BG 6.21 — Dhyāna-Yoga — Sūtrakṛt-Gītā

Bhagavad Gītā 6.21Chapter 6 · Dhyāna-Yoga · Krishna → Arjuna · anuṣṭubh

सुखमात्यन्तिकं यत् तद् बुद्धिग्राह्यमतीन्द्रियम् ।

वेत्ति यत्र न चैवायं स्थितश् चलति तत्त्वतः ॥

sukham ātyantikaṃ yat tad buddhi-grāhyam atīndriyam

vetti yatra na caivāyaṃ sthitaś calati tattvataḥ

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

meaning

That absolute happiness, beyond the senses and known only through the intellect, is where the steady one rests without wavering from what is real.

ekras · bhāṣya

That atyantika sukha — final, gradationless joy — is grasped by buddhi alone, beyond the senses; the one who knows it there does not waver from the real. Three predicates of the joy follow: atyantikam, atindriyam, buddhi-grahyam.

Shankara is precise on each. Atyantikam — without end or gradation; sense-pleasures rise and fall, this does not. Atindriyam — beyond sense-contact entirely; the body's instruments cannot reach it. Buddhi-grahyam — apprehended by the inner instrument when sense-contact is suspended. The wise one who abides in this state does not merely experience it; he knows it as his own nature, and having so known, does not fall away from tattva.

Madhusudana offers the panel's fullest analytical treatment. Atyantikam names the bliss as Brahman's own svarupa. Atindriyam excludes sense-based pleasure, which requires vishaya-indriya-samprayoga. Buddhi-grahyam excludes deep-sleep happiness, where buddhi itself is dissolved. The samadhi happiness is grasped by a buddhi free of rajas and tamas, carrying sattva alone — yet even this grasping is not the joy itself; the joy is the atman, the buddhi merely the unobscured medium.

Ramanuja reads atma-buddhi-eka-grahyam carefully: this happiness is not intellect perceiving an abstract absolute but the qualified self knowing its own joy as a mode of Bhagavan.

Madhva keeps the dependence-frame: the joy is rooted in bhagavad-rupatva, not in the jiva's self-sufficiency; non-deviation from tattva means non-deviation from the recognition that Hari is svatantra and the jiva paratantra.

Vallabha reads the verse most warmly: atma-sukha is Krishna's own prasada-given being; the knowing and the known are both in the order of atman-as-bliss.

Context

where

Chapter 6 · Dhyāna-Yoga · meter anuṣṭubh

who speaks

Krishna → Arjuna

preceded by — BG 6.20

Where the mind, stilled by yoga practice, comes to rest, and by that same mind one sees the Self within the Self and is content there.

What's going on

That absolute happiness, beyond the senses and known only through the intellect, is where the steady one rests without wavering from what is real.

Sūtras through this verse (63)

RamsukhdasclassicalA

What binds you (and how to let go)between

6.1True renouncing acts; drops the inner hook.───→here6.21───→7.30Hold the Lord through every layer of life.

RāmānujaclassicalB

The śāstra is one bracket (2.12 → 18.66)between

2.39Practice seam begins.───→here6.21───→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.───→here6.21───→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───→here6.21───→9.22Yogakshema as offering returned

MadhusūdanaclassicalB

Different students need different teachingsbetween

6.1The renouncer and yogi are one under two views.───→here6.21───→7.16Four kinds of devotee, ranked by ripeness.

MadhusūdanaclassicalC

Action purifies before knowing can landbetween

6.1Renouncing too lives by purity of mind.───→here6.21───→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.───→here6.21───→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.───→here6.21───→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.───→here6.21───→6.46The yogi with mind-stilled stands above mere knowing.

MadhusūdanaclassicalE

Devotion is how knowing actually arrivesapproach

───→here6.21───→7.1The chapter elaborates the prior bhajana-line.

MadhusūdanaclassicalF

Every middle chapter opens with a bow to the teacherapproach

───→here6.21───→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.───→here6.21───→6.40A fallen seeker still keeps the human birth.

RamsukhdasclassicalC

Desire is the root — not actionbetween

5.26With desire gone, the goal stands on all sides.───→here6.21───→6.24Renounce every desire born of will.

RamsukhdasclassicalG

Equanimity in everythingbetween

6.8Clay, stone, and gold are all level to him.───→here6.21───→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.───→here6.21───→6.46The lover outranks every other yogi.

RamsukhdasclassicalK

The body is not yoursbetween

6.3Body, senses, and mind: none of them yours.───→here6.21───→13.20Nature causes the act; you only experience.

Ramsukhdasclassical

Sādhaka Sañjīvanī commentary at this versebetween

───→here6.21───→

RamsukhdasclassicalI

The Lord already inside the heartapproach

───→here6.21───→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.───→here6.21───→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.───→here6.21───→9.27Whatever you do, do it as offering.

MadhvaclassicalT3

Ranking is real — and it never collapsesbetween

6.9Devas, asuras, mortals are three native kinds.───→here6.21───→14.27Brahman has gradations within its own form.

MadhvaclassicalT6

Citation is the spine — texts carry the loadbetween

6.6Maitrāyaṇī defines the stilled mind.───→here6.21───→7.5Doubled prakṛti named from a single śruti.

MadhvaclassicalT7

Action and knowledge — never rivalsbetween

6.1The renouncer and yogi are one person, two names.───→here6.21───→18.2The ritualists' śruti fixes the closing definition.

MadhvaclassicalT8

Direct vision — the only proximate causebetween

6.7The stilled mind sees the seated supreme self.───→here6.21───→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.───→here6.21───→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.───→here6.21───→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.───→here6.21───→18.1The closing chapter reopens this question.

VallabhaclassicalD

Chapter-opening preludesbetween

6.1Prelude binds yoga to puṣṭi-bhakti.───→here6.21───→7.1Seven-verse prelude opens the bhakti-ṣaṭka.

VallabhaclassicalE

Three paths, one teaching orderbetween

6.1The two paths are one through fruit-renouncing act.───→here6.21───→6.46The lover outranks the wise and the disciplined.

VallabhaclassicalH

Stilling the mind — into the Lordbetween

2.48Yoga itself is just sameness of mind.───→here6.21───→6.46The yogi closing the ṣaṭka is a mind-stiller.

RāmānujaclassicalA

World as the Lord's body (antaryāmin)approach

───→here6.21───→7.4Two natures of the Lord: matter and selves.

RāmānujaclassicalE

Bhakti as continuous recollectionapproach

───→here6.21───→7.17I am dearest to him.

RāmānujaclassicalF

Two prakṛtis · jīva as eternal aṃśaapproach

───→here6.21───→7.4Lower nature: matter.

RāmānujaclassicalJ

Śeṣa-śeṣī · pati-vrata simileapproach

───→here6.21───→7.18He is My self; I cannot hold without him.

VallabhaclassicalB

Grace alone — the technical markapproach

───→here6.21───→7.18The wise one is Myself, by grace alone.

VallabhaclassicalK

Aphorism, gloss, full commentaryapproach

───→here6.21───→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───→here6.21───→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───→here6.21───→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,───→here6.21───→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───→here6.21───→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 ───→here6.21───→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.───→here6.21───→6.46Inner-self hexad closes; pivot prepared.

ĀnandagiriclassicalC

Adhikāra: seeker vs. fulfilledbetween

5.1Two saṃnyāsas: fruit and means.───→here6.21───→6.46Yogin vs. jñānin: not synonyms.

ĀnandagiriclassicalK

Upasaṃhāra — recap as instrumentbetween

2.39Wisdom section wound up here.───→here6.21───→6.46Dhyāna section sealed: yogin is supreme.

ĀnandagiriclassicalI

Bhakti carries jñāna, never parallelapproach

───→here6.21───→7.1Upāsya and tat-pada in apposition. Anchor.

ĀnandagiriclassicalJ

Prakṛti is never autonomousapproach

───→here6.21───→7.4Two-fold prakṛti is the Lord's own power.

Śaṅkaraclassicalshankara_jnana_nishtha

Shankara Jnana Nishthabetween · other

6.1Soft sense of renouncer───→here6.21───→18.49Naishkarmya-siddhi by sannyāsa

ŚaṅkaraclassicalB

Knowledge alone, with all action laid downbetween

6.1The fire-keeper is renouncer only in a soft sense.───→here6.21───→18.49Action-freedom comes from full renunciation.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalF

Saṅgati — anticipation-and-resolutionbetween

3.1Arjuna's question resolves 2.49's hint.───→here6.21───→6.47Top-yogin clause — the chapter-7 hinge.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalG

Three yogas — three angles on one configurationbetween

6.1The renouncer and yogi are one figure.───→here6.21───→6.46The yogi outranks tapasvi, jñāni, karmin.

ŚrīdharaclassicalL

Chapter prefaces as the bhāṣya's spinebetween

6.1Pure mind is not yet release: now meditate.───→here6.21───→8.1Now, the questions of Brahman and self.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalI

The lover and the knower are one personapproach

───→here6.21───→7.16Of the four devotees, the knower is dearest.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalB

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

───→here6.21───→7.14Those who take refuge cross the māyā.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalI

9.24 — the standing citation for ārādhyaapproach

───→here6.21───→7.21Deity-worship: His self-arrangement of grace.

ŚrīdharaclassicalC

Devotion is both the way and the homeapproach

───→here6.21───→6.47Be a devotee: that is the meaning.

ŚrīdharaclassicalH

The grammar of single-pointednessapproach

───→here6.21───→7.14Undivided love crosses the great mist.

ŚrīdharaclassicalK

Death-memory as the test of daily habitapproach

───→here6.21───→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.───→here6.21───→

Ekrasmodernmeditation

Meditation — the dhyāna tourstation · v2 · station 7/11

───→here6.21───→

Ekrasmodernvairagya

Vairāgya — dispassion as instrumentbetween · v2

6.4Renounced in resolve───→here6.21───→6.35Practice and dispassion

Ekrasmodernbhakti

Bhakti — devotion pathapproach · v2

───→here6.21───→7.16Four kinds of bhakta

JayatīrthaclassicalC

Refuting Śaṅkara-style readings, named or unnamedbetween

6.1Householder is not figurative saṁnyāsin.───→here6.21───→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.───→here6.21───→7.1First ṣaṭka closed; new pratijñā opens.

Śabda · lemmas (16 unique · 16 occurrences)

वेत्ति √vid — to know; to find (verbal root) · present indicative 3rd person singular verb
तत्त्वतः tattva — thatness, principle, reality · ablative neuter singular noun
ग्राह्यम् grah — to seize, grasp, accept (verbal root) · accusative neuter singular gdv noun
अतीन्द्रियम् atīndriya — beyond the senses (ati- 'beyond' + indriya 'sense') · accusative neuter singular noun
चलति √cal — to move, shake (verbal root) · present indicative 3rd person singular verb
सुखम् sukha — happiness, pleasure, ease · nominative neuter singular noun

show all 16

आत्यन्तिकम् ātyantika — absolute, ultimate, complete · nominative neuter singular noun
यत् yad — which, who (relative pronoun) · nominative neuter singular noun
तत् tad — that (distal demonstrative); also 3rd-person pronoun · accusative neuter singular noun
बुद्धि buddhi — intellect, intelligence, discriminating faculty · compound · also at 2.19, 2.39, 2.41, 2.44, 2.49, 2.50 +36
यत्र yatra — where
न na — not (negation particle)
च ca — and; (homonym: also the consonant ca)
एव eva — indeed, truly, only (emphatic particle)
अयम् idam — this (proximal demonstrative) · nominative masculine singular noun
स्थितः √sthā — to stand, remain (verbal root) · nominative masculine singular participle noun

Praśna · so what (7)

01If ātyantikaṃ sukha (absolute happiness) is apprehensible only by buddhi — not by sense-contact — what does this imply about every happiness that depends on an external object or event?
02All six schools agree on 'na calati tattvataḥ' (does not deviate from truth), yet they disagree on what truth is. What is at stake in that disagreement — and does the verse itself force a resolution?

show all 7

03Madhusūdana distinguishes samādhi happiness from deep-sleep happiness on the ground that buddhi is present in the former but dissolved in the latter. Is this a meaningful distinction for a practitioner — and how would one tell from the inside?
04Madhva anchors non-deviation in 'bhagavad-rūpatva' (Bhagavān's own form). Does locating the ground of happiness outside the jīva strengthen or undercut the yogin's motivation to practice?
05Śrīdhara's objection — 'there is no sense-contact, so how can there be happiness?' — represents ordinary psychology. What is the verse claiming that ordinary psychology misses about the structure of experience?
06Vallabha reads ātman and sukha as co-identical rather than knower-and-known. What practices would look different if one held that reading rather than Śaṅkara's strict jñāna framing?
07The verse conditions the yogin's stability on this specific happiness ('yatra sthitaḥ... na calati'). Does this suggest that the stability is a consequence of the happiness, or that the non-wavering itself is what the happiness consists in?

Vyavahāra · try it in your life

Advaita

When a decision, a conversation, or a crisis pulls at your attention, pause and notice: is the discomfort arising from a sense-contact reaction (sound, sight, social comparison) or from something prior to that? The Advaita application is radical triage — each time an experience destabilizes you, ask whether your buddhi is operating independently of sense-report or is simply relaying sense-report. Over time, the capacity to hold buddhi steady without yanking it back to objects is the practice the verse points at.

Viśiṣṭādvaita

Rāmānuja's frame suggests that knowing happiness as 'ātma-buddhy-eka-grāhyam' is not impersonal introspection but relational awareness — the jīva knows itself as genuinely joyful because it is genuinely a mode of Bhagavān. In ordinary life this translates as: orient every significant activity toward the one relationship that is constitutional (the soul's belonging to Īśvara), and let that orientation be the test of whether an action belongs to your actual nature or to a surface preference.

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Dvaita

Madhva's insistence that happiness is grounded in bhagavad-rūpatva — not in the jīva's own completeness — is a corrective to the modern productivity trap of self-optimization. The Dvaita application: resist any practice or narrative that frames your wellbeing as generated by you. When something goes deeply right, locate the source outside yourself — in Hari's will and grace — and train the attribution reflex accordingly. This is not passivity; it is accurate ontology applied as attitude.

Śuddhādvaita

Vallabha's reading that the ātman and bliss are the same thing — not knower and known — translates into a Puṣṭi-mārga practice of recognizing delight itself as Kṛṣṇa's presence rather than as your own achievement. Everyday application: when genuine joy arises — in beauty, in music, in a child's laughter — do not annotate it as 'I am happy.' Simply rest in it as Kṛṣṇa's self-luminous nature appearing in this moment. The noting-as-yours is what collapses the sukha into ordinary pleasure.

Bhakti

Śrīdhara's 'niratiśayam nityam sukham' — happiness without superior and without end — is a diagnostic tool for everyday life. The application: whenever you secure a source of happiness (relationship, achievement, state of health), ask whether it is niratiśaya — whether anything could surpass or remove it. When you find the honest answer is no, that is the direction of practice. This is not nihilism about ordinary goods; it is a calibration that keeps ordinary goods from masquerading as the absolute.

Advaita-Bhakti

Madhusūdana's three-term analysis (exclude sense-pleasure, exclude deep-sleep, affirm samādhi-buddhi) gives a working map for contemplative life. The everyday application is to become fluent in the difference between rest (which looks like peace but involves buddhi dissolving), distraction (sense-contact pleasure), and genuine stillness (buddhi present, luminous, not grabbing any content). Gauḍapāda's injunction — 'do not savor even this happiness as an object' — is the most demanding application: notice when you convert a moment of genuine clarity into a self-congratulatory story, and stop.

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 21: Krishna to Arjuna — Dhyāna-Yoga