BG 8.1 — Akṣara-Brahma-Yoga — Sūtrakṛt-Gītā

Bhagavad Gītā 8.1Chapter 8 · Akṣara-Brahma-Yoga · Krishna → Arjuna · anuṣṭubh

किं तद् ब्रह्म किमध्यात्मं किं कर्म पुरुषोत्तम ।

अधिभूतं च किं प्रोक्तमधिदैवं किमुच्यते ॥

kiṃ tad brahma kim adhyātmaṃ kiṃ karma puruṣottama

adhibhūtaṃ ca kiṃ proktam adhidaivaṃ kim ucyate

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

meaning

Arjuna asks: what is Brahman, what is *adhyātma*, what is karma, O Puruṣottama, and what are called *adhibhūta* and *adhidaiva*?

ekras · bhāṣya

What is brahman? What is adhyatma? What is karma, Purushottama? What is adhibhuta, what is adhidaiva? Five of the seven seeds the previous chapter planted at 7.29-30; the next verse adds the remaining two.

Shankara reads these as the seven technical seeds sown at the end of ch7 — the unanswered pratishruti, the implicit promise that compels ch8. The seven terms are not idle curiosity; they are the operating vocabulary of yoga at the moment of departure that this chapter is about to map. Arjuna asks the questions a sincere student would ask after hearing 7.29-30.

Madhusudana reads Arjuna's seven questions as exposing genuine philosophical ambiguity left at the end of ch7. Is brahman sopadhika or nirupadhika? Is adhyatma the aggregate of shrotra and the other indriyas, or pure pratyak-chaitanya? Is karma the Vedic sacrificial regimen or something deeper? Each term carries a real interpretive choice; ch8 will resolve each.

Ramanuja reads the question as Arjuna representing seekers who have taken refuge in Bhagavan for liberation from old age and death. The mumukshu now asks for the technical content. The same chapter will also address those who seek aishvarya, divine sovereignty, by clarifying adhibhuta and adhidaiva. The chapter has multiple addressees, and Arjuna's question opens for each.

Madhva reads the central concern of ch8 as marana-kala-kartavya — the duty at the moment of death — and the path thereafter. The seven questions frame the action-field of the departing jiva, who remains eternally distinct from Hari yet must orient at the moment of departure.

Vallabha reads the question as an admission of limitation reaching toward grace: Arjuna asks because brahman, karma, and the rest are vijneya only by the prajna, not by ordinary beings; the inquiry itself is a form of surrender.

Shridhara reads the verse straightforwardly: what was promised as vijneya for those whose minds are krishna-eka-chetas is now to be made spashta.

Context

where

Chapter 8 · Akṣara-Brahma-Yoga · meter anuṣṭubh

who speaks

Krishna → Arjuna

What's going on

Arjuna asks: what is Brahman, what is adhyātma, what is karma, O Puruṣottama, and what are called adhibhūta and adhidaiva?

Sūtras through this verse · hub (24)

ŚrīdharaclassicalE

Inner cleansing reconciles work and knowingbetween

5.5See sāṅkhya and yoga as one — see truly.───→here8.1───→8.7Without a clean mind, steady remembrance fails.

AbhinavaguptaclassicalG

Saṃvit: one referent under many namesbetween

2.20Cit alone — the self cannot be destroyed.───→here8.1───→8.3Brahman, ātman, all facets of one Lord.

MadhvaclassicalT1

Hari is supreme — the running reading-rulebetween

5.7'Self of all beings' just means the Lord.───→here8.1───→8.3The 'imperishable Brahman' is the supreme person.

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ŚrīdharaclassicalL

Chapter prefaces as the bhāṣya's spinestation

───→here8.1───→

ŚrīdharaclassicalF

The Lord inside as inner rulerbetween

7.21I am the one who steadies your chosen faith.───→here8.1───→8.5Remember Me as the inner-ruler form.

ŚrīdharaclassicalH

The grammar of single-pointednessbetween

7.17Always-yoked, fixed on the One alone.───→here8.1───→8.14Mind on no other, constantly remembers Me.

ŚrīdharaclassicalK

Death-memory as the test of daily habitapproach

───→here8.1───→8.5Whoever remembers Me at the last reaches Me.

MadhusūdanaclassicalF

Every middle chapter opens with a bow to the teacherstation

───→here8.1───→

MadhusūdanaclassicalH

Krishna with form is the ground beneath formless Brahmanapproach

───→here8.1───→9.22I myself am the Lord, the Self of all.

MadhusūdanaclassicalJ

Two kinds of nature — divine and demonicapproach

───→here8.1───→9.13Great souls take refuge in divine nature.

Ekrasmodernmeditation

Meditation — the dhyāna tourbetween · v2

6.29Self in all beings───→here8.1───→8.12Om at the close

Ekrasmodernend_of_life

End of life — the threshold tourbetween · v2

2.22Worn-out garments───→here8.1───→8.5Last-thought rule

RāmānujaclassicalE

Bhakti as continuous recollectionbetween

7.19After many lives — home.───→here8.1───→8.14Easily reached by unbroken recollection.

MadhvaclassicalT4

Liberation is bliss in body — not absorptionbetween

2.72Body-loss in the verse is only material body.───→here8.1───→8.5At death, attain Me — and stay yourself.

MadhvaclassicalT12

Closure by gloss — the small repertoirebetween

6.32'Self' as mind, not soul, when symmetry is needed.───→here8.1───→8.3'Imperishable' redirects to the supreme person.

JayatīrthaclassicalB

Pañcabheda — the five distinctions enforced verse by versebetween

7.5Higher prakṛti is Lakṣmī, not matter.───→here8.1───→8.4Adhiyajña is Viṣṇu, not the worshipper.

JayatīrthaclassicalE

Vishnu-sarvottamatva read into apparently neutral wordsbetween

7.5Higher prakṛti is Śrī, not the eight-fold.───→here8.1───→8.3Akṣara is Viṣṇu, not quality-less.

RamsukhdasclassicalI

The Lord already inside the heartbetween

6.30See Me everywhere, I am never lost.───→here8.1───→8.22The highest Person, reached by the undivided.

Ramsukhdasclassical

Sādhaka Sañjīvanī commentary at this versebetween

───→here8.1───→

AbhinavaguptaclassicalC

Vision is the structural centerapproach

───→here8.1───→10.1Listen one more time — clearer before the pivot.

AbhinavaguptaclassicalH

Bhakti as non-dual recognitionapproach

───→here8.1───→9.22Consciousness tending its own self-knowing modes.

RāmānujaclassicalI

Vibhūti as evidence for antaryāminapproach

───→here8.1───→10.7Knowing the cases steadies the yoga.

ĀnandagiriclassicalD

Praśna-bīja chapter openingsstation

───→here8.1───→

Gauravmodernmemorial_pastoral

Memorial Pastoralbetween

2.27'Jatasya hi dhruvo mrityur dhruvam janma mritasya cha.' Death is certain for the───→here8.1───→8.6'Yam yam vapi smaran bhavam.' Whatever state of being one remembers at the last

Śabda · lemmas (11 unique · 15 occurrences)

ब्रह्म brahman — Brahman (the Absolute); also: the Veda; sacred utterance · nominative neuter singular noun · also at 1.1, 2.72, 3.14, 3.15, 4.21, 4.24 +40
कर्म karman — action, deed, the law of action · nominative neuter singular noun
उच्यते √vac — to speak (verbal root) · present indicative pass 3rd person singular verb

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किम् ka ×5 — who? what? (interrogative) · nominative neuter singular noun
तत् tad — that (distal demonstrative); also 3rd-person pronoun · nominative neuter singular noun
अध्यात्मम् adhyātma — pertaining to the self; the inward principle · nominative neuter singular noun
पुरुषोत्तम puruṣottama — the Supreme Person (puruṣa + uttama 'highest') · vocative masculine singular noun · also at 3.3, 10.15, 11.3, 15.18, 15.19
अधिभूतम् adhibhūta — the elemental / material plane · nominative neuter singular noun
च ca — and; (homonym: also the consonant ca)
प्रोक्तम् pra-√vac — to declare (pra- + √vac 'speak forth') · nominative neuter singular participle noun
अधिदैवम् adhidaiva — the divine / presiding deity plane · nominative neuter singular noun

Praśna · so what (7)

01Why does the chapter open with seven questions rather than one? What does the structure of Arjuna's inquiry reveal about how the Gītā treats the relationship between brahma-jijñāsā (inquiry into Brahman) and practical soteriological action?
02Adhibhūta and adhidaiva appear here for the first time as technical terms. What is the function of these cosmological registers — why must the seeker orient to the physical and divine planes, not only the metaphysical?

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03Madhusūdana asks whether Brahman is sopādhika or nirupādhika and whether karma is one or two. How does the verse deliberately hold these as open questions rather than errors to be corrected — i.e., is the polysemy pedagogical or merely preparatory?
04Rāmānuja's three-seekers reading (mumukṣu / aiśvaryārthin / niyatātmā) implies that the chapter addresses a mixed audience. How does a single text serve three soteriological orientations simultaneously without collapsing into ambiguity?
05The address 'Puruṣottama' occurs here uniquely — the highest of persons asked to explain the highest of terms. What is the rhetorical and doctrinal work this address performs across the six schools?
06Madhva's brevity — the chapter is 'about death-time duty' — versus Madhusūdana's philosophical unpacking both start from the same verse. What does this divergence reveal about how doctrinal prior commitments govern which ambiguities a commentator even names?
07Śrīdhara's spaṣṭo'rthaḥ ('the meaning is plain') and Madhusūdana's long list of genuine ambiguities stand in direct tension. Is this a difference of depth, of audience, or of philosophical temperament — and what does it tell us about the verse's own polysemy density?

Vyavahāra · try it in your life

Advaita

Before entering any serious study or practice, identify the seven things you actually need to understand — not one vague goal, but precisely articulated sub-questions. Arjuna's asking is a model of epistemological preparation: you cannot get answers you have not yet formulated.

Viśiṣṭādvaita

Recognize that you may be asking the same question as others but from a different need — liberation, achievement, or readiness for death. Locate your own category honestly before assuming your path is everyone's path; the same teaching carries different medicine.

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Dvaita

At any major transition (career change, illness, leaving a role), ask: what is my actual duty in this moment of departure? Do not be captured by metaphysics when the practical obligation — who to serve, how to act, where to direct your final effort — is the real question.

Śuddhādvaita

Approach expertise or grace with acknowledged limitation: 'this is for the wise, not for me as I currently stand.' The sandehā (honest doubt) that Vallabha locates in Arjuna is not weakness — it is the posture that makes genuine learning possible rather than confirming what you already think.

Bhakti

When a teacher plants seeds in a previous session, write them down and return with specific questions. Arjuna's seven questions are the fruit of attentive listening; the disciple's job is to harvest the open ends and bring them back formed.

Advaita-Bhakti

When asking a question of someone genuinely more capable than you, name their competence in the address itself ('you who knows this fully') — not as flattery but as a clarifying act that frames the conversation correctly and signals you are prepared to receive a non-partial answer.

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 8, Verse 1: Krishna to Arjuna — Akṣara-Brahma-Yoga