Chapter 12 · Verse 16·Spoken by Krishna
अनपेक्षः शुचिर्दक्ष उदासीनो गतव्यथः।सर्वारम्भपरित्यागी यो मद्भक्तः स मे प्रियः
anapekṣhaḥ śhuchir dakṣha udāsīno gata-vyathaḥ sarvārambha-parityāgī yo mad-bhaktaḥ sa me priyaḥ
He wants nothing. He is pure, capable, impartial, and free from distress. He has given up every undertaking. Such a devotee is dear to me.
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Sanskrit recitation by Swami Brahmānanda
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Convergence
his verse continues Krishna's portrait of the devotee who is dear to him by listing six more marks, and nearly every commentator reads the first as the keynote: 'anapekṣa', free of expectation or dependence. The devotee asks nothing from the world. He has no longing even for the enjoyments that arrive by chance, the things one might naturally look to for comfort: the body, the senses, sense-objects, and the connections between them. Several commentators give a striking reason for this freedom. The devotee already holds the highest gain, contact with God, so no lesser gain can pull at him; he does not even count his own body, senses, and mind as his own, but as God's, and therefore expects nothing from anyone.
Braided from 12 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Baladeva · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Rāmānujācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Vallabhācārya · Swami Ramsukhdas · Lokmanya Tilak · Sant Jñāneśvar
The next three marks describe the devotee's clean and capable way of living in the world. 'Śuchi', pure, is taken by most as purity of two kinds: outer cleanliness of the body, and inner cleanliness of the mind, the heart washed of likes and dislikes, joy and grief, and so untouched by merit and demerit. 'Dakṣa', skilled, means alert and able: one who can grasp at once what needs doing and do it, free of sloth and laziness. 'Udāsīna', indifferent, means the devotee takes the side of no one in the quarrels of the world; he stays impartial, holding no party against another, neither friend's side nor foe's. Together these say the devotee is clean within and without, capable and unlazy in action, yet wholly free of partisanship.
Braided from 11 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Śrīla Baladeva · Śrī Puruṣottama · Swami Ramsukhdas · Lokmanya Tilak · Sant Jñāneśvar · Śrīla Viśvanātha
'Gata-vyatha', free of distress, means no inner pain or agitation arises in the devotee even when he is wronged or struck by others. Several commentators carefully distinguish this from forbearance, which appeared in an earlier verse. Forbearance, they explain, is refusing to harm a wrongdoer even though pain has arisen; this quality is higher, for here the pain does not even arise. One commentator widens the term: 'vyatha' is not only the discontent that comes at the unfavorable but also the delight that rises at the favorable, so being free of distress means being free of both the swing toward pleasure and the swing away from pain. For others this freedom is the calm of one who, doing what scripture asks, no longer suffers from unavoidable contact with cold, heat, and harsh touches.
Braided from 10 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Śrīla Baladeva · Swami Ramsukhdas · Rāmānujācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama
The final mark is 'sarvārambha-parityāgī', the renouncer of all undertakings. An undertaking is an action begun out of desire, aimed at enjoying its fruit here or hereafter: gathering new possessions, opening new ventures, building up for one's own pleasure. The devotee has given up the habit of all such fruit-seeking action. Most commentators tie this directly to the verse's earlier marks, treating it as their summary: because he expects nothing and fears no loss, he begins nothing for his own gain. One commentator notes that undertakings are the very source of fear, so to renounce them is to remove fear at its root. Whatever action still comes from such a devotee is offered to God, done for God's pleasure alone, not for wealth, comfort, honor, or prestige.
Braided from 13 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Rāmānujācārya · Swami Ramsukhdas · Lokmanya Tilak · Vallabhācārya · Sant Jñāneśvar
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
These commentators read the marks as describing the renunciant knower of the Self, the sannyasi. Purity is also being unstained by virtue and vice; skill is being untired in the worship of the Lord; the renouncer of all undertakings is one who has taken to formal renunciation. One of them frames the whole list as the qualities of the knower and is careful to derive each term precisely, showing for instance how freedom from distress differs from forbearance so that no quality is a needless repetition of another. The accent falls on inner detachment crowned by knowledge.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri
Viśiṣṭādvaita
These commentators keep the marks firmly anchored to scriptural action. Expecting nothing means expecting nothing from the whole of things other than the self; purity is having a body nourished by the substances scripture sanctions; skill is ability in taking up the acts scripture enjoins while staying indifferent to everything else; freedom from distress is endurance of the unavoidable cold, heat, and harsh touches met while carrying out those scriptural acts; and the renunciation of undertakings is giving up every action other than the scriptural ones. One of them counts these as 'seven marks' that together name the devotee's outer practice. Detachment here is not from action as such but from non-scriptural, fruit-bound action.
Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika
Dvaita
These commentators are mainly concerned to defend the verse against the charge of redundancy, since its terms seem to repeat the qualities of nearby verses. They answer that the relation is one of the general and the particular, or of an explanation and the thing it explains, so no term is wasted. They also argue from grammar that the present tense is used to convey an unbroken continuity of these qualities, not their mere occasional presence, ruling out any merely figurative reading. For them the repeated naming of 'my devotee' across these verses is deliberate, meant to make known the surpassing eminence of devotion itself, and they read this whole passage as the expansion of the earlier teaching, 'those who cast all actions on Me.'
Madhvācārya · Śrī Jayatīrtha
Śuddhādvaita
These commentators read every mark through the lens of loving service to God. Expecting nothing means looking for nothing beyond God's service, not even the heavenly states of dwelling in his realm, sharing his powers, taking his form, nearness to him, or even oneness, which the devotee declines if offered apart from service. Purity is right conduct, from which happiness is born, or being filled with the remembrance of God; skill is deftness in service, fitting each of its adornments, or knowing the very nature of devotional service; indifference is being uninvolved with home and all that stands against service. The renunciation of undertakings is giving up every effort aimed at objects of family and home that obstruct service, since in service even agitation or pleasure can become an obstacle.
Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama
Bhakti
These commentators read the marks as the bearing of the loving devotee. One of them notably extends the renunciation of all undertakings beyond worldly ventures to include even certain transcendental ones, such as the teaching of scriptures, so that nothing the devotee does is begun for the sake of any aim of his own. Another, in expansive devotional imagery, contrasts the saint's purity with sacred places that purify only at the risk of death, while the river of devotion bears the devotee to liberation without drowning him; he pictures the devotee as untainted as the sun, detached as the sky, free as a bird escaped from the hunter, and closes with God declaring that he hankers after such a devotee, takes incarnation for his sake, and waves his own life around the devotee in loving lustration.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar
Modern
One of these commentators reads the marks plainly as the karma-yogi's bearing: unexpecting, pure, industrious in the sense of giving up idleness, indifferent about the fruit of action, unable to be upset by any emotion, and having given up all activity undertaken for desirable fruit. The other develops each mark at length as the inner state of the perfected devotee, with a distinctive teaching: necessities of bodily life arrive of their own accord because God has provided for every being in advance, and desiring actually obstructs supply, while the one who asks for nothing is spontaneously served. For him true skill is having accomplished life's real aim, God-attainment, so worldly cleverness is no real skill at all; and behind such a self-sufficient devotee God himself moves, longing to be purified by the dust of his feet.
Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas
A Seeker Asks
If the dear devotee renounces all undertakings and expects nothing, how is he not simply passive or negligent, and how does anything in his life actually get done?
The verse is not praising inaction; the same devotee is called 'dakṣa', skilled, meaning alert and capable, free of sloth and laziness, able to grasp at once what needs doing and to do it. What is renounced is not action but the desire-driven undertaking begun for one's own enjoyment of its fruit here or hereafter. So the devotee remains active and capable while no longer acting for personal gain.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Lokmanya Tilak
Action still flows from such a devotee; it is simply re-aimed. Whatever work comes from him is offered to God and done for God's pleasure alone, not for wealth, comfort, honor, or prestige, and his body, senses, mind, and the very fruits of his work are held as already given to God. This is why one tradition reads the verse as the expansion of the earlier teaching to cast all actions on God: undertakings are not abandoned into idleness but surrendered into service.
Swami Ramsukhdas · Rāmānujācārya · Madhvācārya
As for life's needs being met, one commentator answers directly: the necessities of bodily life come of their own accord because God has provided for every being in advance, and it is grasping desire that actually obstructs supply, while the one who asks for nothing is spontaneously served. So the devotee's freedom from expectation is not negligence; it is trust that what is needed arrives without being clutched at.
Swami Ramsukhdas
Contemplation
Notice where your expectations actually run. The pull toward objects, comfort, honor, and outcomes is the very thing this verse asks you to lay down, and it can be laid down because what you most need is already yours: God is never separated from you, while everything perishable was always going to depart. There is a freeing practical insight here. The necessities of life come of their own accord, for they have been provided in advance; it is grasping and clutching that actually obstruct supply, while the one who asks for nothing is quietly seen to and served. So you can stop bracing for gain and loss. Let calamity be calamity without letting a contrary impression touch the mind; stay engrossed in what is steady. And when you act, let the action come for God's pleasure alone, not for wealth, comfort, honor, or prestige. Hold the body, senses, mind, and even the fruits of your work as already offered. As the pull of perishable enjoyments quiets, the natural attraction to the Divine rises on its own.
Sit with this · Swami Ramsukhdas
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