BG-2.64 — Rāga-Dveṣa-Viyukti and the Door to Prasāda

BG-2.64

रागद्वेषवियुक्तैस्तु विषयानिन्द्रियैश्चरन् । आत्मवश्यैर्विधेयात्मा प्रसादमधिगच्छति ॥६४॥

"But moving among sense-objects with senses freed from rāga-dveṣa, [the senses now] under the self's control, self-disciplined, he attains prasāda (clarity-grace)."

The positive-formula counterweight to the previous cluster's cascade. BG-2.62-63 (cluster 0088) gave the disease in seven movements — dhyāyato viṣayān → sanga → kāma → krodha → sammoha → smṛti-vibhrama → buddhi-nāśa → praṇaśyati. BG-2.64 inverts every term: rāga-dveṣa are viyukta (uprooted) instead of arising; the senses now cara (move among) viṣayas instead of being dragged by them; they are ātma-vaśya (under-self's-control) instead of pramāthin (turbulent); the self is vidheya-ātmā (disciplined) instead of vibhrānta; the destination is prasāda (clarity-grace) instead of praṇāśa.

The śloka's quiet revolution is the word caran — moving among. The sthitaprajña does not withdraw from viṣayas; he moves among them. The cluster's two extended metaphors carry the philosophical claim: the sun-and-rays (2.333-2.334) — sun touches the world with rays but is not stained by contact-defect — and water-into-water / fire-into-fire (2.336) — the paripūrṇa is so saturated into being-itself that viṣaya-contact is like water drowning in water. The closing ovi 2.337 names what this state is: प्रज्ञा अचळु निभ्रांत मानीं — consider his prajñā unmoving, undoubtable. The sthitaprajña-question Arjuna opened at BG-2.54 receives one of its formal closing-replies here.

Jñāneśvar gives this in 7 ovis. 2.331 names the cure (mānasika-tyāga). 2.332 names the consequence (no bondage even in sense-engagement). 2.333-2.334 carry the sun-rays metaphor. 2.335 gives the metaphysical ground (no viṣaya apart from self). 2.336 gives the samarasa image. 2.337 closes with achala-prajñā.

Ovi 2.331

Original (Marathi): म्हणौनि विषय हे आघवे । सर्वथा मनौनि सांडावे । मग रागद्वेष स्वभावें । नाशतील ॥३३१॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna (हेतु-continuation म्हणौनि — therefore — from the cascade of cluster 0088; sustained Kṛṣṇa-speech)

Word-by-word gloss

Marathi	Meaning
म्हणौनि विषय हे आघवे	hence, these viṣayas, all of them
सर्वथा मनौनि सांडावे	should be utterly abandoned from-the-mind (मन-ūni)
मग रागद्वेष स्वभावें	then rāga-and-dveṣa, by their own nature
नाशतील	will perish

Literal translation

English: Therefore — all these viṣayas should be utterly abandoned from the mind. Then rāga-and-dveṣa will perish of their own nature.

मराठी (आधुनिक): म्हणून हे सर्व विषय मनापासूनच पूर्णतः सोडले पाहिजेत. मग राग-द्वेष आपोआपच (स्वभावतःच) नाश पावतील.

Metaphor-unfold

No extended metaphor in this ovi.

Nāth-yogic layer

No Nāth-yogic referent.

Cross-references

Source citation: BG-2.62 (echo) — ध्यायतो विषयान्पुंसः — Kṛṣṇa's own diagnosis two ślokas back: contemplating objects breeds sanga, then kāma, then krodha. 2.331's prescription मनौनि सांडावे (abandon from-the-mind) is the exact inverse of that diagnosis — if mind-contemplation is the cascade's origin, then mind-abandonment is its uprooting.
Internal link: 2.321 (contradicts-and-revises) — 2.321 (cluster 0088) named the disease: हृदयीं विषय स्मरती / तरी निसंगाही आपजे संगती (if viṣayas are remembered in the heart, even the unattached becomes attached). 2.331 names the cure — the same locus (mind / heart) must be the site of renunciation, not the outer body.

Modern application

When you are physically away from the addiction but still mentally rehearsing it. This is the recovering addict's quiet defeat. The bottle is gone, the dealer's number deleted, the apartment moved — but the mind still walks the old route, replays the old taste, anticipates the old release. 2.331 names exactly this: the viṣaya is being abandoned in the body (आघवे ... सांडावे) but not in the mind (मनौनि). And so rāga-dveṣa do not perish "by their own nature" — they keep being fed.
When external renunciation is treated as the cure rather than as the support. The monastic robe, the silence retreat, the deleted account — these are scaffolding. They reduce sensory input so the mind can do the actual work: mānasika-tyāga. When the scaffolding becomes the goal, the work never happens. 2.331's emphasis on मनौनि is precisely this corrective.
When you wonder why rāga-dveṣa keep coming back despite years of practice. The diagnosis: the mind still holds the viṣaya. Re-read the line: मग रागद्वेष स्वभावें नाशतील — then (after मनौनि सांडावे) rāga-dveṣa will perish by their own nature. The implication is reverse-readable: if they keep returning, the मनौनि-step has not been completed.

Sādhanā

Sit for 5 minutes today and identify one viṣaya you have physically renounced but mentally not yet renounced. Don't try to renounce it mentally — first just see the gap between the two. Most of the work is in the seeing.

Arc

2.332 will name the consequence: when rāga-dveṣa are gone from the mind, even sense-engagement no longer binds.

Ovi 2.332

Original (Marathi): पार्था आणिकही एक । जरी नाशले रागद्वेष । तरी इंद्रियां विषयीं बाधक । रमतां नाहीं ॥३३२॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna (vocative पार्था — strongest anchor)

Word-by-word gloss

Marathi	Meaning
पार्था आणिकही एक	Pārtha, one more thing
जरी नाशले रागद्वेष	if rāga-dveṣa have perished
तरी इंद्रियां विषयीं	then, for the indriyas, in [their] viṣayas
बाधक रमतां नाहीं	sporting [there] is not a binder / no bondage [arises from] sporting

Literal translation

English: Pārtha, one more thing — when rāga-and-dveṣa have perished, then for the senses sporting in their viṣayas, no bondage arises.

मराठी (आधुनिक): पार्था, आणखी एक गोष्ट: जर राग-द्वेष नष्ट झाले, तर इंद्रिये विषयांत रमली तरी ती बाधक नाहीत.

Metaphor-unfold

No extended metaphor in this ovi (the sun-rays image begins in 2.333).

Nāth-yogic layer

No Nāth-yogic referent.

Modern application

When you fear that sense-engagement itself is the bondage. The śloka's most surprising word is caran — moving among. Liberation is not from sensing; it is from being dragged while sensing. The eye still sees, the tongue still tastes, the hand still touches — but बाधक रमतां नाहीं: the engagement itself is no longer a binder. 2.332 names the very thing many sādhakas miss: the goal is not withdrawal from world, but rāga-dveṣa-viyukta participation in world.
When withdrawal has become spiritual anxiety rather than clarity. Some practitioners avoid sense-engagement not because rāga-dveṣa are uprooted, but because the fear of being dragged is so strong that any engagement feels dangerous. This is rāga-dveṣa wearing the costume of vairāgya. 2.332's diagnostic: if rāga-dveṣa were truly uprooted, the engagement would not feel dangerous — बाधक रमतां नाहीं.
When the householder reads "renounce" and feels excluded. The Gītā does not address renunciates only. 2.332 addresses Pārtha — a kṣatriya about to fight a war. The teaching is portable: a doctor seeing patients all day, a parent feeding children, a teacher engaging students, a merchant negotiating prices — each of these is इंद्रियां विषयीं रमतां (sporting-in-viṣayas), and each can be बाधक नाहीं if rāga-dveṣa are absent.

Sādhanā

For one sense-engagement today (a meal, a conversation, a walk), notice: where in the engagement does rāga arise? where does dveṣa? The engagement itself is value-neutral; the binding is the rāga-dveṣa overlay. Practice today by separating the two within one ordinary moment.

Arc

2.333 will give the first extended metaphor explaining how engagement-without-binding is possible: the sun touching the world with its rays without being stained.

Ovi 2.333

Original (Marathi): जैसा सूर्य आकाशगतु । रश्मिकरें जगातें स्पर्शतु । तरी संगदोषें काय लिंपतु । तेथिचेनि ॥३३३॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna (simile-continuation जैसा)

Word-by-word gloss

Marathi	Meaning
जैसा सूर्य आकाशगतु	just as the sun, moving-in-sky (ākāśa-gata)
रश्मिकरें जगातें स्पर्शतु	touches the world with [its] rays-as-hands (raśmi-kara)
तरी संगदोषें काय लिंपतु	yet, by the contact-defect (sanga-doṣa), would it get stained?
तेथिचेनि	by that-very-locus / by being-there

Literal translation

English: Just as the sun, moving in the sky, touches the world with its rays-as-hands — yet would it get stained by the contact-defect of being-there?

मराठी (आधुनिक): जसा आकाशात असलेला सूर्य आपल्या किरण-हातांनी जगाला स्पर्शतो, परंतु तिथल्या संगदोषाने का लिप्त होईल?

Metaphor-unfold

The first of the cluster's two extended images. Carried across 2.333-2.334.

Literal image (sun-and-rays)	Philosophical referent	Modern equivalent
Sun moving in the sky (सूर्य आकाशगतु)	The realized one, situated in his own being	A doctor at the bedside, a teacher in the classroom, a parent at the dinner-table — present, situated, not absent
Touches the world with rays-as-hands (रश्मिकरें ... स्पर्शतु)	Senses engaging viṣayas through their natural functions	The senses doing their work — seeing, hearing, touching, tasting
Sanga-doṣa cannot stain it (संगदोषें काय लिंपतु)	rāga-dveṣa-viyukta engagement	Engagement without being-personally-implicated; the contact functions but does not register as my desire or my aversion
`तेथिचेनि` — by being-there	The sun is not damaged by what its rays touch; the realized one is not damaged by what he engages	Empathy without absorption; presence without entanglement

The metaphor-family — sun-and-rays / sūrya-raśmi — is one of the Gītā's recurring images. The same logic appears at BG-13.32 in the ākāśa-version (यथा सर्वगतं सौक्ष्म्यादाकाशं नोपलिप्यते). The image's force is: what pervades does not adhere. The sun's rays touch the dustbin and the temple-tower with the same indifference; nothing they touch can transfer its property back up to the sun.

Nāth-yogic layer

No Nāth-yogic referent. The sun-and-rays here is pure doctrinal Vedānta non-staining-through-pervasion, not the Nāth-tantric ādhāra-sūrya / sūrya-cakra register.

Cross-references

Source citations:
Iśa Upaniṣad 8 (echo) — शुद्धमपापविद्धम् — the Self is pure, untouched-by-evil despite pervading all. 2.333's sun-rays-touch-world-yet-untainted is the same logic in image-form.
BG-13.32 (echo) — यथा सर्वगतं सौक्ष्म्यादाकाशं नोपलिप्यते — the same non-stain-despite-pervasion logic, deployed there with ākāśa rather than sun; the Gītā's own later use of this argument-pattern.
Internal link: BG-13.32 (foreshadows) — the सर्वगत-नोपलिप्यते logic returns in adhyāya 13 in its full ontological generality (kṣetrajña-pervasion). 2.333 introduces the image here in the operational rāga-dveṣa-viyukta register.

Modern application

When you assume contact itself defiles the touching agent. This is the moral-purity fallacy. The doctor touching disease, the social worker engaging poverty, the criminal-defense lawyer engaging crime, the teacher engaging a difficult student — each of these involves contact with what could-be-called impure or troubling. The pre-vivekī reading: the contact transfers defilement upward. 2.333 inverts: तेथिचेनि — by being-there — is not the source of staining. The source of staining is sanga-doṣa, and sanga-doṣa is in the engaging-agent's rāga-dveṣa, not in the contact itself.
When you don't distinguish functional contact from sanga-doṣa. A surgeon's hand inside an abdomen is functional contact. A therapist hearing trauma is functional contact. A judge reviewing evidence is functional contact. None of these involve sanga-doṣa unless the agent's own rāga-dveṣa is activated by the contact. 2.333 names the discriminating principle: the contact is sun-rays-touching-world; what makes it problematic is whether sanga-doṣa is added.
When you suspect the spiritually-advanced should not engage at all. The image refutes this: the sun, the most exalted celestial body in the Vedic imaginary, does engage the world — that is its dharma. It engages without being changed. The sthitaprajña is not the disengaged-one; he is the sun-like engaged-one.

Sādhanā

For one functional contact today (an exchange you can't avoid — a difficult email, a tense meeting, a hard conversation), enter it with the sun's frame: I will touch this with rays; I will not be there as a person-to-be-stained. Notice afterward: was there sanga-doṣa, or only functional contact?

Arc

2.334 will apply the sun-metaphor explicitly to the rāga-dveṣa-viyukta one.

Ovi 2.334

Original (Marathi): तैसा इंद्रियार्थीं उदासीन । आत्मरसेंचि निर्भिन्न । जो कामक्रोधविहीन । होऊनि असे ॥३३४॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna (simile-application तैसा)

Word-by-word gloss

Marathi	Meaning
तैसा इंद्रियार्थीं उदासीन	just so, indifferent toward sense-objects
आत्मरसेंचि निर्भिन्न	non-different-from / saturated-by ātma-rasa alone
जो कामक्रोधविहीन	the one who is free of kāma-krodha
होऊनि असे	having become [that], is

Literal translation

English: Just so — indifferent toward sense-objects, saturated by ātma-rasa alone, free of kāma-krodha — having become that, he is.

मराठी (आधुनिक): त्याचप्रमाणे विषयांविषयी उदासीन, आत्मरसातच पूर्णतः लीन, काम-क्रोधरहित होऊन तो असतो.

Metaphor-unfold

This ovi completes the sun-and-rays application. The sun (2.333) maps to: इंद्रियार्थीं उदासीन / आत्मरसेंचि निर्भिन्न / कामक्रोधविहीन (indifferent-toward-objects / saturated-by-ātma-rasa / free-of-kāma-krodha). The structure of the simile: the realized one engages viṣayas with senses-as-rays from the secure ground of ātma-rasa-saturation, just as the sun touches the world with rays from its secure place in ākāśa. Three diagnostic markers of this state:

इंद्रियार्थीं उदासीन — udāsīna toward sense-objects. Not opposed-to, not seeking-after; the third position. The sense-object loses its valence as desirable-or-undesirable; it simply is.
आत्मरसेंचि निर्भिन्न — nirbhinna (non-different / undivided) saturated-by-ātma-rasa-alone. The fullness from which engagement happens. This is BG-3.17's आत्मरति / आत्मतृप्त anticipated in the sthitaprajña-portrait.
कामक्रोधविहीन — vihīna of kāma-krodha. The cascade of cluster 0088 stopped at the source; what remained was rāga-dveṣa-viyukti.

Nāth-yogic layer

No Nāth-yogic referent.

Cross-references

Source citation: BG-3.17 (echo) — यस्त्वात्मरतिरेव स्यादात्मतृप्तश्च मानवः — the canonical ātma-rati / ātma-tṛpta formulation; 2.334's आत्मरसेंचि निर्भिन्न is Jñāneśvar's anticipatory rendering.
Internal link: BG-3.17 (foreshadows) — ātma-rati / ātma-tṛpta receives formal naming at 3.17. 2.334's आत्मरसेंचि निर्भिन्न is its operational anticipation in the sthitaprajña-portrait.

Modern application

When you think udāsīna means cold or detached. Read 2.334 carefully: the udāsīna toward viṣayas is simultaneously saturated-by-ātma-rasa. The indifference toward sense-objects is not absence-of-feeling; it is the consequence of an already-full state. The pre-vivekī moves toward viṣayas because something feels missing. The udāsīna does not move toward viṣayas because nothing feels missing. The first is empty-and-reaching; the second is full-and-still.
When you have manufactured cold-renunciation instead of warm-fullness. This is the most common spiritual mistake. The student tries to imitate the udāsīna without the ātma-rasa-saturation. The result is forced indifference — visible as either depression, brittleness, or moral superiority. 2.334's three markers are inseparable: udāsīna because niṛbhinna-by-ātma-rasa because free-of-kāma-krodha. Take any one alone and you have a counterfeit.
When you wonder why detached people you've met still seem grasping. The diagnostic: the genuinely realized one is not merely detached; he is fulfilled-elsewhere. The detachment is a side-effect of the fulfillment, not its substitute. If detachment is the visible quality and fulfillment is not, the state is partial.

Sādhanā

Today, identify one moment when you feel udāsīna toward something you used to want. Ask: is this udāsīna because I am ātma-rasa-saturated, or because I have given up while still empty? The two look similar from outside; they are opposite states.

Arc

2.335 will give the metaphysical reason the rāga-dveṣa-viyukta one cannot be bound: viṣayas have no existence apart from himself.

Ovi 2.335

Original (Marathi): तरी विषयां तयां कांहीं । आपणपेंवांचूनि नाहीं । मग विषय कवण कायी । बाधितील कवणा ॥३३५॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna (descriptive continuation; rhetorical-question structure within sustained Kṛṣṇa-speech)

Word-by-word gloss

Marathi	Meaning
तरी विषयां तयां कांहीं	yet, for those viṣayas, anything [at all]
आपणपेंवांचूनि नाहीं	there is not, apart from oneself
मग विषय कवण कायी	then, what viṣaya, by what means
बाधितील कवणा	would bind whom?

Literal translation

English: Yet for those viṣayas, there is nothing apart from himself. Then what viṣaya, by what means, would bind whom?

मराठी (आधुनिक): त्या विषयांना स्वतःशिवाय वेगळे अस्तित्वच नाही — मग कोणता विषय कोणाला कशाने बांधेल?

Metaphor-unfold

No extended metaphor in this ovi (it is the metaphysical pivot between the sun-rays image of 2.333-2.334 and the water-into-water image of 2.336).

Nāth-yogic layer

No Nāth-yogic referent.

Cross-references

Source citation: BG-5.7 (echo) — सर्वभूतात्मभूतात्मा कुर्वन्नपि न लिप्यते — one whose self has become the self of all beings, though acting, is not stained. 2.335's logic (viṣayas have no separate existence from the realized one) is the metaphysical ground for that non-staining.

Modern application

When you treat viṣayas as having independent binding power. This is the standard view: the viṣaya is out there, it has a magnetic property that draws and binds the unwary. 2.335 dismantles this. The viṣaya has no आपणपेंवांचूनि — nothing apart from oneself. The binding power was always projected by the binding-agent. Withdraw the projection, and विषय कवण कायी बाधितील कवणा — what binds what?
When you don't see that the bound and the binder are one substance when realized. The deepest move in adhyāya 2's metaphysics arrives quietly in this ovi. The viṣaya, the indriya, and the ātman that engages — these are not three. Binding requires a binder-distinct-from-bound. When the realized one sees no separation, the very structure of binding cannot form. Liberation is not the breaking of binding; it is the recognition that there was never a separable two-thing to bind in the first place.
When you struggle to apply non-dual doctrine practically. 2.335 gives the practical doorway. Take one viṣaya that currently has power over you. Ask: does this viṣaya have any existence apart from my own projection of it as object-of-desire? Almost always the answer is no. The viṣaya is your own ātman appearing in viṣaya-costume. The recognition does not abolish the world; it dissolves the binding-relation.

Sādhanā

Pick one viṣaya you currently treat as having power-over-you. Sit with it for 3 minutes and ask: what part of this is "out there"? what part is my own projection? Notice the proportion. Often the entire binding-force is your own projection; recognizing this is half the work.

Arc

2.336 will give the cluster's second extended metaphor: water-into-water and fire-into-fire — the samarasa-image for the no-separation realization.

Ovi 2.336

Original (Marathi): जरी उदकीं उदक बुडिजे । कां अग्नि आगी पोळिजे । तरी विषयसंगे आप्लविजे । परिपूर्णु तो ॥३३६॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna (simile-continuation जरी ... तरी)

Word-by-word gloss

Marathi	Meaning
जरी उदकीं उदक बुडिजे	if water gets drowned in water
कां अग्नि आगी पोळिजे	or fire gets burned by fire
तरी विषयसंगे आप्लविजे	then, by viṣaya-contact, he is saturated/immersed
परिपूर्णु तो	the paripūrṇa (all-full one)

Literal translation

English: Just as if water were to be drowned in water, or fire to be burned by fire — so the paripūrṇa is saturated by viṣaya-contact.

मराठी (आधुनिक): जर पाणी पाण्यातच बुडवले जाईल, किंवा अग्नी आगीनेच जाळला जाईल — तसे तो परिपूर्ण विषयसंगाने आप्लवित होतो.

Metaphor-unfold

The cluster's second extended image — the canonical Vārkarī samarasa-image.

Literal image	Philosophical referent	Modern equivalent
Water drowning in water (उदकीं उदक बुडिजे)	The paripūrṇa cannot be additionally-submerged by viṣaya-contact — he is already saturated	A truly satisfied person cannot be made more satisfied by another pleasure; the engagement is non-additive
Fire burned by fire (अग्नि आगी पोळिजे)	The paripūrṇa cannot be additionally-heated by passion — he is already at the temperature of being-itself	A person at the temperature of being-itself does not heat up further when contact with passion-objects occurs; the engagement does not register as escalation
Viṣaya-contact as same-into-same (विषयसंगे आप्लविजे)	The contact happens but there is nothing-other-than-self to receive the contact; samsarga becomes samarasa	The engagement registers as motion-within-being, not as gain-or-loss
Paripūrṇa (परिपूर्णु तो)	The state-name: all-filled, no remainder	Fullness so total that increase or decrease is logically impossible

The metaphor-family — water-into-water / fire-into-fire — is the canonical Vārkarī samarasa-image. It receives its most-celebrated expression at Tukārām abhang 2474 (lavana-water salt-into-water + camphor-into-fire samarasa abhang). Same image-family, same destination (paripūrṇa / samarasa), across four centuries of single Vārkarī image-tradition from 13th-century Jñāneśvar to 17th-century Tukārām.

The image's logic: additivity-fails-when-substance-is-shared. The viṣaya-contact does not bind the paripūrṇa because there is no second-substance to be bound to; the contact happens within the one-substance that the paripūrṇa already is.

Nāth-yogic layer

Close-call recorded. The water-into-water / fire-into-fire image is one Nāth-tantra also uses in laya-yoga / sahaja-samādhi register (consciousness merging into the supreme as water into water). Disciplined reading: here it is doctrinal Vedānta paripūrṇa-darśana, continuous with 2.335's no-viṣaya-apart-from-self argument. No cakra / nāḍī / breath / kuṇḍalinī vocabulary surrounds. The image is shared across Vedānta, Nāth-tantra, and Vārkarī (Tukārām 2474); sharing an image is not adopting a register. present: false honest, transparency-note recorded.

Cross-references

Tukaram parallel: abhang 2474 (parallel-image) — Tukārām's most-celebrated samarasa-abhang uses precisely the salt-into-water and camphor-into-fire image to describe non-dual merge. Same image-family, same destination (paripūrṇa / samarasa). 2.336 in 13th-c. Jñāneśvar; abhang 2474 in 17th-c. Tukārām. Substantive parallel — a single Vārkarī image-tradition across four centuries.

Modern application

When you imagine the realized state as an isolated purity rather than as saturation-into-everything. The popular image of liberation is separation from world. 2.336 corrects this entirely. The paripūrṇa is not separated from world; he is saturated into everything such that no separation is even available. The contact is not avoided; it is recognized as same-into-same.
When you suspect that engagement-with-world must dilute fullness. The water-into-water image refutes this. The water that drowns in water is not diluted; nothing is diluted because nothing-other is added. The realized one engaging viṣayas is not diluted by the engagement; the engagement is itself ātman-engaging-ātman.
When you find that pleasures do not register as expected. A surprising experience some sādhakas report: after some time of practice, the pleasures that used to thrill simply do not register as additions anymore. They happen; they are noticed; nothing escalates. 2.336 names this experientially: the paripūrṇa cannot be additionally-submerged. The pleasure is real; the additivity is gone.

Sādhanā

For one ordinary pleasure today (a meal, a song, a warm shower), enter it not as something added to you but as something occurring within the fullness you already are. Notice if the pleasure becomes thinner or richer. (It often becomes richer, paradoxically — the rāga-overlay was preventing direct contact.)

Arc

2.337 will close the cluster with the formal sthitaprajña-marker: achala-prajñā.

Ovi 2.337

Original (Marathi): ऐसा आपणचि केवळु । होऊनि असे निखळु । तयाचि प्रज्ञा अचळु । निभ्रांत मानीं ॥३३७॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna (closing summary; the imperative मानीं — consider — is an imperative-within-Kṛṣṇa-speech addressed to Arjuna, not a Jñāneśvar-aside)

Word-by-word gloss

Marathi	Meaning
ऐसा आपणचि केवळु	such [a one], entirely-himself (केवल)
होऊनि असे निखळु	having become, is unmixed/pure (निखळ)
तयाचि प्रज्ञा अचळु	his prajñā [is] achala (unmoving)
निभ्रांत मानीं	consider [it] without-doubt (निर्भ्रान्त)

Literal translation

English: Such a one — having become entirely-himself, unmixed — his prajñā is achala. Consider it without-doubt.

मराठी (आधुनिक): असा जो स्वतःच केवळ (एकमेव) होऊन, निखळ (अमिश्र) झालेला असतो — त्याची प्रज्ञा अचळ आहे, हे निःसंशय मान.

Metaphor-unfold

No extended metaphor.

Nāth-yogic layer

No Nāth-yogic referent. केवळु / निखळु are doctrinal Advaita-Vedānta vocabulary (kevala / niṣkala = unmixed / partless), not Nāth-tantric.

Cross-references

Source citation: BG-2.55 (echo) — स्थितप्रज्ञस्य का भाषा — Arjuna's original question about the sthitaprajña, opened at 2.54-55. 2.337's अचळ प्रज्ञा निभ्रांत मानीं is one of the formal closing-replies for the rāga-dveṣa-viyukti instance of the sthitaprajña-marker.
Internal link: 2.270 (developed-further) — 2.270 (cluster 0074-0075 territory) carried the first naming of unwavering buddhi in the karma-yoga register; 2.337 brings it to its sthitaprajña-portrait apex — prajñā now achala because the self has become केवळु / निखळु (entirely-itself, unmixed).

Modern application

When you think the sthitaprajña-state is something attained while still being something else. The two ablatives in this ovi are diagnostic: आपणचि केवळु (entirely-himself) and निखळु (unmixed). The state is not an addition to the self; it is the self with all admixture removed. The sthitaprajña is not a more-evolved-person; he is a person who has stopped being multiple-things-overlapping and has resolved into one-thing-only. The prajñā is achala because there is no longer a second-thing to perturb it.
When your buddhi still wobbles after years of practice. 2.337 names the marker honestly: तयाचि प्रज्ञा अचळु — his prajñā is achala (referring to the one of 2.331-2.336, the rāga-dveṣa-viyukta-ātma-rasa-saturated one). If your buddhi still wobbles, work backward through the cluster's sequence — is the मानौनि-tyāga complete (2.331)? Is the ātma-rasa-saturation real (2.334)? Has the no-separation-realization landed (2.335)? Most wobbling is upstream of the achala-mark itself.
When निभ्रांत मानीं (consider without-doubt) feels like Kṛṣṇa demanding faith. Read it as a diagnostic guarantee instead. Kṛṣṇa is not asking Arjuna to believe the sthitaprajña has achala-prajñā; he is naming this as the definitional consequence of the prior conditions. If the conditions are met, the prajñā cannot be otherwise. The निभ्रांत is the logical certainty of the consequent, not the demanded credulity of the listener.

Sādhanā

Write one sentence today: "My buddhi wobbles most when ___." Then read the sentence and find which of the cluster's six conditions (2.331-2.336) is incomplete. The wobble is diagnostic; it points to the unfinished work.

Arc

The cluster closes. BG-2.65 will name what the achala-prajñā yields — प्रसादे सर्वदुःखानां हानिः — once prasāda is established (adhigacchati from 2.64), all sorrows are destroyed, and the prasanna-cetas's buddhi swiftly settles (paryavatiṣṭhate). 2.64 named the attainment of prasāda; 2.65 will name its consequence.

Cluster summary

Core teaching: Once rāga-dveṣa are uprooted from the mind — not merely from the body's contact with objects — the senses can move among viṣayas without binding, the way the sun's rays touch the world without being stained by sanga-doṣa. For such a one, viṣayas have no existence apart from himself: he is paripūrṇa, saturating as water-drowned-in-water and fire-burned-by-fire. Because he has become entirely himself (केवळु / निखळु), his prajñā is achala — the sthitaprajña-marker that formally closes the rāga-dveṣa-viyukti instance.

Chapter arc position: The resolution-formula that closes the kāma-cascade arc. BG-2.62-63 (cluster 0088) gave the cascade in seven movements (dhyāyato viṣayān → sanga → kāma → krodha → sammoha → smṛti-vibhrama → buddhi-nāśa → praṇaśyati). BG-2.64 inverts every term: rāga-dveṣa are viyukta; the senses cara (move-among) instead of being dragged; the destination is prasāda instead of praṇāśa. The quiet revolution is the word caran — moving among. The sthitaprajña does not withdraw from viṣayas; he moves among them.

Connects to BG-2.65: प्रसादे सर्वदुःखानां हानिरस्योपजायते । प्रसन्नचेतसो ह्याशु बुद्धिः पर्यवतिष्ठते — once prasāda is established, all sorrows are destroyed and the prasanna-cetas's buddhi swiftly settles. 2.64 named the attainment of prasāda; 2.65 names its consequence. Together they form a two-step: the door (2.64) and what walks through it (2.65).

Central images: Two extended metaphors carry the philosophical claim. (a) Sun-and-rays (2.333-2.334) — sun-moving-in-ākāśa touches the world with raśmi-as-hands; sanga-doṣa cannot stain it तेथिचेनि (by being-there). Maps to the rāga-dveṣa-viyukta one whose senses touch viṣayas without staining. Foreshadows the ākāśa-version of the same logic at BG-13.32. (b) Water-into-water / fire-into-fire (2.336) — the canonical Vārkarī samarasa-image, inherited by Tukārām at abhang 2474. The paripūrṇa cannot be additionally-submerged by viṣaya-contact because there is no second-substance to receive the contact; samsarga becomes samarasa.

Tukārām parallel: Substantive at 2.336 — abhang 2474 carries the same water-into-water / fire-into-fire samarasa-image-family across four centuries of single Vārkarī image-tradition. Other Tukārām thematic-resonances are adjacent but not direct enough by image or argument-structure (e.g., 2867 ṭhevilē-Anantē equanimity, 2917 non-dual identification, 2474 above being the substantive one).

Nāth-yoga close-call: Recorded transparency-note at 2.336 (water-into-water / fire-into-fire is also a Nāth-tantric laya-yoga image). Disciplined to present: false on contextual ground — no cakra / nāḍī / breath / kuṇḍalinī vocabulary in any of the 7 ovis; the chapter-register is karma-yoga closing into sthitaprajña-portrait, not haṭha-yoga or laya-yoga.