Sanskrit
संनियम्येन्द्रियग्रामं सर्वत्र समबुद्धयः । ते प्राप्नुवन्ति मामेव सर्वभूतहिते रताः ॥
saṃniyamyendriyagrāmaṃ sarvatra samabuddhayaḥ te prāpnuvanti mām eva sarvabhūtahite ratāḥ
Translation
Restraining and subduing the senses, regarding everything equally, in the welfare of all rejoicing, these also come unto Me.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The key word is “also” (te prāpnuvanti mām eva) — Krishna grants that the unmanifest path genuinely reaches the same destination as bhakti. Verse 5 will rank the two paths by difficulty, not by whether they arrive; this verse forecloses any reading of verse 2’s “best in yoga” as meaning the other path fails. The operative word is mām eva — “Me too.” Krishna grants that the unmanifest path reaches the same destination; BG 12.5 will rank the two by difficulty, not by whether they arrive. And the same sarva-bhūta-hite ratāḥ of BG 5.25 — liberation is not withdrawal.
Study deeper
Word by word
- saṃniyamyendriyagrāmaṃसंनियंयेन्द्रियग्रामं
- restraining the whole host of senses (saṃniyamya + indriya-grāmam)
- sarvatra samabuddhayaḥसर्वत्र समबुद्धयः
- even-minded everywhere (sarvatra + sama-buddhayaḥ)
- te prāpnuvanti mām evaते प्राप्नुवन्ति मां एव
- they too attain Me (te + prāpnuvanti + mām + eva)
- sarvabhūtahite ratāḥसर्वभूतहिते रताः
- delighting in the welfare of all beings (sarva-bhūta-hite + ratāḥ)
Commentary
Site Commentary
The word doing the real work in this verse is “also” — teṣām api (“these also”) — which quietly forecloses the reading that verse 2’s ranking meant the unmanifest path fails. Naming an alternative as harder is not the same claim as naming it wrong, and this verse is careful enough to keep those two judgments separate even while making one of them plainly.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- When you choose the easier version of a discipline — a shorter workout, a simpler diet — remember this verse's "also": an easier practice that still gets you where you're going isn't a lesser choice, it's simply calibrated to what you can actually sustain.
Professional
- When a colleague solves a problem the straightforward way instead of the elegant way you'd have chosen, don't treat their approach as inferior just because it looked easier — if it reaches the same correct result, it also got there.
Family & Social
- When someone in your family takes the slower, simpler route to a goal you share, don't let your faster path read as the only valid one. Different paces reaching the same place are both, in this verse's word, valid.
Ask yourself
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