टीका

Commentary

This verse describes the fully realized person with extraordinary economy — four compressed qualities, each beginning with tat (That, the Supreme), followed by the result: liberation, non-return, the washing away of all impurity through knowledge. It reads almost like a mantra of completeness.

The Fourfold Description

Krishna uses four parallel expressions, each beginning with tad (That):

Tad-buddhyah — intellect fixed in the Supreme. The intelligence, which ordinarily runs after problems and pleasures, is stilled and pointed toward the one reality that does not change.

Tad-aatmaanah — the very self absorbed in That. Not merely the mind thinking about God, but the entire sense of self relocated in the Supreme. The person no longer experiences himself as a separate individual but as an expression of that one reality.

Tan-nishthah — faith rooted in That alone. Nishtha means steadfast, unwavering, rooted. This is not belief that comes and goes. It is the settled conviction of direct experience.

Tat-paraayanaah — fully surrendered, taking refuge in That. Paraayan is the deepest refuge — not a visit but a permanent dwelling.

Gyaana-Nirdhuta-Kalmashaaah — Sins Washed Away by Knowledge

Nirdhuta means thoroughly shaken off, as dust is shaken from a cloth. Kalmasha means impurity, sin, the residue of ignorance. When genuine Self-knowledge arises, all this is washed away — not through ritual, not through punishment, but through the simple recognition of truth. A person cannot cling to mistaken identity once the mistake is clearly seen.

Apunar-Aavritim — No Return

Apunar-aavritim is the classical phrase for liberation: non-return to the cycle of birth and death. This is not presented as a reward but as the natural consequence of complete identification with the Supreme. If one is the Supreme, there is nowhere to “return from” — there is only the ever-present reality of what one always was.

Historical Context

The phrase apunar-aavritim — non-return — appears in several Upanishads and is one of the defining markers of moksha in the Vedantic tradition. This verse connects knowledge (jnana), devotion (bhakti), and surrender (sharanagati) as a unified path rather than competing approaches — a hallmark of the Gita’s integrative teaching.