Cluster 0237 — BG-6.28

BG-6.28

Sanskrit: युञ्जन्नेवं सदात्मानं योगी विगतकल्मषः । सुखेन ब्रह्मसंस्पर्शमत्यन्तं सुखमश्नुते ॥२८॥

Literal English: Thus constantly yoking the self, the yogi — freed-from-impurity — easily tastes the supreme bliss which is the touch-of-brahman ॥28॥.

This cluster closes the brahma-bhūta micro-arc of adhyāya 6's dhyāna-block. Cluster 0236 (BG-6.27 — praśānta-manasam hi enam yoginam sukham uttamam upaiti śānta-rajasam brahma-bhūtam akalmaṣam) named the brahma-bhūta arrival of the akalmaṣa yogi — the chitta dissolving into chaitanya as the universe-of-chaitanya. Cluster 0237 (BG-6.28 — this) names the tasting of the brahma-samsparśa atyantam sukham by the vigata-kalmaṣa yogi constantly-yoking: the continued-yoking has become a settled-state (sōpiyā yōga-sthiti), the impurity has departed not by effort but by the samkalpa-treasury becoming estrangement-worthy (samkalpa-sampattī rusōniyām), and the tasting is easy (sukhena) because the yogi has come to-the-inside of parabrahman (parabrahma āntautēm ālēm) where, like salt in water, separation is no longer knowable.

Jñāneśvar unfolds the Sanskrit śloka across four ovis: (a) 6.387 opens by naming the easy yoga-state in which the uklū (unfastening / unknotting — the Marathi term for granthi-bhēda) has been seen and the samkalpa-treasury has become uninteresting — the cessation-of-samkalpa is tedium-driven rather than effort-driven, the operational-correlate of BG-6.28's vigata-kalmaṣaḥ; (b) 6.388 delivers the cluster's iconic image — the canonical lavaṇa-jaḷa-samarasa simile rendering the BG-6.28 brahma-samsparśa: the yogi has come to-the-inside of parabrahman and like salt knows-not-how-to-abandon-water. This is the most-anthologized samarasa-simile in classical Indian bhakti-yoga literature, with direct Upaniṣadic warrant in Bṛhadāraṇyaka 2.4.12's saindhava-ghana (lump-of-salt) image and direct Tukārām 2474 cross-corpus anchor; (c) 6.389 names the sāmarasya-rāuḷa (palace of samarasa) in which the mahāsukha-Dīvāḷī (Dīvāḷī-festival of mahāsukha) is seen by-the-whole-world — Jñāneśvar's architectural-temporal-cosmic triple-rendering of the BG-6.28 atyantam sukham, with the Sahajiyā-Vajrayāna mahāsukha lineage-vocabulary at the Nātha-Sahajiyā-Vajrayāna intersection; (d) 6.390 closes the cluster with the self-grounding-paradox image — walking on one's own feet upon one's own back — and the explicit Pārthā vocative + the if-not-graspable-listen-to-another pivot to BG-6.29's next image-block (the sama-darśana sarva-bhūta-stham-ātmānam doctrine).

All four ovis advance the dhyana-yoga-progression thread to position-7 (samādhi). The cluster pairs with cluster 0236 (BG-6.27) to form the complete brahma-bhūta → brahma-samsparśa micro-arc; together with cluster 0238 (BG-6.29 sama-darśana) the three form the closing-arc of adhyāya 6's dhyāna-block fruit-statement: 0236 names the brahma-bhūta-akalmaṣa designation; 0237 names the brahma-samsparśa tasting; 0238 will name the sarva-bhūta-stham-ātmānam sama-darśana cosmic-expansion.

The cluster contains one of the corpus's most distinctive image-clusters: the lavaṇa-jaḷa-samarasa of 6.388 with its uniquely-Marathi interpretive-move (salt knows-not-how-to-abandon water — sāṇḍūm nēṇē — samarasa as epistemic-incapacity-of-separation rather than as ontological-merger), the sāmarasya-rāuḷa + mahāsukha-Dīvāḷī architectural-temporal double-metaphor of 6.389, and the self-grounding-paradox of 6.390. Cluster 0237 is among the most-anthologized BG-6 passages in classical commentary-traditions; the 6.388 lavaṇa-jaḷa-samarasa is a corpus high-water-mark.

Ovi 6.387

Original (Marathi): या सोपिया योगस्थिती । उकलु देखिला गा बहुतीं । संकल्पाचिया संपत्ती । रुसोनियां ॥३८७॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna

Word-by-word gloss

Marathi	Meaning
या सोपिया योगस्थिती	in this easy (sōpiyā — easy, simple) yoga-state
उकलु देखिला गा बहुतीं	the uklū (unfastening/unknotting) has been seen by many
संकल्पाचिया संपत्ती	of-the-samkalpa (mental-constructs) wealth/treasury
रुसोनियां	having become-estranged (rusōniyām — sulked-from / become-uninterested-in)

Literal translation

English: In this easy yoga-state, the unfastening has been seen by many — by becoming-estranged from the wealth-treasury of samkalpa.

मराठी (आधुनिक): या सहज (सोप्या) योगस्थितीत, संकल्परूपी संपत्तीचा रोष (कंटाळा/उदासीनता) आल्यामुळे अनेकांना (चित्ताचा) उलगडा/उकल झालेली दिसली आहे.

Metaphor-unfold

Literal image	Philosophical referent	Modern equivalent
Sōpiyā yōga-sthitī — the easy yoga-state	The Sanskrit BG-6.28 yuñjan-sadā (constant-yoking) is read not as ongoing effortful-yuñjan but as the fruit-of-yuñjan: the state in which yuñjan has become easy — the yogi no longer effortfully-yokes but resides-in-the-yoked-state	The instrumentalist whose decades of scales-and-arpeggios have made playing the instrument feel as natural as breathing; the yuñjan is no longer practiced — it is the body's resting-mode
Samkalpa-sampattī rusōniyām — having-become-estranged from the wealth of samkalpa	The cessation-of-samkalpa (the Yogasūtra 1.2 vṛtti-nirodha applied at the samkalpa-level) is here named as tedium-driven rather than as effort-driven — the samkalpa is not destroyed but has become uninteresting, unprofitable, something one has soured-on. The vigata-kalmaṣa state is operationally-named as the state where the samkalpa-wealth has lost its attractiveness	The person who has held a particular ambition for twenty years and one morning notices, without drama, that the ambition has become uninteresting — not renounced, not overcome, but outgrown. The ambition has not been killed; it has been left-behind by attention's-natural-redirection
Uklū dēkhilā — the unfastening has been seen	The uklū (Marathi: the loosening of a knot, the unfastening of what was tied) is the Marathi operational-term for granthi-bhēda — the breaking of the granthi-knots that bind the citta. The dēkhilā (has been seen) is the perfect-tense — this is a state that has already happened, not one to be achieved	The moment in long therapy when you notice that a particular pattern — which had bound you for decades — is now visibly-loose; not absent, but the loop's mechanism is now visible from the outside

Metaphor-family: sankalpa-sampatti-as-renounced-wealth + uklu-the-unfastening. The wealth-treasury frame is one of Jñāneśvar's distinctive registers for naming the samkalpa-system (it is a treasury, an accumulation, something one has been collecting); the rusōniyām re-frames the renunciation as a souring-on rather than an abandoning.

Nāth-yogic layer

Referent: sōpiyā yōga-sthiti + uklū dēkhilā + samkalpāchiyā sampatti rusōniyām — in this easy yoga-state, the uklū (unfastening of the granthi-knot) has been seen, by becoming-estranged from the samkalpa-treasury. Confidence: medium. Note: The uklū term is Marathi for the Yogasūtra-3.7 granthi-bhēda and the Nāth-tantric granthi-traya-bhedana. The image is restrained — the cluster opens after the granthi-bhēda; the uklū here names the consequent-state. Samkalpa-rusōniyām is doctrinal-Yogasūtra-territory rather than overt cakra-naming, hence medium not high.

Cross-references

Internal: 6.386 (developed-further — chitta-laya into chaitanya in cluster 0236 → uklū-seen and samkalpa-renounced in cluster 0237), 6.364 (parallel-image — cluster-opening operational-state-naming pattern, mirroring cluster 0231's BG-6.20 opening).
Tukaram parallel: empty.
Source citation: BG-6.28 (direct-paraphrase — yuñjann evam sadātmānam yogī vigata-kalmaṣaḥ operationalized as sōpiyā yōga-sthitī + uklū dēkhilā + samkalpa-rusōniyām); BG-6.24 (echo — sankalpa-prabhavān kāmān tyaktvā warrant for samkalpa-sampattī rusōniyām).

Modern application

The decade-twelve practitioner noticing the absence of seeking. You sit down on the cushion and notice — without drama — that the ambitions that brought you to practice in year-one have become uninteresting. You did not renounce them; they did not get conquered. They simply lost their flavor. The samkalpa-sampattī rusōniyām is recognizing in your meditation the same texture you have in your professional life: the goals you used to chase have become un-pursuable not because they were defeated but because attention found them uninteresting.
The mid-career sabbatical that does not need to do anything. The senior architect on a three-month leave does not plan trips or projects. The previously-essential calendar of to-pursue items has gone quiet. She is not taking-a-break (which still implies the worth of pursuit). The uklū dēkhilā: the unfastening has been seen.
The friendship in which there is nothing left to extract. With one long-term friend you no longer angle for emotional-yield, for validation, for someone to be seen-by. The samkalpa-sampattī rusōniyām of the relationship: the previously-attractive treasury of what-I-want-from-you has become uninteresting. What remains is presence, without acquisition.

Sādhanā

Today, take one habitual samkalpa — one of the mental-constructs you reflexively pursue (a particular form of recognition, a particular outcome you keep replaying, a particular I-want-to-become-X loop). Sit with it for three minutes without trying to renounce it or pursue it. Notice whether — with attention applied without agenda — the samkalpa has any actual attractiveness left, or whether it has been running on the momentum of being-uninspected. The rusōniyām often arrives not by combat but by unobstructed-noticing.

Arc

Opens the cluster: the BG-6.28 yuñjan-sadā vigata-kalmaṣaḥ is operationalized as the easy yoga-state in which the unfastening has been seen and the samkalpa has become estrangement-worthy. 6.388 will name what happens inside that easy-yoga-state — the canonical lavaṇa-jaḷa-samarasa image.

Ovi 6.388

Original (Marathi): तें सुखाचेनि सांगातें । आलें परब्रह्मा आंतौतें । तेथ लवण जैसें जळातें । सांडूं नेणें ॥३८८॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna

Word-by-word gloss

Marathi	Meaning
तें सुखाचेनि सांगातें	that [yogi/citta], by-the-companionship of sukha
आलें परब्रह्मा आंतौतें	has come to-the-inside (āntautēm — interior/inward) of parabrahman
तेथ लवण जैसें जळातें	there, like salt to-water
सांडूं नेणें	knows-not how-to-abandon / does-not-know-how-to-be-apart

Literal translation

English: That [yogi] by the companionship of sukha has come to the inside of parabrahman; there, like salt knows-not how to abandon water [it knows-not how to be apart].

मराठी (आधुनिक): तो (योगी) सुखाच्या सोबतीने परब्रह्माच्या आंतमध्ये (आत) आला; तिथे जसे मीठ पाण्यापासून सुटू (वेगळे होऊ) नकळते, तसे (तो ब्रह्मापासून वेगळा होणे जाणत नाही).

Metaphor-unfold

Literal image	Philosophical referent	Modern equivalent
Sukhāchēni sāngātēm ālēm — by-the-companionship-of-sukha, [the yogi] has come	The BG-6.28 sukhena (easily) is rendered as sukhāchēni sāngātēm (by-the-companionship-of-sukha) — sukha is personified as a companion who escorts the yogi into the parabrahma-interior. The arrival is not by self-locomotion but by being-led-by-sukha	The friend who walks you into a room you would not have entered alone — once inside, the friend is no longer the means but the companion-of-being-here. The arrival was not your achievement but the friendship's leading
Parabrahmā āntautēm ālēm — came-to-the-inside of parabrahman	The BG-6.28 brahma-samsparśa (touch-of-brahman) is intensified into interior-arrival — not merely touching the surface of brahman but having-come-inside. The āntautēm is spatial-Marathi rendering the realized-state as locative (in-the-interior-of) rather than as objective (touching-the-surface-of)	After enough years inside an institution, you stop visiting it and start being of it; the spatial preposition changes from at to inside
Lavaṇa jaḷātēm sāṇḍūm nēṇē — salt knows-not how to abandon water	The canonical lavaṇa-jaḷa-samarasa simile — Bṛhadāraṇyaka 2.4.12's saindhava-ghana (lump-of-salt thrown into water) in its most-anthologized Marathi form. Jñāneśvar's distinctive interpretive-move: the salt does not dissolve (the standard Advaitin reading) but knows-not-how-to-abandon — samarasa is named as epistemic-incapacity-of-separation, not as ontological-merger. The salt remains salt; what is lost is the knowing-how to be apart	Long marriage: the spouses do not become each other (the ontological-merger reading); what they lose is the knowing-how-to-be-separate. The dissolution is not of substance but of separation-knowledge

Metaphor-family: lavana-jala-salt-knows-not-water + parabrahma-antaute-inside-of-parabrahman. The lavaṇa-jaḷa-samarasa is THE most-anthologized samarasa-simile in classical Indian bhakti-yoga literature — canonical for Nātha-Sahajiyā, Mahānubhāva, Vārkarī, and the Sahajiyā-Vajrayāna lineages.

Nāth-yogic layer

Referent: sukhāchēni sāngātēm + ālēm parabrahmā āntautēm + lavaṇa jaisēm jaḷātēm sāṇḍūm nēṇē — by the companionship of sukha [the yogi] has come to-the-interior of parabrahman; there, like salt knows-not how to abandon water. Confidence: high. Note: Overt lavaṇa-jaḷa-samarasa image + direct Bṛhadāraṇyaka 2.4.12 saindhava-ghana echo + canonical Tukārām 2474 cross-corpus anchor + Gorakṣa-paddhati 2.36 samarasa-technical-vocabulary. The distinctive Marathi interpretive-move (sāṇḍūm nēṇē = knows-not-how-to-abandon) is samarasa as epistemic-incapacity-of-separation, not as ontological-merger.

Cross-references

Internal: 6.367 (developed-further — samarasa-as-self-dissolution at cluster 0231 → samarasa-as-parabrahma-interiority at cluster 0237; the dissolved-citta IS the parabrahman-interior), 2.336 (parallel-image — water-into-water samarasa of adhyāya 2 → salt-into-water samarasa of adhyāya 6, the corpus's samarasa-image arc), 6.25 (developed-further — brahma-anga-fusion preamble-anticipation → brahma-samsparśa fruit-state-arrival).
Tukaram parallel: abhang 2474 (THE canonical samarasa-abhang — salt-water + camphor-fire + lamp-into-lamp + one-flame; sung at samādhi-funeral; the strongest cross-corpus image-anchor in Marathi spiritual-literature); abhang 2867 (ṭhevilē-Anantē equanimity-text — destination-shared-mechanism-disputed tension-marked per observations.md).
Source citation: BG-6.28 (direct-paraphrase — sukhena brahma-samsparśam operationalized as sukhāchēni sāngātēm + parabrahmā āntautēm ālēm + lavaṇa-jaḷa-samarasa); Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 2.4.12 (echo — Yājñavalkya-to-Maitreyī saindhava-ghana lump-of-salt image, the canonical Upaniṣadic warrant); Gorakṣa-paddhati 2.36 (echo — samarasa as highest Nātha-siddhānta technical-vocabulary).

Modern application

The deep marriage's knowing-not-how-to-be-apart. After forty years together, one spouse dies. The widow does not forget the husband (ontological-merger reading would predict this). What she has lost is the capacity-to-be-separate-from-him — the ordinary tasks now feel salt-into-water: she cannot pull the saltness back out from the day. The samarasa is grief-revealed as epistemic-incapacity-of-separation.
The decades-long apprenticeship that has become identity. The surgeon at year-thirty cannot not-be-a-surgeon even on vacation. The way she walks into a room scans for risk. The way she handles a knife at dinner. The skill is no longer something she does; it is something she knows-not-how-to-abandon. This is lavaṇa-jaḷa-samarasa in professional-form.
The long-meditator who notices that not-meditating has become impossible. Year fifteen: even outside formal sitting, attention has the same quality. Driving the car, walking the dog, in conversation — the interiority-with-the-witness is no longer a state that arrives during sitting and departs after. It has become parabrahmā-āntautēm ālēm — interior-arrived, irrecoverable.

Sādhanā

Today, locate one lavaṇa-jaḷa in your own life — one thing you know-not-how-to-abandon. Not something you are committed-to (which still implies separation + the act of holding-to); something you cannot step-outside-of-to-evaluate. It may be a relationship, a vocation, a meditative-quality, a way-of-noticing. Name it once, internally, with the recognition that the epistemic-incapacity-of-separation is itself a samarasa-arrival — not something to be achieved, something that is already-the-case if you look.

Arc

Delivers the cluster's iconic image — the canonical lavaṇa-jaḷa-samarasa rendering of BG-6.28's brahma-samsparśa. 6.389 will name what this arrival looks-like-to-the-world — the cosmic-Dīvāḷī.

Ovi 6.389

Original (Marathi): तैसें होय तिये मेळीं । मग सामरस्याचिया राउळीं । महासुखाची दिवाळी । जगेंसि दिसे ॥३८९॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna

Word-by-word gloss

Marathi	Meaning
तैसें होय तिये मेळीं	such happens in that meeting (mēḷī — union/junction/encounter)
मग सामरस्याचिया राउळीं	then in the palace/temple (rāuḷa) of sāmarasya
महासुखाची दिवाळी	the Dīvāḷī (festival-of-lamps) of mahāsukha (great-bliss)
जगेंसि दिसे	is seen by-the-whole-world (jagēmsi — along-with-the-world; disē — appears, is-seen)

Literal translation

English: Such happens in that meeting; then in the palace of samarasa, the Dīvāḷī of mahāsukha is seen by the whole world.

मराठी (आधुनिक): तसे त्या मीलनात (परब्रह्मासोबत) घडते; मग समरस्याच्या (एकत्वाच्या) राउळात (मंदिर/राजगृहात), महासुखाची दिवाळी संपूर्ण जगाला दिसते.

Metaphor-unfold

Literal image	Philosophical referent	Modern equivalent
Sāmarasyāchiyā rāuḷīm — in the palace of samarasa	The arrived-state is named as an architectural-space (a palace / temple / royal-residence) — the sukha-sāmrājya image of cluster 0231's 6.367 extended now into its built-environment-form. Rāuḷa is triple-resonant: king's palace + temple + deity's-place-of-being. The realized-state is enterable, spatial, built	The cathedral that took six centuries to build: the practitioner enters not into a state but into an architecture — something that has been constructed by lineage-and-practice and can be entered as one enters a great building
Mahāsukhāchī dīvāḷī — the Dīvāḷī of mahāsukha	The arrival is temporally-festive: Dīvāḷī (the four-day light-festival celebrating Lakṣmī-arrival and Rāma-return) — the cosmic-radiance-event in which lamps are lit everywhere. Mahāsukha is the Vajrayāna-Sahajiyā technical-term for the highest-bliss-state (Hevajra-tantra 1.10.34) — the vocabulary is at the Nātha-Sahajiyā-Vajrayāna intersection	Not just the practitioner experiences sukha but the practitioner's-life becomes-festival: the people around them notice the radiance even when the practitioner does nothing. The interior arrival has temporal-public expression
Jagēmsi disē — is seen by-the-whole-world	The samādhi is cosmically-visible, not solipsistic. The jagēmsi (along-with-the-world / world-along-with-it-sees) names the realized-state as not-confined to the yogi's private-interior. The world sees-it-too — the radiance is public	The villager near whose hut a saint has settled notices that something has changed about the air — without naming it, without theorizing it. The samādhi is radiometrically-detectable even by those who have no vocabulary for what they are detecting

Metaphor-family: samarasya-raula-the-palace-of-samarasa + mahasukha-divali-festival-of-mahāsukha. The architectural-spatial frame extends cluster 0231's sukha-sāmrājya (empire); the temporal-festival frame is uniquely-Jñāneśvar; the jagēmsi-disē cosmic-visibility claim is the corpus's most explicit refusal of solipsistic-samādhi.

Nāth-yogic layer

Referent: taisēm hōya tiyē mēḷīm + sāmarasyāchiyā rāuḷīm + mahāsukhāchī dīvāḷī + jagēmsi disē — such happens in that meeting; in the palace of samarasa, the Dīvāḷī of mahāsukha is seen by the whole world. Confidence: high. Note: Sāmarasya is explicit Nātha-technical-term; mahāsukha is overt Vajrayāna-Sahajiyā technical-term per Hevajra-tantra 1.10.34 and Saraha's Dohākoṣa. The jagēmsi-disē (cosmically-visible) names the samādhi as not-solipsistic but cosmically-radiant — one of the strongest anti-private-mysticism statements in the corpus.

Cross-references

Internal: 6.388 (developed-further — private-interior-arrival → cosmic-public-display), 6.367 (developed-further — sukha-sāmrājya of cluster 0231 → sāmarasya-rāuḷa + mahāsukha-Dīvāḷī of cluster 0237, the political-spatial register continuing and adding the temporal-festival dimension), 6.36 (developed-further — author's-preamble-pledge of trans-sensory-enjoyment → fruit-display as cosmic Dīvāḷī).
Tukaram parallel: abhang 2474 (samarasa-as-cosmically-visible — the samādhi-funeral abhang itself operationalizes the jagēmsi-disē claim in the Vārkarī community's ritual-practice).
Source citation: BG-6.28 (direct-paraphrase — atyantam sukham aśnute rendered as mahāsukhāchī dīvāḷī jagēmsi disē); Hevajra-tantra 1.10.34 (echo — mahāsukha Vajrayāna-Sahajiyā goal-state vocabulary, inherited through the Nivṛtti-Gorakṣa-Matsyendra lineage).

Modern application

The hospice-nurse's room. A nurse who has been with the dying for thirty years has the quality of presence that families notice — without naming what they notice — when she enters a room. The interior sāmarasya-rāuḷa (palace-of-samarasa) of her practice has become a jagēmsi-disē — visible-to-the-world quality. She is not performing; the radiance is structural.
The teacher whose classroom is the festival. A senior teacher whose students do not just learn but enter the classroom as if entering Dīvāḷī — the architecture-of-the-class is itself a festival-of-attention. The mahāsukha-Dīvāḷī is not a metaphor in her case; it is the operational-fact of how the room feels for forty-five minutes.
The community that crystallizes around the realized-one. Without recruitment, without marketing, without proclamation, a community gathers — because the jagēmsi-disē is operational. The world has noticed the Dīvāḷī of mahāsukha in this person and has shown up to be near it. Renunciate communities, Vārkarī-bhakti circles, sufi halqas — all are jagēmsi-disē-formations around an interior-Dīvāḷī.

Sādhanā

Tonight, recall one person in your life whose presence has the quality of jagēmsi-disē — whose arrival in a room changes the room without their doing anything. Sit for three minutes with the recognition that the change is not the content of what they say but the structural-radiance of their interiority. Then ask: is there any room in your life right now where your interiority has become jagēmsi-disē? Not as an achievement; just as observation.

Arc

Names the cosmic-display of the brahma-samsparśa arrival: the palace-of-samarasa + the Dīvāḷī-of-mahāsukha + the cosmically-visible radiance. 6.390 will name the interior-self-grounding-structure of that cosmic-display — the self-supported-self-locomotion paradox.

Ovi 6.390

Original (Marathi): ऐसें आपुले पायवरी । चालिजे आपुले पाठीवरी । हें पार्था नागवे तरी । आन ऐकें ॥३९०॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna

Word-by-word gloss

Marathi	Meaning
ऐसें आपुले पायवरी	such, upon one's-own feet (pāya — feet)
चालिजे आपुले पाठीवरी	one walks (cāl-ije) upon one's-own back (pāṭha — back)
हें पार्था नागवे तरी	if this, Pārtha, is not graspable / is not seized
आन ऐकें	listen-to-another (āna — another, aikē — hear/listen)

Literal translation

English: Such, walking upon one's-own feet upon one's-own back — if this, Pārtha, is not graspable, then listen to another [explanation].

मराठी (आधुनिक): अशा प्रकारे आपल्याच पायांवर, आपल्याच पाठीवर चालणे (होते) — हे, हे पार्था, समजत नसेल तरी दुसरे (समजावून सांगणे) ऐक.

Metaphor-unfold

Literal image	Philosophical referent	Modern equivalent
Āpule pāyavarī cālije āpule pāṭhīvarī — walking on one's-own feet upon one's-own back	The Möbius-strip / ouroboros figure for the samādhi-state's self-grounding: the realized one is both the walker and the path and the support — no external ground is needed. The pāṭha-pāya (back-and-feet) opposition (back: resting-side; feet: moving-side) is collapsed: the moving and the supporting are one	The advanced gymnast who is both the support-and-the-balanced — pulling herself upward by gripping her own ankle. The act would be impossible for someone else's body but is the natural-locomotion of one body that has become entirely-self-coupled
Hē pārthā nāgavē tarī āna aikē — if this, Pārtha, is not graspable, listen-to-another	The textbook Jñāneśvar pedagogical-pivot: explicit-Arjuna-vocative + acknowledgment-that-the-image-may-not-land + invitation-to-the-next-image. The teaching is iterative; if one image does not deliver the recognition, another one is offered	The skilled-pedagogue who, having delivered one analogy, watches the listener's face and — without judgment — pivots: if that is not landing, try this other way

Metaphor-family: apule-payavari-apule-pathivari-walking-on-one-s-own-feet-on-one-s-own-back-paradox. Jñāneśvar's distinctive paradox-image for samādhi's self-grounding; pairs with cluster 0159's 4.102 hēm asō viśva jāhalā āngēm-chi tō (he became-the-universe by-his-own-body) as the corpus's embodied-non-dual-identification image-family — both keeping the body, both refusing disembodied-merger.

Nāth-yogic layer

Referent: aisēm āpule pāyavarī cālije āpule pāṭhīvarī + hē pārthā nāgavē tarī āna aikē — such walking on one's-own feet on one's-own back; if this, Pārtha, is not-grasped, then listen-to-another. Confidence: medium. Note: The paradox-image is Jñāneśvar-distinctive rather than overt Nāth-tantric cakra-vocabulary; the medium-confidence is for the advaitic-self-grounding doctrine that the image renders (Bṛhadāraṇyaka 4.3.32 eka-eva-ātma + ātmany-eva-ātmanā-tuṣṭaḥ).

Cross-references

Internal: 6.389 (developed-further — cosmic-display → interior-self-grounding-structure-of-that-display), 4.102 (parallel-image — hēm asō viśva jāhalā āngēm-chi tō embodied-non-dual-identification expansion-form ↔ walking-on-own-back self-grounding-form, both keeping the body), 6.391 (foreshadows — the āna aikē closing-pivot opens cluster 0238's BG-6.29 image-block).
Tukaram parallel: abhang 2917 (non-dual self-grounding bhakti-key analogue — you-speak-with-my-mouth + viparīta-only-in-naming: same paradox-structure across the two vocabularies).
Source citation: BG-6.28 (echo — the aśnute quiet-agency-paradox rendered into Marathi explicit-image-form); Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 4.3.32 (echo — eka-eva-ātma + ātmany-eva-ātmanā-tuṣṭaḥ doctrinal-warrant for self-supports-self).

Modern application

The senior writer who is her sentences. After forty years of writing, the distinction between the writer and the writing has collapsed. She is not expressing-herself-in-the-prose; the prose is what she is. The pāya (writing-feet) and the pāṭha (writing-back/foundation) have become one. There is no longer an outside of the writing from which she writes.
The therapist whose presence is the intervention. A senior clinician has reached the place where she no longer deploys techniques. Her sitting-in-the-room is itself the work. The self-supported-self-locomotion is her professional-arrival-state: the practitioner has become the practice.
The aged contemplative who needs no external structure. The 80-year-old who has practiced meditation for fifty years no longer needs a cushion, a timer, a posture, a quiet room. The practice walks on its own feet upon its own back — the supports are integrated. No external scaffolding is needed because the body has become the scaffolding.

Sādhanā

Tonight, identify one practice or capacity in your own life that has reached a degree of self-grounding — that no longer requires external props to operate. It may be a craft, a particular conversation-quality, a way-of-noticing. Sit with it for two minutes and observe: where is the external support that you used to need? When did it become integrated — when did pāya and pāṭha fuse? The self-grounding-paradox is recognizable in everyone's life in small forms; the mahāsukha-Dīvāḷī form is just the maximal case.

Arc

Closes the cluster: the cosmic-display of 6.389 is interiorly-structured as the self-grounding-paradox of walking-on-own-back. The closing āna aikē (listen-to-another) explicitly pivots the reader to cluster 0238's BG-6.29 image-block — the sarva-bhūta-stham-ātmānam + sarva-bhūtāni-cha-ātmani-īkṣatē + sarvatra-sama-darśanaḥ sama-darśana doctrine and its accompanying image-family (the chakora-and-moon image of 6.29 per observations.md's tracking).

Cluster summary

Core teaching: BG-6.28 closes the brahma-bhūta micro-arc of adhyāya 6's dhyāna-block by naming the yuñjann-evam-sadātmānam yogī vigata-kalmaṣaḥ + sukhena brahma-samsparśam atyantam sukham aśnute — the continuously-yoking, impurity-departed yogi easily tastes the supreme bliss of brahma-touch. Jñāneśvar unfolds the śloka across four ovis: (a) 6.387 names the sōpiyā yōga-sthiti (easy yoga-state) in which the uklū (unfastening) has been seen and the samkalpa-sampatti (samkalpa-wealth) has become rusōniyām (estrangement-worthy) — the cessation-of-samkalpa as tedium-driven; (b) 6.388 names the brahma-samsparśa arrival through the canonical lavaṇa-jaḷa-samarasa image — the yogi has come parabrahma āntautēm (to-the-inside of parabrahman) and like salt knows-not-how-to-abandon water (sāṇḍūm nēṇē) — the most-anthologized samarasa-simile in classical Indian bhakti-yoga literature; (c) 6.389 names the atyantam sukham as the sāmarasya-rāuḷa (palace of samarasa) in which the mahāsukha-Dīvāḷī (Dīvāḷī-festival of mahāsukha) is seen jagēmsi (by-the-whole-world); (d) 6.390 names the self-grounding paradox of walking-on-one's-own-feet-on-one's-own-back and closes the cluster with the explicit Pārtha-vocative + the if-not-graspable-listen-to-another pivot to BG-6.29. All four ovis advance the dhyana-yoga-progression thread to position-7 (samādhi).

Theme tags: bg-6.28-brahma-samsparsam-atyantam-sukham · uklu-unfastening-of-granthi · samkalpa-sampatti-rusōniyām-estrangement-from-samkalpa-treasury · lavaṇa-jala-samarasa-canonical-Upaniṣadic-simile · parabrahma-antaute-ale-came-to-the-inside-of-parabrahman · samarasya-raula-palace-of-samarasa · mahasukha-divali-festival-of-mahasukha · jagēmsi-disē-cosmically-visible-samādhi · apule-payavari-apule-pathivari-self-grounding-paradox · dhyana-yoga-progression-position-7-samadhi · cluster-closes-brahma-bhuta-microarc-of-bg-6.27-28 · cluster-prepares-bg-6.29-sarvatra-sama-darśana.

Contains extended metaphor: yes (four sustained image-clusters — samkalpa-as-renounced-wealth + uklū-unfastening; lavaṇa-jaḷa-samarasa; sāmarasya-palace + mahāsukha-Dīvāḷī cosmic-festival; self-supported-self-locomotion paradox).

Chapter arc position: Cluster 0237 closes the brahma-bhūta micro-arc (clusters 0236-0237) within the larger dhyāna-block of adhyāya 6 (clusters 0228-0237). BG-6.27 (cluster 0236) named the brahma-bhūta-akalmaṣa arrival as chitta-laya into chaitanya; BG-6.28 (cluster 0237 — this) names the brahma-samsparśa tasting through the canonical lavaṇa-jaḷa samarasa-image + the cosmic-Dīvāḷī of mahāsukha + the self-grounding-paradox. The cluster sits at the fruit-tasting consummation of the dhyāna-block's brahma-bhūta sub-arc.

Connects to next sloka: Cluster 0238 (BG-6.29 — सर्वभूतस्थमात्मानं सर्वभूतानि चात्मनि । ईक्षते योगयुक्तात्मा सर्वत्र समदर्शनः) will deliver the sarva-bhūta-stham-ātmānam + sarva-bhūtāni-cha-ātmani-īkṣatē sama-darśana doctrine — the self-in-all-beings + all-beings-in-the-self cosmic-expansion. The 0237 → 0238 sequence is the individual-fruit-state of brahma-samsparśa → cosmic-expansion into sama-darśana trajectory: 0237 names what the yogi tastes; 0238 names what the yogi sees. The cluster 0237's closing hē pārthā nāgavē tarī āna aikē (if-this-not-graspable-listen-to-another) is the explicit textual pivot opening cluster 0238's BG-6.29 image-block (the chakora-and-moon image-family per observations.md). Together clusters 0236 + 0237 + 0238 form the brahma-bhūta-arrival → brahma-samsparśa-tasting → sarvatra-sama-darśana three-step closing-arc of adhyāya 6's dhyāna-block fruit-statement.