Chapter 13 · Verse 9·Spoken by Arjuna
इन्द्रियार्थेषु वैराग्यमनहङ्कार एव च।जन्ममृत्युजराव्याधिदुःखदोषानुदर्शनम्
indriyārtheṣhu vairāgyam anahankāra eva cha janma-mṛityu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣhānudarśhanam
Detachment from the objects of the senses, and absence of ego. Seeing clearly the suffering and the flaw in birth, death, old age, and disease.
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Sanskrit recitation by Swami Brahmānanda
Audio from the Gītā Supersite, IIT Kanpur
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Convergence
his verse continues Krishna's list of the qualities that together make up true knowledge. The first quality is vairagya, which most commentators translate as dispassion or non-attachment toward the objects of the senses. Sense-objects means the things the senses reach out for: sound, touch, form, taste, smell, and the pleasures they bring. Dispassion is not hating these things; it is the simple absence of longing for them, the mind no longer being pulled toward them. The commentators add that this covers not only pleasures we can see and grab here and now, but also pleasures we have only heard about, such as the enjoyments promised in heaven; the dispassion extends to both.
Braided from 11 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Swami Sivananda · Swami Ramsukhdas
The second quality is anahankara, the absence of ego. Several commentators give it a precise meaning: it is the absence of the proud thought 'I am the highest of all,' the swelling sense of superiority that arises in the mind. So anahankara is freedom from that conceit. One modern teacher widens it further to the dropping of the deeper 'I'-sense in the body, the senses, and the inner instrument, so that one no longer asserts 'I am the doer, I am the enjoyer, this is my body, my mind.' The smaller word 'eva' (only, even) and 'cha' (and) in the verse are read as marking that these qualities are indispensable and that they are to be gathered together with the others; the whole list, not any single item, is what is called knowledge.
Braided from 7 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrī Puruṣottama · Swami Sivananda · Swami Ramsukhdas
The third quality is the constant seeing of the fault, the dosha, in birth, death, old age, disease, and pain. Anudarshana means looking again and again, a repeated and steady reflection, not a single glance. The commentators spell out the faults concretely: birth means the long dwelling in the womb and the painful coming-out through the birth-passage; death is the cutting of the vital spots and the loss of all; old age is the dulling of the intellect and memory, the decay of strength and brilliance, and being slighted by others; disease is the fevers and ailments that wrack the body; and pain, traditionally counted in three kinds, those caused by oneself, by other beings, and by the gods and nature. By holding these faults steadily before the mind, the seeker stops being fooled by the small pleasures of the world.
Braided from 8 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Swami Sivananda · Swami Ramsukhdas
Several commentators explain why this seeing of fault is itself counted as knowledge, even though it is not direct knowledge of the Self. The reasoning runs in a chain: when one steadily sees the suffering woven into birth and the rest, dispassion toward bodily and sensual enjoyments arises; and once the pull outward is broken, the senses and mind turn inward, toward the seeing of the Self. So this reflection is a cause of knowledge, and because it leads there, it is given the name knowledge. One modern teacher adds that this is not gloom or pessimism but plain honesty, the mark of viveka, discernment; the moment the seeker keeps the fault in view, dispassion rises of its own accord and the way to the highest is no longer delayed.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Swami Sivananda · Swami Ramsukhdas
Divergence
Bhakti
This Vishishtadvaita reading shifts the emphasis from disgust at the body to the loosening of grip on relationships. Non-attachment is the absence of attachment toward everything other than the Self. The absence of clinging is then made concrete: toward son, wife, house, and the like, one drops the close embracing of them, holding them only as instruments of scripture-ordained action rather than as objects to cling to. And the verse's third quality is read as constant even-mindedness, the steady absence of gladness when the wished-for arrives and agitation when the unwished-for arrives, both of which spring from imagining.
Rāmānujācārya
Bhakti
This devotional reading, like other relational glosses, takes the verse to be about the inward freedom of one who lives among family and possessions without being bound by them. It paints the picture at length: such a person sits in his own home like a traveler resting in a wayside inn, feels no more attachment to his household than to the shade of a tree he rests under, notices his wife as little as he notices his own shadow, and treats his children as fellow travelers briefly lodging with him. Amid riches he is a mere passing onlooker. To him good and evil are alike as summer and rain are to the ocean, and pleasure and pain make no difference, as morning, noon, and evening make no difference to the sun. In such an even-minded one, knowledge dwells incarnate.
Sant Jñāneśvar
Śuddhādvaita
This Shuddhadvaita reading is the boldest re-hearing of the faults. Birth, death, old age, and disease are not catalogued here as the ordinary miseries of any embodied life, to be fled in disgust at the body as such. They are read inwardly, in the devotee's own life, as breaks in the connection with the Bhagavan. Birth is the unborn Brahman-portion's coming into the impurity of the womb; death is set up as the very forgetting of the Bhagavan; old age is the falling away of the shakti, the power, needed for service; disease is the affliction that hinders bhakti, loving devotion. The contemplation of these faults is therefore itself a discipline of service, returning the devotee's mind to the divine presence beneath each affliction.
Śrī Puruṣottama
Viśiṣṭādvaita
This Vishishtadvaita gloss frames the three marks as a single inward movement and names how they support one another. The vairagya is the inner pulling-back from sense-pleasures; the anahankara is the inner letting-go of the egoic claim; and the constant beholding of the body's faults is the inner discipline that fuels the first two. So the seeing of fault is not an end in itself but the engine that keeps dispassion and ego-loss alive.
Vedānta Deśika
A Seeker Asks
Is the Gita asking me to dwell on the pains of birth, aging, sickness, and death until I despise the body, or is that constant reflection on suffering just morbid pessimism?
The reflection is honesty, not pessimism. Birth, aging, sickness, and death are not framed as bad luck that might be avoided; they are the natural consequence of taking a body. Seeing this clearly is the mark of viveka, discernment, not gloom. The point is to stop being deceived by the small pleasures of the world that keep pulling you back.
Swami Ramsukhdas · Dhanapati Sūri
And the reflection is not meant to stop at disgust. It works as a cause: steadily seeing the fault loosens the mind's grip on sensual and bodily enjoyment, and once that outward pull is broken, the senses and mind turn inward toward the Self. That is precisely why this seeing of fault is counted as knowledge; it clears the way to knowing what is beyond all five faults.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Swami Sivananda
Some commentators do not even read it primarily as turning against the body. One devotional reading takes the heart of the verse to be living among family, home, and wealth without clinging, holding them lightly as a traveler holds a resting place, and keeping an even mind through what is wished and unwished. So the same verse can be lived as freedom within ordinary life, not only as withdrawal from it.
Rāmānujācārya · Sant Jñāneśvar
Contemplation
Keep the fault honestly before your eyes. Birth, aging, sickness, death, and the pain running through them are not occasional accidents that might be dodged with luck; they are the natural product of having taken a body, of having stepped from your own true nature into the field of changing things. Birth is itself the door to death; with birth comes the inevitable wearing of the body, and with that, sickness, and through the whole sequence the suffering is unbroken. To see this clearly is not gloom. It is discernment, plain truthfulness. So long as you forget the fault and remember only the apparent sweetness of the world, your arrival at the highest is delayed. The moment you hold the fault steadily in view, dispassion rises of its own accord, and instead of being tempted by the small pleasures that would only fasten you to another round of birth, you feel a clean urgency to reach that reality which is free of all five.
Sit with this · Swami Ramsukhdas
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