टीका

Commentary

This verse describes the fully accomplished yogi in four phrases that together constitute a complete portrait of liberation: peace of mind (prashanata-manasam), supreme happiness (sukham uttamam), passions stilled (shanta-rajasam), and identity with Brahman with all past karma dissolved (brahma-bhutam akalmasham).

“Prashanata-manasam” — the mind at peace — is first because it is the foundation of everything else described. Peace of mind is not a mood or a feeling that comes and goes. In the yogic sense, it is a permanent condition of the mind that has arrived at its natural ground and no longer oscillates. This is the peace that, in the Gita’s language, “surpasses all understanding” — not because it is mysterious, but because it is beyond the comprehension of a mind that has only known the agitated state.

“Shanta-rajasam” — whose rajas has been quieted — identifies what has been resolved to enable this peace. Rajas is the mode of passion, restlessness, craving, and driven action. In Samkhya philosophy, rajas is the quality that keeps living beings in constant movement and seeking. When rajas is quieted, not suppressed but genuinely settled, the mind finds the stillness that is its natural state beneath the activity.

“Brahma-bhutam akalmasham” — liberated through identity with Brahman, free from all past sins — describes the consequence. “Brahma-bhuta” is a specific technical term in the Gita meaning the state of liberation, of being firmly situated in Brahman. In this state, past karma — the accumulated impressions of previous actions — no longer bind the soul or generate new suffering.

Historical Context

The concept of “brahma-bhuta” — liberation through union with Brahman — is central to Vedanta. The Advaita school interprets this as identity with impersonal Brahman; the Vaishnava schools interpret it as being positioned in Brahman while retaining individual identity in devotional relationship with the personal Supreme. Both interpretations agree on the outer signs: peace, supreme happiness, freedom from passion, and freedom from karma.