Viśiṣṭādvaita

This reading draws out a genuine circle, or mutual dependence, that makes steady knowledge hard to attain. Passion for objects does not turn away without the direct beholding of the self; yet while passion for objects has not turned away, the strong churning senses carry off the mind even of a discerning man who strives. So mastery of the senses depends on the beholding of the self, and the beholding of the self in turn depends on mastery of the senses. Each requires the other. The point is not that the task is impossible, but that it is genuinely difficult precisely because the two halves lean on one another, and the verse is read as Krishna stating that difficulty plainly.

Rāmānujācārya

Dvaita

This reading sharpens exactly who is defeated and why. The senses carry off the mind of the man of knowledge who still lacks direct knowledge, and specifically of the person who identifies with the body. It distinguishes two grades of effort and two grades of knowledge: the great effort marked by fasting and the like, versus the common restraint of the senses; and direct knowledge of the self, versus the more ordinary knowledge of discriminating the eternal from the non-eternal. The verse, on this reading, denies that the lower grade of either is enough. With only common restraint and only discriminative knowledge, the senses still win; this is what the words 'even of one striving' and 'even of the wise' are meant to concede. One source adds a careful grammatical note: the word 'of a man' (purushasya) is not meant to exclude women, since the same danger holds for them too; it is used because the verse is supporting its general point about how the self fails to conquer the senses.

Madhvācārya · Śrī Jayatīrtha

Advaita Vedānta

This reading frames the verse against the immense toil of the inward withdrawal taught nearby. In deep sleep the senses dissolve on their own through fatigue, but for the absorbed yogi they are withdrawn deliberately by will, like a tortoise drawing in its limbs, and this deliberate withdrawal is exceedingly toilsome. Against that effort the verse warns that the senses, behaving like robbers in a forest who plunder a traveler and carry off his wealth, plunder the mind from the very man who is striving, dragging the inwardly-established mind back out and making it object-prone.

Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha

Bhakti

This reading dramatizes the sheer reach of the senses' power with vivid examples. Even those who always try to control the senses find them uncontrollable; even practitioners who fence themselves with the disciplines of yama and niyama and guard their minds with vigilant study are oppressed by the irresistible power of the senses. It offers a striking comparison: just as an exorcist can himself be deluded by the very spirits he works with, so desires, taking the seductive garb of occult powers (riddhi-siddhi), overwhelm the senses and delude even advanced persons, leaving the mind prostrate and the study futile. The accent falls on warning the practitioner not to underestimate what he is up against.

Sant Jñāneśvar

Modern

This reading explains the inner mechanism of the defeat through past impressions, and turns it into a warning against spiritual pride. The man described is one who does his practice with discrimination, gives up attachment and desire for results, wishes the welfare of others, and knows right from wrong and what fruit follows from what action. Yet even his senses drag his mind. The reason offered is that so long as the intellect is not wholly established in the supreme reality, a little worldly sattva remains in it; pleasure has arisen through the contact of senses and objects, and the impressions (samskaras) of enjoyed pleasures persist. As long as these impressions remain, the senses of even the discerning, practice-devoted person are not fully under control, and when objects appear before him those impressions make the senses drag the mind and intellect by force. Citing many sages who faltered when objects came before them, this reading concludes that the seeker should never trust that his senses are mastered, and should never carry the pride 'I have become one who has conquered the senses.'

Swami Ramsukhdas

Modern

This reading turns the verse into a single practical image. The senses are like horses. If the horses are kept under perfect control, the traveler reaches his destination safely; but turbulent horses throw the rider down on the way. In the same way the turbulent senses will hurl the aspirant down into the objects of the senses, so that he cannot reach his spiritual destination, the supreme abode of eternal peace, immortality, and final liberation. The emphasis is that the aspirant must therefore bring the senses under control first.

Swami Sivananda

Modern

This reading highlights the direction of the harm. The boisterous senses do not merely move the mind; they forcibly carry away the mind of even the intelligent person in an improper, wrong direction. The note that the man is one who is making efforts 'merely' for controlling the senses underlines that effort by itself, without something further, is not yet enough to keep the mind from being pulled the wrong way.

Lokmanya Tilak

Kashmir Shaivism

This source comments on the adjacent teaching of the yogi drawing in his senses, rather than on the warning itself, and it gives that withdrawal a distinctive turn. Being settled in yoga is not like a cook's craft practiced only now and then; it must be constant. Whenever the yogi draws in the senses, gathering them into the self as a tortoise gathers its limbs and warding objects off from the senses, then and then alone is he steady in wisdom. It then offers a second, more expansive reading: rather than only shutting the senses out, the yogi draws the senses inward starting from their objects and makes the whole field, both objects and senses, his own. The note thus points beyond pure withdrawal toward a reclaiming of the sensory world into the self.

Ācārya Abhinavagupta