvāraka-sannyāsa-sāmānya; citta-vikṣepa causation of phala-saṅkalpa stated verbatim.

  • Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

    What is called jñāna-yoga — genuine cognition of the ātman's own nature (ātma-yāthātmya) — know that to be this karma-yoga itself. For one who, through that ātmic self-recognition, has relinquished the false attribution of selfhood to inert Prakṛti, all undertakings naturally arise free of kāma-saṅkalpa. No karma-yogī in this teaching fails to fulfill that condition: 'whose every enterprise is stripped of desire-intention' (4.19) — and without such renunciation, no one can become a yogī at all.

    divergence: Direct — Rāmānuja glosses sannyāsa as ātma-yāthātmya-jñāna, and asannyasta-saṅkalpa as the one who still projects selfhood onto anātman Prakṛti; quotes BG 4.19 verbatim as supporting pramāṇa.

  • Madhvadvaita

    Even sannyāsa is subsumed within yoga — the two are not rival paths but a single upāya (means) under Hari's sovereignty. The verse encodes a precise warning: without renouncing kāma-saṅkalpa and the like, how can any aspirant qualify as a true upāyavān — one possessed of the means? The jīva, eternally distinct from Brahman, can reach Hari only through that interior relinquishment; no external gesture of renunciation suffices while desire-intention survives within.

    divergence: Direct — Madhva states sannyāso'pi yogāntarbhūta (sannyāsa is included within yoga) and asks rhetorically about the aspirant's qualification (upāyavān) should kāma-saṅkalpa remain unabandoned. Commentary is terse; the polemical edge is implicit in the framing.

  • Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

    The apparent contrast between Sāṅkhya-renunciation (atyāga) and yoga-action (tyāga) is dissolved here — both names point to a single artha: the relinquishment of phala-saṅkalpa in whatever action one performs. What the ṛṣis call sannyāsa — renunciation as a mode of being — is none other than yoga when seen from within: in yoga's actions too, phala-saṅkalpa is precisely what is being relinquished. The implication is complete: a performer of karma who surrenders fruit-intention is a yogī; a yogī is precisely that performer.

    divergence: Direct — Vallabha grounds the unity of Sāṅkhya and yoga in their shared structure of atyāga-tyāga (not-abandoning by abandoning), and the operative mechanism in the phala-saṅkalpa-tyāga within yogic action.

  • Śrīdharabhakti

    This verse secures karma-yoga's superiority by conferring on it the honorific of sannyāsa itself — the Śruti declares 'sannyāsa alone excels' (sannyāsa evātyarecayat), and Kṛṣṇa now shows that karma-yoga earns that title precisely because it too abandons phala-saṅkalpa. No karma-practitioner, no jñāna-practitioner, no one at all becomes a yogī while fruit-intention (phala-saṅkalpa) remains un-surrendered. When it is surrendered, the shared mechanism — absence of citta-vikṣepa — operates equally in both, making the sannyāsī a yogī and the karma-yogī a sannyāsī simultaneously.

    divergence: Direct — Śrīdhara quotes the Śruti sannyāsa evātyarecayat and explains the equation through phala-saṅkalpa-tyāga-sāmya (equality in fruit-intention surrender) and resulting citta-vikṣepābhāva; no HTML or JS artifacts were present in this payload entry.

  • Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

    The term sannyāsa, applied to karma-yoga, operates through lakṣaṇā (secondary denotation) — specifically tadabhāvāropaṇa (superimposition of that quality) — because yoga shares the key qualifying feature: relinquishment of phala-tṛṣṇā, which is itself the third kleśa-variant called rāga. Since yoga is citta-vṛtti-nirodha, and phala-saṅkalpa is a vṛtti (a rāga-type vṛtti), the karma-yogī who abandons that vṛtti achieves, in a secondary sense, both sannyāsa and yoga simultaneously. No one can be a yogī with unsurrendered saṅkalpa — all yogīs are by definition tyakta-phala-saṅkalpa.

    divergence: Direct — Madhusūdana explicitly invokes gauṇī vṛtti (secondary denotation) and tadabhāvāropaṇa, identifies phala-saṅkalpa as the rāga-type among the five viparyaya-bhedas of Yoga-Sūtra, and connects yoga as citta-vṛtti-nirodha to validate the equation. Extended Yoga-Sūtra exposition is present in his commentary and underpins this reading.

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