Cluster 0194 — BG 5.12 — The Yukta/Ayukta Binary: Śānti-as-Bride vs. Animal-at-the-Peg
BG-5.12
Original (Sanskrit): युक्तः कर्मफलं त्यक्त्वा शान्तिमाप्नोति नैष्ठिकीम् । अयुक्तः कामकारेण फले सक्तो निबध्यते ॥१२॥
The yoga-yoked one, having abandoned the fruit-of-action, attains firm-and-established peace; the un-yoked one, driven by desire-impulse, attached-to-the-fruit, becomes bound.
After the long discipline-portrait of cluster 0193 (BG-5.11: how the yogis purify themselves by abandoning sanga and acting only with body-mind-buddhi-indriyas), Kṛṣṇa now delivers the evaluative-summary: the two outcomes. In just two ovis (5.71-5.72), Jñāneśvar paints the entire binary as two paired-and-inverted concrete images — the bride-entering-the-home (śānti-arrival for the yukta) and the draft-animal-staked-to-the-hitching-post (kāma-bondage for the ayukta). Where Sanskrit names the binary in abstract terms (attains-peace vs. becomes-bound), Marathi gives the binary in two living domestic-and-pastoral pictures.
Ovi 5.71
Original (Marathi): तरी आत्मयोगें आथिला । जो कर्मफळाशीं विटला । तो घर रिघोनि वरिला । शांति जगीं ॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna (continuation of BG-5.12 direct utterance; the doctrinal-portrait announced at prior cluster's 5.70
सांगेन तुज निरुतेंis now being delivered)
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| तरी | then, therefore |
| आत्मयोगें आथिला | endowed-with / equipped-with ātma-yoga |
| जो | who |
| कर्मफळाशीं विटला | has-grown-disgusted-with / has-turned-distasteful-of karma-phala |
| तो | he |
| घर रिघोनि | having entered (his) home |
| वरिला | has-been-chosen / has-been-married / has-been-embraced |
| शांति | śānti, peace |
| जगीं | in-the-world |
Literal translation
English: Then he-who is equipped with ātma-yoga, who has grown distasteful-of karma-phala — he is the one whom śānti, in this world, having entered his home, has married/embraced.
मराठी (आधुनिक): आत्मयोगाने युक्त असलेला, ज्याला कर्मफळाची इच्छाच उरली नाही (तो कर्मफळाला विटून गेला आहे) — असा माणूस त्याच्या घरीच येऊन शांती त्याला वरून (आपलासा करून) घेते — हे या जगातच घडते.
Metaphor-unfold
| Literal image | Philosophical referent | Modern equivalent |
|---|---|---|
Śānti enters the yogi's home (घर रिघोनि) |
The naiṣṭhikī-śānti is not fetched by the yogi; she visits him in his own dwelling | The peace that walks into the room after you have stopped chasing it — domestic, unannounced, no fanfare |
The yogi is wed/embraced (वरिला) by śānti |
The yogi is the passive-recipient of peace — the agency-direction is reversed from the Sanskrit āpnoti (he-attains) |
The recipient-relation of a chosen-by spouse: peace selects him, not the reverse |
Disgust-with-karma-phala (कर्मफळाशीं विटला) as the cause of the bride's arrival |
The renunciation is not willed-discipline but organic-distaste-arising — the precondition is interior, not behavioral | The end-of-craving point in a long process when the very taste for outcomes has flatlined and something settled walks in to fill the space |
Metaphor family: shanti-as-bride-entering-home — Jñāneśvar's image-class for grace/peace as a visiting-bride who chooses-and-arrives rather than being-attained. The Vedic-householder cultural-context (the bride entering the groom's home as the formal gṛha-praveśa) gives the image its precision: peace performs the gṛha-praveśa into the yogi's home.
Nāth-yogic layer
No Nāth-yogic referent in this ovi. (The आत्मयोग here is yoga-of-the-Self in the chapter-5 sānkhya-yoga-equivalence sense, not a specific Nātha ātma-cakra-samyoga. The bridal-arrival image is Vedic-householder, not Nātha-tantric.)
Cross-references
- Internal:
5.50(developed-further — cluster 0192's lotus-leaf non-staining-condition now positively-rendered as śānti-arrives-as-bride);5.70(developed-further — cluster 0193's announcementसांगेन तुज निरुतेंhere delivers its first-content). - Tukaram parallel: abhang 2867 (destination-shared bhakti-frame — ṭhevilē-Anantē-taisē-chi-rāhāve; chitti-samādhāna as the bhakti-mode of naiṣṭhikī-śānti).
- Source citation: BG-5.12 direct-paraphrase.
Modern application
- The year-end project closes and the team disperses; for the first three days you keep waiting for the next adrenaline-hit and it does not come — and somewhere on day four a strange domestic-quiet walks into the rooms of your evening and stays. The śānti that 5.71 names does not ask permission to enter; it arrives when the karma-phala-craving has flatlined.
- The promotion you did not pursue because you had genuinely lost interest in the chase — six months later you notice a quality of being-at-home-in-your-life that the promotion would not have delivered. Peace as bride: she chose the house that had room for her.
- The recovery-program 90-day mark: the cravings have actually fallen away (not been suppressed, fallen-away), and one quiet evening you notice that something has entered the place where the cravings used to be — and it is not your effort that brought it. The structure of 5.71's bridal-arrival is recognizable in the third-month equanimity.
Sādhanā
Today, identify one outcome you have been low-grade chasing (a particular response from a colleague, a particular result in a project, a particular shift in a relationship). Take 5 minutes and ask: what if the taste for this outcome were genuinely absent? Do not fake the absence; just look at the question. The 5.71 condition begins where the chase loses its flavor — and the cluster's claim is that something else then walks in.
Arc
5.71 names the positive-outcome of the karma-yoga-arc (śānti-as-bride enters the yukta's home); 5.72 names the inverse-negative-outcome (the ayukta tied-to-the-peg of fruit-enjoyment by the desire-knot).
Ovi 5.72
Original (Marathi): येरु कर्मबंधें किरीटी । अभिलाषाचिया गांठीं । कळासला खुंटी । फळभोगाच्या ॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna (anchored by vocative
किरीटी= O Kirīṭin / Wearer-of-the-Crown / Arjuna; rhetorical-address-frame returns)
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| येरु | the other (by-contrast); the un-yoked one |
| कर्मबंधें | by karma-bondage |
| किरीटी | O Kirīṭin (vocative for Arjuna; Wearer-of-the-Crown) |
| अभिलाषाचिया गांठीं | by the knot of desire (abhilāṣa) |
| कळासला | is-lashed-fast / tied-tight |
| खुंटी | peg, stake, hitching-post |
| फळभोगाच्या | of fruit-enjoyment (phala-bhoga) |
Literal translation
English: The other one, O Kirīṭin, by karma-bondage — by the knot of desire — is lashed-fast to the peg of fruit-enjoyment.
मराठी (आधुनिक): आणि दुसरा (अयुक्त) मात्र, हे किरीटी अर्जुना, कर्म-बंधनात अडकलेला असून, अभिलाषेच्या (हव्यासाच्या) गाठीने फलभोगाच्या खुंटीला घट्ट बांधलेला राहतो.
Metaphor-unfold
| Literal image | Philosophical referent | Modern equivalent |
|---|---|---|
Hitching-post / peg (खुंटी) |
The karma-phala-bhoga (fruit-enjoyment) as the fixed-anchor-point to which the un-yoked jīva is tied | The specific accomplishment / approval / outcome the addictive-loop returns to as its anchor |
Rope-knot of desire (अभिलाषाचिया गांठीं) |
The kāma-kāra (desire-impulse) of BG-5.12b as the binding-medium — not metaphysical bondage but a concrete cord | The looping mental-script that ties you back, hour by hour, to the wanting |
Animal lashed-fast (कळासला) |
The ayukta's whole condition: bodily-free-to-move but tethered-within-a-radius — cannot wander away from the fruit | The compulsive checking of the inbox / the score / the validation-source; freedom within a fixed-radius around the anchor |
Metaphor family: staked-animal-and-peg + knot-of-desire — the pastoral image of a draft-animal (ox, goat) tied to a hitching-post by a rope-knot. The animal can graze within a circle but cannot leave the peg. The image is concretely-Marathi (खुंटी is the rural hitching-post, कळासला is the verb for lashing-with-rope), making the Sanskrit's abstract nibadhyate (becomes-bound) sharply-physical.
Nāth-yogic layer
No Nāth-yogic referent in this ovi. (The image is pastoral-everyday, not yogic. Confidence in absence: high.)
Cross-references
- Internal:
5.71(contradicts-and-revises — the inverse-mirror binary: bride enters-the-yukta's-home vs. ayukta-staked-away-from-his-home);3.181(parallel-image — chapter-3's earlier karma-bondage polemic anticipates this concrete-peg image; specific 3.181 ovi-id to verify against corpus);5.73(foreshadows — opens cluster 0195's BG-5.13 release-into-mental-sannyāsa). - Tukaram parallel: abhang 2797 (thematic-resonance warning-image — don't-entangle-in-māyā-net; both texts use a capture-by-binding image for the un-surrendered jīva).
- Source citation: BG-5.12 direct-paraphrase.
Modern application
- The gambling-loop: the win-fantasy is the peg, the next-bet is the rope, the radius of free-movement is the casino floor. The ayukta-image at 5.72 is not metaphorical-only; it is the literal-structure of compulsive behavior. The 5.72-condition is recognizable in the addict's tether-radius.
- The comparison-spiral on social-media: each scroll-session tightens the desire-knot, the peg is the implicit-better-life-elsewhere, and the freedom-of-movement is the freedom to scroll within the tether. The 5.72-image at 21st-century-scale.
- The relentless-promotion-chase that has stopped serving any actual interior interest but cannot be dropped because the next-rung has become the hitching-post. The promotion would not relieve the binding — the binding is to the very structure of next-rung-wanting. The ayukta-condition is the radius-of-tethered-movement, not the absence of movement.
Sādhanā
Today, name one tether-radius you actually operate within. (Be honest: not the radius you wish you operated within.) Sketch the three elements: (i) the peg (what specific outcome anchors the loop?); (ii) the rope (what desire-script keeps you tied?); (iii) the radius (what range-of-movement does the tether permit before it pulls you back?). Naming the structure does not yet untie the knot — but it shows you that there is a knot, that there is a peg, and that the bridge to 5.71 begins with the disgust-arising of कर्मफळाशीं विटला.
Arc
5.72 closes the BG-5.12 binary with the inverse-negative image; the staked-animal at 5.72 is the precise mirror-image of the bride-arrival at 5.71. The cluster as-a-whole prepares cluster 0195's BG-5.13 sarva-karmāṇi manasā sannyasya āste sukham — the release-from-the-peg into mental-renunciation-and-bodily-happiness in the nine-gated city of the body.
Cluster summary
Core teaching: The yoga-yoked one, having grown organically-disgusted with karma-phala (कर्मफळाशीं विटला), is the one whom firm-peace (naiṣṭhikī śānti) — having entered his home — has-married/embraced; while the un-yoked one, by the knot of desire (अभिलाषाचिया गांठीं), is lashed-fast (कळासला) to the peg of fruit-enjoyment by karma-bondage. The cluster delivers BG-5.12's yukta/ayukta binary as a paired image-contrast: śānti as bride-entering-the-yogi's-home versus the un-yoked one as a draft-animal staked to the hitching-post.
Theme tags: yukta-vs-ayukta-binary, naishthiki-shanti, karma-phala-tyaga, shanti-as-bride-entering-home, staked-animal-and-peg, knot-of-desire, atma-yoga, karma-bondage, bg-5.12-binary, karma-yoga-arc-position-4.
Contains extended metaphor: Yes — two paired-and-inverted metaphors: (i) śānti-as-bride-entering-the-home at 5.71; (ii) staked-animal-and-peg + knot-of-desire at 5.72. The pair functions as inverse-mirror: welcoming-arrival of peace versus captive-tethering by desire.
Chapter arc position: The BG-5.12 evaluative-binary, sitting between cluster 0193's BG-5.11 sānga-tyāga discipline-portrait (the how-the-yogis-purify-themselves) and cluster 0195's BG-5.13 sarva-karmāṇi-manasā-sannyasya happy-dwelling-in-the-nine-gated-city (the what-the-purified-yukta-then-experiences). Cluster 0194 is the evaluative-summary between operational-mechanism (0193) and positive-portrait (0195): having shown the operation, Kṛṣṇa names the two outcomes — naiṣṭhikī-śānti for the yukta, kāma-knot-bondage for the ayukta — before turning to the positive-portrait of the yukta's actual lived-condition.
Connects to next śloka: 5.72's ayukta-staked-to-the-peg image foreshadows the release that BG-5.13 (cluster 0195) will name: सर्वकर्माणि मनसा सन्न्यस्य आस्ते सुखं (having mentally renounced all actions, he dwells happily in the nine-gated city). Both 5.71's bride-arrival image of positive-attainment and 5.72's peg-bondage image of negative-capture will be answered in cluster 0195 by the nava-dvāra-pure-Self portrait: the yukta is not merely visited by śānti but dwells happily as the embodied Self in the body's nine-gated city.