Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 8, Verse 14: Krishna to Arjuna — Akṣara-Brahma-Yoga
For the yogi whose mind never strays to another and who remembers Me without break, I am easy to reach, Arjuna.
Bhāṣyakāra purports
- Śaṅkaraadvaita
The yogin whose mind admits no other object — not for six months, not for a year, but without interruption for the whole span of life — and who thus holds the Paramēśvara in continuous remembrance: for that one alone, whose citta (mind-organ) remains perpetually collected in Me, I am sulabha (easily obtained). Śaṅkara insists on two distinct qualifications: satatam denotes unbrokenness of recollection, nityaśaḥ denotes its long duration across the full life. The conclusion is imperative — therefore become ananya-cetāḥ (one whose thought has no other), ever gathered into Me.
- Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita
He who — beginning from the first stirring of effort at dawn — remembers Me at every moment with such yearning that he cannot sustain his own ātman (self) without that remembrance: for that nitya-yukta (perpetually joined) yogin who longs for union unbroken, I alone am the goal to be reached — not my attributes, not sovereignty, not liberation into mere power, but I Myself. Rāmānuja adds the decisive move: I do not merely wait to be found; I choose that devotee, remove what obstructs the ripening of his upāsanā (meditative worship), and grant precisely the capacity that leads to Me.
- Madhvadvaita
The yogin here designated is the one of complete (paripūrṇa) yoga — who possesses nitya-upāya (the eternal means), meaning Hari as the only independent reality is both the path and its fruit. For the eternally distinct jīva (individual self), this yogin is nitya-yuktasya: one who at every moment depends wholly on Hari's will. The 'ease' of attainment is not intrinsic to the devotee's effort but to Hari's sovereign will toward those who surrender dependence utterly.
- Vallabhaśuddhādvaita
To the bhakta whose citta (mind-organ) is fixed not on son, spouse, or any other — including even abstract forms like the Akṣara (Imperishable) — but on Me, the Līlā-Puruṣottama (the Supreme Person of divine play), remembering continuously: for that mad-anurakta (one attached exclusively to Me) yogin, I, Vāsudeva of incomparable glory, am sulabha — because the relation of prasāda (grace) precedes and enables this remembrance itself. The devotee's ananya-cetāḥ (undivided mind) is itself Kṛṣṇa's gift, not the devotee's accomplishment.
- Śrīdharabhakti
Śrīdhara reads this verse as a direct recall of what was established above: death-hour absorption in Me arises only from lifelong nityābhyāsa (continuous practice) — it does not come to anyone else. He whose mind has no other object, who remembers Me uninterruptedly (satatam) and daily (nityaśaḥ), for that samāhita (collected) one I am easily obtained — not for another. The verse seals the logic of the chapter: regularity and exclusivity of remembrance are causally sufficient for sulabhatā.
- Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti
Madhusūdana reads this verse within the arc of the whole chapter: even the yogin who cannot voluntarily direct his prāṇa (life-breath) through the brahma-randhra (crown aperture) at will — who dies, as it were, under compulsion rather than by self-mastery — is not thereby excluded from Me. If throughout life he has been ananya-cetāḥ, remembering satatam and nityaśaḥ, then whether he departs on his own terms or under circumstantial compulsion, he remains nitya-yukta (perpetually joined) and I am sulabha to him. Madhusūdana explicitly cites Patañjali's formula — dīrgha-kāla-nairantarya-satkāra — as the three dimensions of abhyāsa (practice) that constitute this state, showing the synthesis of Yoga-śāstra with bhakti-vocabulary.