Cluster 0271
BG-7.23
Ovi 7.147
Original (Marathi): परी ते भक्त मातें नेणती । जे कल्पनेबाहेरी न निघती । म्हणौनि कल्पित फळ पावती । अंतवंत ॥१४७॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| परी | but |
| ते | those |
| भक्त | bhaktas (worshippers — of other deities) |
| मातें | Me (accusative — first-person Kṛṣṇa-speech) |
| नेणती | do-not-know |
| जे | who |
| कल्पनेबाहेरी | outside-imagination, outside-the-kalpanā-frame |
| न निघती | do-not-emerge, do-not-step-out |
| म्हणौनि | therefore |
| कल्पित | imagined, kalpanā-bound |
| फळ | fruit |
| पावती | obtain, attain |
| अंतवंत | having-an-end, perishable (preserves Sanskrit antavat verbatim) |
Literal translation
English: But those bhaktas do not know Me — they do not emerge outside the kalpanā-frame; therefore they obtain imagined-fruit, perishable.
मराठी (आधुनिक): पण ते भक्त मला ओळखत नाहीत — ते कल्पनेच्या मर्यादेबाहेर पडत नाहीत; म्हणूनच त्यांना कल्पित (कल्पनेने रचलेले) फळ मिळते — जे अंतवंत (शेवटी संपणारे) असते.
Metaphor-unfold
| Literal image | Philosophical referent | Modern equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Kalpanē-bāherī na nighatī — they do not emerge outside imagination | The structural condition of alpa-medhas: the few-witted are not stupid but frame-imprisoned — their wishes never step outside the kalpanā that generated them; the fruit, being projected from inside the frame, can only return to inside the frame, hence perishable | The person whose career-goal was generated entirely by their adolescent peer-group's wish-frame — they may attain the goal, but the satisfaction will be measured by, and therefore exhausted by, that same frame |
| Kalpit phaḷ . . . antavant — imagined fruit, perishable | The doctrinal-claim: perishability is intrinsic to the frame of the desiring, not external punishment; what is kalpit must by structure be anta-vat | The career-target hit and immediately replaced by the next career-target — the perishability is built into the goal-frame, not imposed from outside |
Metaphor-family: kalpanē-bāherī-na-nighatī — non-emergence-from-imagination as the perimeter of anta-vat-fruit.
Nāth-yogic layer
(none — 7.147 is a doctrinal-diagnostic ovi naming the structural-condition of the alpa-medhas; not overtly Nātha-tantric.)
Cross-references
- Internal: 7.146 (developed-further — the BG-7.22 closing taimhī sakaḷ nipajē majacistava "even-that-all-arises-from-Me" pivots in 7.147 to "but-those-bhaktas-don't-know-Me + the-fruit-they-obtain-is-perishable"); 9.x (foreshadows — BG-9.21 kṣīṇe puṇye martya-lokam viśanti narrates the anta-vat fall)
- Tukaram parallel: 1765 (doctrinal-parallel — āṇikām rasēm maraṇa gānṭhī "other-rasas have death-knotted" — same anta-vat doctrine applied to non-Hari-rasas)
- Source citation: BG-7.23 (direct-paraphrase — antavat tu phalam teṣām . . . alpa-medhasām); BG-7.20 (echo — hṛta-jñānāḥ . . . prapadyante 'nya-devatāḥ); BG-9.21 (echo — kṣīṇe puṇye martya-lokam viśanti)
Modern application
- When you have been pursuing a goal generated entirely from-inside your wish-frame and finding, even on attainment, that the satisfaction-half-life is short — and 7.147's kalpanē-bāherī na nighatī invites the diagnostic: the perishability is not bad-luck; it is built-into the frame that generated the wish
- When you have been calling someone alpa-medhas (few-witted, stupid) and noticing the diagnostic is moral rather than structural — and 7.147 invites the substitution: not "stupid" but "frame-imprisoned"; the question becomes what frame is they-stuck-inside rather than how-can-they-be-smarter
- When you have been spiritually-shopping (this technique, that teacher, this devatā, that one) and noticing each fruit briefly-satisfies-and-perishes — and 7.147 invites the recognition that the shopping-frame itself is the kalpanā that guarantees the perishability of every fruit found within it
Sādhanā
For 5 minutes, write down one fruit-of-effort you currently want. Then ask: what is the kalpanā-frame that generated this want? Whose voice was the original namer? Notice if the want, examined for its kalpanā-source, still has the same gravitational-pull. If it does, fine. If it doesn't, notice what just happened.
Arc
7.147 names the diagnostic-condition (kalpanē-bāherī-na-nighatī) and the consequent fruit-perishability (antavant); 7.148 will escalate by claiming that such bhajana is itself the very-instrument-of-samsāra, and the fruit-experience is dream that-only-momentarily-appears.
Ovi 7.148
Original (Marathi): किंबहुना ऐसें जें भजन । तें संसाराचेंचि साधन । येर फळभोग तो स्वप्न । नावभरी दिसे ॥१४८॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| किंबहुना | in-short, in-brief, more-so |
| ऐसें | such |
| जें | which |
| भजन | bhajana, worship |
| तें | that |
| संसाराचेंचि | of-samsāra-itself (emphatic -ci) |
| साधन | instrument, means, sādhana |
| येर | the-other, the-rest |
| फळभोग | fruit-enjoyment |
| तो | that |
| स्वप्न | dream |
| नावभरी | only-momentarily, only-for-the-time-of-naming |
| दिसे | appears, is-seen |
Literal translation
English: In short, such bhajana is the very instrument of samsāra; and the resulting fruit-enjoyment — that is dream, appearing only momentarily.
मराठी (आधुनिक): थोडक्यात, अशा प्रकारचे भजन हे संसाराचेच साधन (मार्ग) आहे; आणि उरलेला फळभोग — तो स्वप्नवत आहे — फक्त क्षणभर दिसणारा.
Metaphor-unfold
| Literal image | Philosophical referent | Modern equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Such bhajana is samsārācem-cī sādhana — the very instrument of samsāra | The doctrinal escalation: the deva-worship is not merely unproductive of mokṣa but productive of further samsāra; the bhajana, far from being an escape-route, is itself the propulsion-mechanism into further samsāra-cycles | The career-effort that delivers the promotion AND the new salary-bracket-anxieties — the very labor that achieves the desired outcome installs the next iteration of striving |
| The fruit-enjoyment is svapna . . . nāva-bharī disē — dream, appearing only for the time of naming | The phenomenological-claim: the fruit is not just future-perishable but already-now-dreamlike; it appears only briefly, and during the appearing it does not have the density of jāgṛti-experience | The vacation-photograph that, by the time you have shown it to the third person, has stopped feeling like the vacation — the experience phenomenally thins as it is consumed |
Metaphor-family: svapna-nāva-bharī — dream that only-momentarily-appears; phenomenological thinness of imagined-fruit.
Nāth-yogic layer
(none — 7.148 is a phenomenological-diagnostic ovi extending 7.147's doctrinal claim; svapna-vocabulary is general Vedānta/Sānkhya, not specifically Nātha-tantric.)
Cross-references
- Internal: 7.147 (developed-further — the antavant-temporal-claim of 7.147 is intensified to the svapna-nāva-bharī phenomenological-claim); 2.16 (parallel-image — the sat-asat criterion of BG-2.16 applied to the deva-worship-fruit category)
- Tukaram parallel: 1457 (doctrinal-parallel — the broader nāma-supremacy architecture applies the svapna-vs-jāgṛti distinction between non-Hari-fruits and Hari-nāma-rasa)
- Source citation: BG-7.23 (direct-paraphrase — the antavat phalam expanded into the phenomenological svapna nāva-bharī disē); BG-2.16 (echo — nāsato vidyate bhāvo nābhāvo vidyate sataḥ sat-asat criterion); Māṇḍūkya 4-5 (echo — the svapna-sthāno taijasaḥ Upaniṣadic precedent)
Modern application
- When you have completed a long-sought goal and noticed the satisfaction thinned even before the celebration was over — and 7.148's nāva-bharī disē (only-momentarily-appears) invites the diagnostic: the thinness is the goal's mode-of-existence, not your psychological-failing
- When you have been treating spiritual-discipline-for-worldly-result as a productive bargain — and 7.148's taim samsārācēm-cī sādhana (such-bhajana-is-the-very-instrument-of-samsāra) invites the reframing: the bargain installs the next iteration of the desire it was trying to satisfy
- When you are watching someone's life of impressive-attainments-followed-by-immediate-new-anxieties and reading it as their character-flaw — and 7.148 invites the structural-reading: the attainment-anxiety cycle is the sādhana-character of the kalpanā-bound effort itself, not personal weakness
Sādhanā
For 2 minutes, recall a goal-achieved within the past year. Ask: how thick was the satisfaction at the moment of achievement? How long did the thickness last? Is the nāva-bharī disē (only-for-the-time-of-naming) phenomenology of 7.148 honestly recognizable here? If yes, sit with that without trying to fix it.
Arc
7.148 closes the criticism-half of the cluster (kalpanā-bound bhajana + svapna-fruit); 7.149 will pivot with the conversational bridge hēm asō parautē (let-that-be-aside) and open the bifurcation: one-who-worships-devatās → goes-to-devatva.
Ovi 7.149
Original (Marathi): हें असो परौंते । मग हो कां आवडे तें । परी यजी जो देवतांतें । तो देवत्वासीचि ये ॥१४९॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| हें | this |
| असो | let-it-be |
| परौंते | aside |
| मग | now, then |
| हो कां | let-it-be-so |
| आवडे | likes, is-pleasing |
| तें | that |
| परी | but |
| यजी | one-who-performs-yajña (sacrificially-worships) |
| जो | who |
| देवतांतें | devatās (accusative — to-the-devas) |
| तो | he |
| देवत्वासीचि | to-deva-tva-itself (emphatic -ci) |
| ये | comes, arrives |
Literal translation
English: Let that be aside; now whatever they like — but one who worships devatās, he arrives at deva-tva (godhood) itself.
मराठी (आधुनिक): हे जाऊ द्या; आता त्यांना जे आवडते ते — पण जो देवतांचे यजन (पूजा) करतो, तो देवत्वालाच (देवपणाच्याच अवस्थेला) पोहोचतो.
Metaphor-unfold
| Literal image | Philosophical referent | Modern equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Yajī jō devatāntēm — tō devatvāsī-cī yē — one-who-worships-devatās goes-to-deva-tva itself | The doctrinal-claim: the destination is not the specific deva but the category of worship-frame — devatva (godhood-as-such); the worshipper arrives at the worship-frame's own ontological-category. Echoes the Upaniṣadic yathākratur tathā bhavati (as-resolve so-becoming) | The career-aspirant who eventually becomes-the-archetype-they-worshipped (the imitator-of-a-boss becomes a boss; the imitator-of-a-celebrity acquires the celebrity-form) — you arrive at the category of your worship, not at the specific person worshipped |
Metaphor-family: devatvāsī-cī yē — the worshipper arrives at the worship-category itself; the tautological-destination.
Nāth-yogic layer
(none — 7.149 is a doctrinal-bifurcation ovi naming the deva-yajaḥ destination; not overtly Nātha-tantric.)
Cross-references
- Internal: 7.148 (developed-further — the criticism-half closes; the bifurcation-half opens with hēm asō parautē); 9.x (foreshadows — BG-9.25 yānti deva-vratā devān . . . yānti mad-yājino 'pi mām generalizes the doctrine to multiple worship-categories)
- Tukaram parallel: (none — 7.149 is a doctrinal-bifurcation ovi without direct abhang-resonance; Tukārām's bhakti-register operates on the Hari-vs-everything-else axis, less on the deva-yajaḥ-vs-mad-bhakta sub-distinction that BG-7.23 codifies)
- Source citation: BG-7.23 (direct-paraphrase — devān deva-yajo yānti rendered as yajī jō devatāntēm — tō devatvāsī-cī yē); BG-9.25 (echo — yānti deva-vratā devān); Chāndogya 3.14.1 (echo — yathā kratur tathā bhavati destination-equals-resolve doctrine)
Modern application
- When you have been doubting the value of your idol-worship (career-idol, intellectual-idol, lifestyle-idol) and asking whether it will pay off — and 7.149 invites the more-precise question: what category will the worship deliver you into? Not whether it pays but into what category it pays
- When you observe long-time imitators of a guru / boss / archetype slowly becoming that archetype's general-form (not the specific person, but the type) — and 7.149's devatvāsī-cī yē makes the structural recognition: the worship-frame's category IS the destination
- When you are choosing between worship-frames (whom to apprentice to, whose style to follow) and have been asking which-deva-is-best — and 7.149 invites the reframing: which devatva (which category) do you wish to arrive at? — the choice is the category, not the specific instance
Sādhanā
Pick one person/figure/archetype whom you have been imitating or admiring intensely. Spend 3 minutes asking: not "Will I become this person?" but "What category — what general-form — am I being shaped into by this imitation?" Notice whether the category-name (the devatva) is desirable.
Arc
7.149 names the deva-yajaḥ destination (devatvāsī-cī yē — arriving at deva-tva itself); 7.150 will name the contrasting mad-bhakta destination (mī-ci hōtī — becoming Me-myself at body's-extinction) and close the cluster's dialectical-pair architecture.
Ovi 7.150
Original (Marathi): येर तनुमनुप्राणी । जे अनुसरले माझेयाचि वाहणीं । ते देहाच्या निर्वाणीं । मीचि होती ॥१५०॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| येर | the-others |
| तनुमनुप्राणी | body-mind-prāṇa-beings (Nātha-triadic body-decomposition) |
| जे | who |
| अनुसरले | have-followed |
| माझेयाचि | only-MY, MY-very-own (emphatic -ci) |
| वाहणीं | stream, current, course |
| ते | they |
| देहाच्या | of-the-body |
| निर्वाणीं | at-the-extinction (nirvāṇa locative) |
| मीचि | Me-itself, Me-Myself (emphatic -ci) |
| होती | become |
Literal translation
English: The others — body-mind-prāṇa-beings who have followed only MY stream — they, at the body's nirvāṇa, become ME-Myself.
मराठी (आधुनिक): बाकीचे — तनू-मन-प्राण-स्वरूप जे जन माझ्याच (दैवी) प्रवाहाला अनुसरले — ते देहाच्या अंतिम क्षणी (निर्वाणीं) मीच होऊन जातात.
Metaphor-unfold
| Literal image | Philosophical referent | Modern equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Vāhaṇī — stream, current, course | The bhakti as current-following, not as discrete worship-acts; the bhakta does not perform-isolated-pūjās but flows-in-the-Lord's-current; the medium IS the path; consistent with the Nātha nāḍī-channel vocabulary | The musician who has-followed-only-one-tradition-of-playing — by the end, the tradition is not a thing-they-perform but the channel through which they exist; the body has become the stream |
| Dēhācyā nirvāṇīm mī-ci hōtī — at-the-body's-extinction become-Me-itself | The Vedāntic brahma-vid brahmaiva bhavati finale: the bhakta does not travel to the Lord as external destination but, having-flowed-in-the-current already, merges-into-the-source at body's-terminal-extinction; yānti mām api read as ontological-becoming, not spatial-arrival | The river that has-been-flowing-toward-the-ocean its whole length — at the river-mouth, there is no arrival-event; the river simply ceases to be river by becoming ocean |
Metaphor-family: vāhaṇī (stream-current-image) + dēhācyā-nirvāṇīm-mī-ci-hōtī (at-body's-extinction-become-Me-itself); the Vedānta non-dual finale phenomenologically routed through current-image and terminal-marker.
Nāth-yogic layer
medium confidence. येर तनुमनुप्राणी । जे अनुसरले माझेयाचि वाहणीं । ते देहाच्या निर्वाणीं । मीचि होती — the tanu-manu-prāṇī triadic body-decomposition (tanu + manas + prāṇa) is a Nātha-Vedāntic body-pole grouping; the vāhaṇī (stream, channel) vocabulary is image-pattern-consistent with the Nātha-yogic nāḍī-channel terminology (though vāhaṇī itself is not exclusively-yogic); the dēhācyā nirvāṇīm — mī-ci hōtī (at-body's-extinction become-Me-myself) is the videha-mukti terminal-event in Nātha-Vedāntic vocabulary. The image-pattern is image-pattern-consistent with the Nātha-lineage's mokṣa-frame; not overtly Vajrayāna-tantric, not cakra-named, not suṣumnā-explicit.
Cross-references
- Internal: 7.149 (developed-further — the bifurcation completed: 7.149 named the deva-yajaḥ destination → 7.149 names the mad-bhakta destination); 8.x (foreshadows — BG-8.5-7 anta-kāle ca mām eva smaran muktvā kalevaram gives the explicit anta-kāla smaraṇa technology for 7.150's dēhācyā nirvāṇīm); 12.x (foreshadows — BG-12.6-8 samuddhartā mṛtyu-samsāra-sāgarāt operationally-expands the mad-bhakta yānti mām claim)
- Tukaram parallel: 1768 (doctrinal-parallel — māzhā bolato viṭhṭhal "Viṭhṭhal speaks my-words" operationalizes the māzhēyāci vāhaṇī current-following at the speech-level); 1500 (doctrinal-parallel — the foundational nāma-as-only-instrument architecture matches 7.150's stream-singularity)
- Source citation: BG-7.23 (direct-paraphrase — mad-bhaktā yānti mām api rendered as anusarale māzhēyāci vāhaṇīm — dēhācyā nirvāṇīm — mī-ci hōtī); BG-8.5 (echo — anta-kāle ca mām eva smaran . . . mad-bhāvam yāti); BG-9.34 (echo — mām evaiṣyasi yuktvā ātmānam mat-parāyaṇaḥ); Bṛhadāraṇyaka 4.4.6 (echo — brahmaiva san brahmāpyeti the becoming-Me Upaniṣadic anchor)
Modern application
- When you have been performing isolated devotional-acts (a pūjā here, a meditation there) without yet having shifted into following-a-single-current — and 7.150's vāhaṇī image invites the recognition that the qualitative-difference between deva-yajaḥ (acts) and mad-bhakta (current-following) is structural, not quantitative
- When you have been imagining the yānti mām api (coming-to-Me) of BG-7.23 as a spatial-arrival at a post-mortem destination — and 7.150's mī-ci hōtī (become-Me-Myself) invites the ontological-reading: the yānti is becoming, not traveling; the bhakta has already been the Lord's-current; the nirvāṇī is only the terminal moment of formal-recognition
- When you have been treating body-mind-prāṇa as separate things to be managed in three different programs — and 7.150's tanu-manu-prāṇī jē anusarale māzhēyāci vāhaṇī invites the unification: one current, three media; the same stream flows through all three; the unification is not a program but a current-recognition
Sādhanā
For 5 minutes, name the one current you have been following (your defining stream — devotional, intellectual, artistic, ethical, or other). Then ask: do my body, mind, and prāṇa all follow this same current, or are they splintered across multiple streams? At the body's-eventual-nirvāṇa, what category will you have become? Sit with the answer without correcting it.
Arc
7.150 closes cluster 0271 with the mad-bhakta yānti mām api → mī-ci hōtī (the bhakta becomes-Me at body's-extinction) finale; the next cluster (0272, BG-7.24) opens with the avyaktam vyaktim āpannam manyante mām abuddhayaḥ (the unwise consider Me unmanifest-having-become-manifest) — pivoting from the WHO-comes-to-Me bifurcation of cluster 0271 to the HOW-do-the-not-yet-knowing perceive-Me epistemological problem of the chapter-7 closing-arc.
Cluster summary
Core teaching. BG-7.23 closes the BG-7.20-23 anya-devatā-bhajana sub-arc with the doctrinally-decisive verdict: the deva-worship fruit (whose dispensation BG-7.22 had just attributed entirely to Kṛṣṇa) is anta-vat — perishable; the deva-worshippers reach devas (the worship-frame's own category), MY-bhaktas come to ME. Jñāneśvar's compact 4-ovi treatment operates as a dialectical-pair architecture — 7.147-7.148 deliver the criticism-half, 7.149-7.150 deliver the bifurcation. The closing 7.150 deploys the vāhaṇī (stream, current) image and the dēhācyā nirvāṇīm (at-body's-extinction) temporal-marker to render the abstract Sanskrit mad-bhakta yānti mām api as the phenomenological-narrative of currentwise-flowing-followed-to-body's-end, with the medium-pole becoming-the-source at terminal-extinction.
Theme tags. BG-7.23, antavat-phala, alpa-medhas, kalpanā-bāherī-na-nighatī, svapna-nāva-bharī phenomenology, deva-yajaḥ-yānti-devān, mad-bhakta-yānti-mām-api, vāhaṇī-stream-image, dēhācyā-nirvāṇīm-mī-ci-hōtī, yathākratu-doctrine, tanu-manu-prāṇī-triadic-body, bhakti-vs-anya-devatā, dialectical-bifurcation.
Contains extended metaphor. Yes — three principal metaphor-families (kalpanā-frame-perimeter, svapna-nāva-bharī phenomenological-thinness, devatvāsī-cī-yē tautological-destination, and the 7.150 vāhaṇī-and-dēhācyā-nirvāṇīm image-pair).
Chapter arc position. Cluster 0271 is the verdict-closer of the BG-7.20-23 anya-devatā-bhajana sub-arc and the doctrinal-pivot into the chapter-7 closing-arc (BG-7.24-30). The sub-arc's doctrinal-progression: BG-7.20 names the condition (kāma-stolen-jñāna, approach-other-deities); BG-7.21 attributes śraddhā-firming to Kṛṣṇa; BG-7.22 attributes kāma-dispensation to Kṛṣṇa; BG-7.23 delivers the verdict that the so-dispensed-fruit is anta-vat and the destinations are bifurcated. Cluster 0271's kalpanē-bāherī na nighatī diagnostic of the alpa-medhas anticipates BG-7.24's abuddhayaḥ mistake; cluster 0271's mī-ci hōtī finale anticipates BG-7.30's sādhi-bhūtādhi-daivam closing-doctrine.
Connects to next śloka. Cluster 0271 closes BG-7.23 with the mad-bhakta yānti mām api → mī-ci hōtī verdict; the next śloka BG-7.24 (avyaktam vyaktim āpannam manyante mām abuddhayaḥ) pivots from the who-comes-to-Me bifurcation to the how-do-the-not-yet-knowing perceive-Me epistemological problem of the chapter-7 closing-arc.