BG 6.47 — Dhyāna-Yoga — Sūtrakṛt-Gītā

Bhagavad Gītā 6.47Chapter 6 · Dhyāna-Yoga · Krishna → Arjuna · anuṣṭubh

योगिनामपि सर्वेषां मद्गतेनान्तरात्मना ।

श्रद्धावान् भजते यो मां स मे युक्ततमो मतः ॥

yoginām api sarveṣāṃ mad-gatenāntarātmanā

śraddhāvān bhajate yo māṃ sa me yuktatamo mataḥ

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

meaning

Among all yogīs, the one whose inner being is wholly absorbed in Me and who worships Me with *śraddhā* is, in My view, the most deeply integrated.

ekras · bhāṣya

Among all yogis, the one whose inner self has gone toward Me, who worships Me with shraddha — that one is held by Me to be yuktatama, supremely yoked. The verse takes the chapter's whole hierarchy of yoga and names a single condition that tops it. The condition is mad-gata antah-atma — the inner self oriented toward Krishna — and the activity is bhajati, the steady worshipping.

Ramanuja reads sarvesham as a panchami of comparison: not 'among' but 'beyond'. The forthcoming yogi is superior not merely among but utterly beyond all others — as Mount Meru dwarfs mustard seeds. Any grading among the lesser yogis becomes irrelevant once this yogi enters the picture. The antahkarana described as mad-gata is not turned toward an object as one of many; it is the one whose orientation has resolved into the sole orientation.

Shankara reads the verse on its inclusive frame: among all yogis — those absorbed in upasana of Rudra, Aditya, and the like — the one whose antahkarana is wholly gathered into Me, Vasudeva, and who with shraddha performs bhajana of Me, is yuktatama. The verse does not denigrate the lesser yogis; it simply names the supreme.

Madhusudana names the lesser yogis explicitly as worshippers of kshudra-devata — minor deities, the Vasus and Rudras and Adityas — and identifies the supreme yogi as one whose antahkarana has settled into Vasudeva through punya-paripaka-vishesha and sadhu-sanga, the company of the right-aligned.

Vallabha names the supreme yogi precisely: mat-pushti-bhakti-parayana — one wholly given over to Krishna's pushti-bhakti, grace-nourished devotion. The superlative is not earned by austerity but bestowed by Krishna's prasada.

Madhva reads the same closing in his frame: yuktatama is the jiva, eternally paratantra, whose antaratman has gone wholly toward Hari and whose shraddha is steady, truth-grounded faith. The chapter closes there.

Context

where

Chapter 6 · Dhyāna-Yoga · meter anuṣṭubh

who speaks

Krishna → Arjuna

preceded by — BG 6.46

The yogī stands above the ascetic, the scholar, and the ritual performer alike, so become a yogī, Arjuna.

What's going on

Among all yogīs, the one whose inner being is wholly absorbed in Me and who worships Me with śraddhā is, in My view, the most deeply integrated.

Sūtras through this verse · hub (63)

RamsukhdasclassicalA

What binds you (and how to let go)between

6.1True renouncing acts; drops the inner hook.───→here6.47───→7.30Hold the Lord through every layer of life.

RāmānujaclassicalB

The śāstra is one bracket (2.12 → 18.66)between

6.46The yogi outranks every other path.───→here6.47───→11.1Arjuna confirms the bracket from inside.

MadhvaclassicalT2

Soul depends on Lord — the gap that does not closebetween

6.9Souls differ by nature not by accident alone.───→here6.47───→13.23Soul and Lord coexist in the body, not as one.

show all 63

VallabhaclassicalE

Three paths, one teaching orderstation · anchor

───→here6.47───→

VallabhaclassicalH

Stilling the mind — into the Lordstation · anchor

───→here6.47───→

VedāntadeśikaclassicalG

Three yogas — three angles on one configurationstation · anchor

───→here6.47───→

Madhusūdanaclassicalmadhusudan_bhagavad_arpana

Madhusudan Bhagavad Arpanabetween · other

6.1Renouncer and yogi together───→here6.47───→9.22Yogakshema as offering returned

MadhusūdanaclassicalB

Different students need different teachingsbetween

6.1The renouncer and yogi are one under two views.───→here6.47───→7.16Four kinds of devotee, ranked by ripeness.

MadhusūdanaclassicalC

Action purifies before knowing can landbetween

6.1Renouncing too lives by purity of mind.───→here6.47───→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.───→here6.47───→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.───→here6.47───→18.1At the very end, the line still holds.

MadhusūdanaclassicalI

Liberation while alive — the body finishes its runbetween

6.46The yogi with mind-stilled stands above mere knowing.───→here6.47───→9.22The undivided devotee is already complete.

MadhusūdanaclassicalE

Devotion is how knowing actually arrivesapproach

───→here6.47───→7.1The chapter elaborates the prior bhajana-line.

MadhusūdanaclassicalF

Every middle chapter opens with a bow to the teacherapproach

───→here6.47───→7.1A bow to the bliss-cloud, Nanda's son, opens seven.

RamsukhdasclassicalB

This human birth — your one chance to actbetween

6.43Practice resumes; it never restarts.───→here6.47───→9.32Even the low-born reach the highest goal.

RamsukhdasclassicalC

Desire is the root — not actionbetween

6.24Renounce every desire born of will.───→here6.47───→18.49Free of longing everywhere — same goal.

RamsukhdasclassicalG

Equanimity in everythingbetween

6.32Sees others' pain and joy as his own.───→here6.47───→9.29I am equal to all; lovers live in Me.

RamsukhdasclassicalH

All paths arrive at the same roombetween

6.46The lover outranks every other yogi.───→here6.47───→12.12Even devotion holds its own gradient.

RamsukhdasclassicalI

The Lord already inside the heartbetween

6.30See Me everywhere, I am never lost.───→here6.47───→8.22The highest Person, reached by the undivided.

RamsukhdasclassicalK

The body is not yoursbetween

6.3Body, senses, and mind: none of them yours.───→here6.47───→13.20Nature causes the act; you only experience.

Ramsukhdasclassical

Sādhaka Sañjīvanī commentary at this versebetween

───→here6.47───→

VallabhaclassicalK

Aphorism, gloss, full commentarystation

───→here6.47───→

RāmānujaclassicalC

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

6.1The renouncer and yogi are the same person.───→here6.47───→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.───→here6.47───→9.27Whatever you do, do it as offering.

MadhvaclassicalT3

Ranking is real — and it never collapsesbetween

6.9Devas, asuras, mortals are three native kinds.───→here6.47───→14.27Brahman has gradations within its own form.

MadhvaclassicalT6

Citation is the spine — texts carry the loadbetween

6.6Maitrāyaṇī defines the stilled mind.───→here6.47───→7.5Doubled prakṛti named from a single śruti.

MadhvaclassicalT7

Action and knowledge — never rivalsbetween

6.1The renouncer and yogi are one person, two names.───→here6.47───→18.2The ritualists' śruti fixes the closing definition.

MadhvaclassicalT8

Direct vision — the only proximate causebetween

6.46The five-rung ladder ends in love, not knowledge.───→here6.47───→12.12Anabhimlāna-śruti names every rung in order.

MadhvaclassicalT9

Devotion and grace — what knowledge cannot do alonebetween

6.30Devotion brings what the seeker cannot earn.───→here6.47───→7.16Four kinds approach; the devoted is best.

MadhvaclassicalT12

Closure by gloss — the small repertoirebetween

6.32'Self' as mind, not soul, when symmetry is needed.───→here6.47───→8.3'Imperishable' redirects to the supreme person.

VallabhaclassicalC

Drop the doer, not the deedbetween

6.1Real renouncing keeps the act alive.───→here6.47───→18.1The closing chapter reopens this question.

VallabhaclassicalD

Chapter-opening preludesbetween

6.1Prelude binds yoga to puṣṭi-bhakti.───→here6.47───→7.1Seven-verse prelude opens the bhakti-ṣaṭka.

RāmānujaclassicalA

World as the Lord's body (antaryāmin)approach

───→here6.47───→7.4Two natures of the Lord: matter and selves.

RāmānujaclassicalE

Bhakti as continuous recollectionapproach

───→here6.47───→7.17I am dearest to him.

RāmānujaclassicalF

Two prakṛtis · jīva as eternal aṃśaapproach

───→here6.47───→7.4Lower nature: matter.

RāmānujaclassicalJ

Śeṣa-śeṣī · pati-vrata simileapproach

───→here6.47───→7.18He is My self; I cannot hold without him.

VallabhaclassicalB

Grace alone — the technical markapproach

───→here6.47───→7.18The wise one is Myself, by grace alone.

Gauravmodernchaplaincy_kit_of_tools

Chaplaincy Kit Of Toolsbetween

6.11Mudra and posture. 'Shuchau deshe pratishthapya sthiram asanam atmanah.' Establi───→here6.47───→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───→here6.47───→16.21'Tri-vidham narakasyedam dvaram nashanam atmanah, kamah krodhas tatha lobhah.' T

Gauravmodernheart_leadership

Heart Leadershipbetween

6.35'Asamshayam maha-baho mano durnigraham chalam, abhyasena tu Kaunteya vairagyena ───→here6.47───→12.13'Adveshta sarva-bhutanam maitrah karuna eva cha.' Without enmity, friendly, comp

Gauravmodernthree_yogas_braid

Three Yogas Braidbetween

6.46'Tapasvibhyo'dhiko yogi jnanibhyo'pi mato'dhikah, karmibhyash chadhiko yogi tasm───→here6.47───→9.27'Yat karoshi yad ashnasi yaj juhoshi dadasi yat.' Bhakti-inside-karma. Whatever

Gauravmodernwitness_self_neti_neti

Witness Self Neti Netibetween

6.29'Sarva-bhuta-stham atmanam sarva-bhutani cha'tmani, ikshate yoga-yuktatma sarvat───→here6.47───→13.32'Anaditvan nirgunatvat paramatma'yam avyayah, sharira-stho'pi Kaunteya na karoti

ĀnandagiriclassicalB

Three hexads = tat tvam asibetween

6.46Inner-self hexad closes; pivot prepared.───→here6.47───→7.1Middle hexad named: tat-padārtha begins.

ĀnandagiriclassicalC

Adhikāra: seeker vs. fulfilledbetween

6.46Yogin vs. jñānin: not synonyms.───→here6.47───→12.12Bhakti's gradient is jijñāsu-relative.

ĀnandagiriclassicalK

Upasaṃhāra — recap as instrumentbetween

6.46Dhyāna section sealed: yogin is supreme.───→here6.47───→12.20Bhakti hexad sealed at the close.

ĀnandagiriclassicalI

Bhakti carries jñāna, never parallelapproach

───→here6.47───→7.1Upāsya and tat-pada in apposition. Anchor.

ĀnandagiriclassicalJ

Prakṛti is never autonomousapproach

───→here6.47───→7.4Two-fold prakṛti is the Lord's own power.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalF

Saṅgati — anticipation-and-resolutionstation

───→here6.47───→

ŚrīdharaclassicalC

Devotion is both the way and the homestation

───→here6.47───→

Śaṅkaraclassicalshankara_jnana_nishtha

Shankara Jnana Nishthabetween · other

6.1Soft sense of renouncer───→here6.47───→18.49Naishkarmya-siddhi by sannyāsa

ŚaṅkaraclassicalB

Knowledge alone, with all action laid downbetween

6.1The fire-keeper is renouncer only in a soft sense.───→here6.47───→18.49Action-freedom comes from full renunciation.

ŚrīdharaclassicalL

Chapter prefaces as the bhāṣya's spinebetween

6.1Pure mind is not yet release: now meditate.───→here6.47───→8.1Now, the questions of Brahman and self.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalI

The lover and the knower are one personapproach

───→here6.47───→7.16Of the four devotees, the knower is dearest.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalB

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

───→here6.47───→7.14Those who take refuge cross the māyā.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalI

9.24 — the standing citation for ārādhyaapproach

───→here6.47───→7.21Deity-worship: His self-arrangement of grace.

ŚrīdharaclassicalH

The grammar of single-pointednessapproach

───→here6.47───→7.14Undivided love crosses the great mist.

ŚrīdharaclassicalK

Death-memory as the test of daily habitapproach

───→here6.47───→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.───→here6.47───→

Ekrasmodernmeditation

Meditation — the dhyāna tourbetween · v2

6.29Self in all beings───→here6.47───→8.12Om at the close

Ekrasmodernvairagya

Vairāgya — dispassion as instrumentbetween · v2

6.35Practice and dispassion───→here6.47───→13.8Field-knowledge as virtues

Ekrasmodernbhakti

Bhakti — devotion pathapproach · v2

───→here6.47───→7.16Four kinds of bhakta

JayatīrthaclassicalC

Refuting Śaṅkara-style readings, named or unnamedbetween

6.1Householder is not figurative saṁnyāsin.───→here6.47───→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.───→here6.47───→7.1First ṣaṭka closed; new pratijñā opens.

Śabda · lemmas (12 unique · 14 occurrences)

भजते √bhaj — to share, partake of, worship, love (verbal root) · present indicative 3rd person singular verb
श्रद्धावान् śraddhāvat — endowed with faith (śraddhā + -vat 'possessor of') · nominative masculine singular noun
योगिनाम् yogin — yogi (yoga + -in 'possessor of') · genitive masculine plural noun

show all 12

मद्·माम्·मे mad ×3 — I, me (1st person pronoun stem); also: to rejoice (verbal root) · compound / accusative singular noun / genitive singular noun
अपि api — also, even, although
सर्वेषाम् sarva — all, entire · genitive masculine plural noun
गतेन √gam — to go (verbal root) · instrumental masculine singular participle noun
अन्तरात्मना antarātman — the inner self (antar + ātman) · instrumental masculine singular noun
यः yad — which, who (relative pronoun) · nominative masculine singular noun
स tad — that (distal demonstrative); also 3rd-person pronoun · nominative masculine singular noun
युक्ततमः yuktatama — most yoked, most disciplined (superl. of yukta) · nominative masculine singular noun
मतः √man — to think, regard, consider (verbal root) · nominative masculine singular participle noun

Praśna · so what (7)

01If Kṛṣṇa declares the bhakti-yogī supreme over all meditators and ascetics at the close of Chapter 6 — which has been about dhyāna-yoga — does this retroactively reframe the entire chapter's dhyāna instruction as preliminary scaffolding for bhakti rather than an end in itself?
02Rāmānuja's Meru-vs-mustard-seed simile asserts that differences among lesser yogīs collapse to zero when compared with the bhakti-yogī. What are the philosophical stakes of this move: does it honor or erase the effort of other sādhakas (practitioners)?

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03Madhusūdana allows 'saguṇa or nirguṇa worship' to both qualify as yuktatama. Does this synthesis dissolve the real doctrinal tension between Advaita and Bhakti, or paper over it?
04Śaṅkara reads 'mad-gata antaḥkaraṇa' as jñāna-adjacent stabilization; Vallabha reads it as grace-drawn citta. Both cite the same two Sanskrit words. What methodological criterion could adjudicate between them — and does Sūtrakṛt's polysemy-preservation architecture serve as such a criterion?
05Madhva's silence on this verse is itself data: why might the Dvaita tradition have found the closing superlative theologically uncomfortable or redundant?
06Vallabha's śraddhā is specifically āstikyabuddhi in the ācārya's upadeśa. Does anchoring the supreme yogic state to trust in the teacher's words strengthen or weaken the verse's universality?
07The verse is the chapter's capstone and, per Madhusūdana, sūtras the next six chapters. Does its placement as a hinge — closing one hexad, opening another — itself constitute evidence for Indic texts' 'closure-disciplined' compositional architecture (Paper XIX candidate)?

Vyavahāra · try it in your life

Advaita

Before meditation, explicitly name which 'deity' or concept you are about to place your attention on — and ask whether that object is a finite upādhī (limiting adjunct) or Brahman itself. The Advaita reading demands that antaḥkaraṇa-śodhana (purification of the inner organ) be the goal of every sitting, not comfort or peace. If your practice consistently terminates in a warm relationship with a personal form, Śaṅkara would call that a staging point, not the destination.

Viśiṣṭādvaita

Rāmānuja's mat-priyatva (intense love for the Lord) benchmark asks: could you endure even one moment's separation from Bhagavān with equanimity? Use that as a daily calibration. Kainkarya (service) should be shaped by the full scope of Bhagavān's qualities — vātsalya (tenderness), sauśīlya (accessibility) — which means orienting all acts, including menial ones, as service to a Lord who already loves you unconditionally.

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Dvaita

Hold the distinction: you are not Hari, and merging is not the goal. Practically, this means bhajana (worship) should include regular engagement with Madhva's tattva-viveka (discriminative understanding of ontological differences) — not as intellectual exercise but as a devotional act that keeps the relationship honest. Śraddhā here requires you to know what you are devoted to and why, without blurring jīva and Īśvara.

Śuddhādvaita

Vallabha's path removes self-effort as the primary lever: the antaḥkaraṇa is drawn in by Kṛṣṇa's līlā, not forced in by tapas (austerity). The everyday implication is to arrange one's environment — music, imagery, company, daily rhythm — so that Kṛṣṇa's līlā becomes continuously present, lowering the resistance to spontaneous absorption rather than generating willpower to sustain it.

Bhakti

Śrīdhara's reading rehabilitates āsakti (attachment): ordinary life is full of attachments that drain energy; re-anchor the same attachment mechanism to Parameśvara. Practically, identify one domain where you already have strong natural attachment and ask how that attachment's structure — urgency, memory, desire to return — can be redirected toward Bhagavān rather than suppressed.

Advaita-Bhakti

Madhusūdana's dual emphasis on puṇya-paripāka (ripened merit) and sādhu-saṅga (good company) points to two levers: long-term cultivation through ethical consistency (which conditions future readiness) and immediate environment (which conditions present receptivity). Rather than debating saguṇa vs. nirguṇa worship, simply ensure that the company you keep is systematically removing the bhrama (error) of treating the Divine as a transactional vending machine.

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 47: Krishna to Arjuna — Dhyāna-Yoga