Chapter 7 · Verse 29·Spoken by Krishna
जरामरणमोक्षाय मामाश्रित्य यतन्ति ये। ते ब्रह्म तद्विदुः कृत्स्नमध्यात्मं कर्म चाखिलम्
jarā-maraṇa-mokṣhāya mām āśhritya yatanti ye te brahma tadviduḥ kṛitsnam adhyātmaṁ karma chākhilam
Those who take refuge in me and strive for freedom from old age and death come to know Brahman, the Self, and action in its entirety.
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Sanskrit recitation by Swami Brahmānanda
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Convergence
his verse describes a particular kind of seeker: one who wants to be free from old age and death, who therefore takes refuge in Krishna and makes a real effort. 'Jara' means old age and 'marana' means death, and these stand for the whole weary round of birth, decay, and dying that the seeker longs to escape. 'Mam ashritya' means taking refuge in Krishna, turning to him as one's shelter; 'yatanti' means they strive and make effort. So the verse joins three things into one description of the fit candidate: the motive (freedom from aging and dying), the inner stance (taking refuge in the Lord), and the active endeavor (striving). The commentators stress that all three together make the person ready for the knowledge the verse goes on to name.
Braided from 15 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrī Bhāskara · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas · Śrī Ānandagiri · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha
Such seekers come to know three things, named together as the fruit of their refuge and striving: Brahman in its entirety, the whole of adhyatma, and the whole of action (karma). 'Brahman' is the supreme reality. 'Adhyatma' is what pertains to the inmost Self. 'Karma' is action, here understood by most as the means leading to this knowledge. The verse says they know all three completely and without remainder. The commentators note these three are not knowledge held apart from one another; all three flow from the one act of refuge, so that the knower of the Self is at the same time the knower of Brahman and the knower of action.
Braided from 14 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Śrī Bhāskara · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīla Baladeva · Lokmanya Tilak · Sant Jñāneśvar · Śrī Ānandagiri · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri
Several commentators read this verse as a deliberate hinge or set of aphorisms. It states in brief what the next chapter (Chapter 8) will unfold in full. The three terms named here, Brahman, adhyatma, and karma, set up the very list that opens Chapter 8, where Arjuna asks his questions and Krishna answers them point by point. So the verse is not only a teaching in itself but a doorway: it plants the topics that the following chapter will explain at length.
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Vedānta Deśika · Śrī Bhāskara · Vallabhācārya · Śrīla Baladeva
The striving named here is inward and refuge-rooted, not mere worldly busyness. The effort consists of the recognized means to knowledge: turning away from other objects, settling the mind on the Lord, and undertaking the disciplines of hearing, reflection, and the enjoined practices. The taking-of-refuge is treated as essential: it is by the very power of devotion to Krishna, and not by self-reliant effort alone, that the seeker comes to this complete knowledge.
Braided from 7 commentators
Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Vallabhācārya · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Swami Ramsukhdas · Śrīdhara Svāmī
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
These commentators read the verse through the great identity 'That thou art' (tat tvam asi). The Brahman named here, the object of the word 'that' (tat), is the supreme cause of the world, the substrate of maya, pure and without attributes; it is Krishna's own true nature. The adhyatma is the Self, the object of the word 'thou' (tvam), the inmost reality shining with reference to the body, not limited by adjuncts. Knowing both, and knowing action as the means to that knowledge, the seeker realizes there is no real diversity: all is Brahman, all is the one Self. On this reading karma is the purifying means (hearing, reflection, and meditation, or the enjoined rites that cleanse the inner organ), and the fruit is the dissolution of all difference into the one reality.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Śrī Ānandagiri · Dhanapati Sūri
Viśiṣṭādvaita
These commentators read the goal more concretely as the sight of the self's own form as set apart from matter. Liberation from aging and death is the seeing of the individual self in its true standing, distinct from the body and from material nature. The Brahman known here is the imperishable inner reality; the adhyatma is the inner self in its proper standing; the karma is the working out of dharma in its right order. The accent falls not on the erasure of all distinction but on the self coming to stand clear of matter and to know the Lord in whom it takes refuge.
Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika
Dvaita
These commentators insist that 'for release from old age and death' is not a command to seek liberation. It is stated either to set aside other lesser desires, such as the craving for heaven, or to praise something higher still. For scripture itself holds the devotee who does not even crave liberation to be greater than the seeker of liberation: spontaneous, motiveless devotion to the Lord, arising of itself out of boundless love, is loftier than the liberation won by desire-driven devotion, and it wears away the subtle body as fire consumes what it swallows. On this reading the order of all things is hierarchical and Lord-centered: the deities have Narayana for their object, Narayana has liberation for his object, and liberation has no further object beyond him. And the Self is finally known only to the one whom the Lord himself chooses ('whom He chooses, by him He is attained').
Madhvācārya · Śrī Jayatīrtha
Śuddhādvaita
These commentators read old age and death as forms of the forgetting of Bhagavan that obstructs worship of him. For the devotee of grace (the 'pushti' devotee) who has placed his whole bond on the Lord, the very things that were obstacles, aging and death, are opened up as fresh occasions for further knowing of the Lord. The Brahman known here is none other than Purushottama, the supreme Person, Krishna himself; the adhyatma is the full discipline as the means to worship; and the karma is the form of loving service, joined with devotional feeling (bhava), in all its parts. Taking refuge is the operative term: without it the knowing would not come.
Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama
Bhakti
These commentators present this seeker as a distinct, fourth type of devotee: one still full of desire, namely the desire for liberation, yet genuinely Krishna's devotee, set apart from the three desire-laden types and the deity-worshippers named earlier. It is by the sheer power of devotion to the Lord that such a seeker comes to know Brahman, the self, and action entire. Some hold that this knowing comes through the service of Krishna's image and the offering of obeisances; through such service, having known what is to be known, the devotee attains liberation. Yet one of these voices adds a pointed limit: such a one attains liberation but not the special dearness that makes the Lord subject to his devotee, for that highest intimacy belongs to selfless, not desire-driven, devotion.
Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Sant Jñāneśvar
Modern
These commentators clarify what 'release from old age and death' actually means. It does not mean the body stops aging or dying. One of them explains that even the liberated-while-living continue to have aging and death in the body, yet are free of them, because their false identification with the body has been wholly cut; bondage lies in taking 'the body has aged, I have aged' and 'the body will die, I shall die,' and freedom is the cutting of that mistaken 'I' and 'mine' relationship with the body. The same voice draws out the balance in 'taking refuge and striving': pure self-effort breeds the conceit 'I did this,' while doing nothing and waiting on the Lord alone breeds laziness and indulgence, so the seeker must both strive earnestly as scripture directs and take the Lord as the cause both of the effort and of its success; and only those who lean on the Lord rather than on their own strength gain the knowledge of his integral, whole form. The others frame the fruit as full realization that all is Vasudeva, all is Brahman, with every doubt destroyed and the seeker liberated here and now, having conquered old age and death.
Swami Ramsukhdas · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Sivananda
A Seeker Asks
If the seeker here still wants something, namely freedom from old age and death, is this lower desire-driven striving, or is it the highest path the Gita commends?
First, the desire itself is honored, not dismissed. The verse names this person as one who takes refuge in Krishna and makes real effort, and the commentators count this longing for freedom from aging and dying as the supreme practical motive that makes a person fit for the highest knowledge. Several read this seeker as a genuine, distinct kind of devotee: still full of desire, yet truly Krishna's own, who by the very power of devotion comes to know Brahman, the self, and action entire.
Vedānta Deśika · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva
Second, what is sought is not a trivial want but liberation itself, and the means is refuge in the Lord rather than self-reliant grasping. The striving is inward: turning from other objects, settling the mind on Krishna, and undertaking hearing and reflection. So even though it begins as a desire, it is desire pointed at the highest end and carried by surrender, which is why it yields complete knowledge.
Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Swami Ramsukhdas
Third, the commentators do mark a higher rung still. The desire-driven seeker attains liberation, but not the special, motiveless devotion that is loftier than liberation itself, the spontaneous love that asks for nothing; one voice adds that such a one does not gain the intimate dearness that makes the Lord subject to his devotee. So this verse's path is real and fruitful, a true and honored ascent, while pointing beyond itself to a love that no longer seeks even freedom.
Madhvācārya · Śrī Jayatīrtha · Śrīla Baladeva
Contemplation
Hold both hands of this verse at once: take refuge, and strive. If you only strive by your own power, the conceit 'I did this, and so this happened' will creep in. But if you simply tell yourself 'I will do nothing, everything will happen by the Lord's grace,' you slip into laziness, heedlessness, and self-indulgence. So the way is to undertake your effort with full earnestness, exactly as scripture directs, and at the same time to take the Lord as the cause both of that effort and of its success. And see clearly what freedom from old age and death really is. It is not that the body will stop aging or dying. It is the cutting of the false bond, the 'I am the body, the body is mine,' by which you say 'I have aged' and 'I shall die.' Even those who are free while still living have aging and death in the body, yet they are untouched, because that knot of identification has been undone. Lean on the Lord rather than on your own strength, and you come to know not a partial glimpse but his whole, integral form.
Sit with this · Swami Ramsukhdas
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