Liking and disliking are seated in your senses, but you are not bound to obey them.
Every sense carries its own pull toward what it favors and its own push from what it does not. Krishna does not ask you to silence that pull, which cannot be done while you have a body; he asks you to notice the gap between its arising and your consent.
Toward every sense and its own object, liking and disliking sit fixed in place. Do not let yourself fall under the sway of these two, for they lie in wait for you like robbers on a road.
The reading read whole, as one unhurried piece
Where it stands
A worry has been hanging in the air since the verse before this one. If every being simply acts out its own nature, is scripture's whole business of command and prohibition pointless, with no one free enough left to address? Krishna turns now to answer this directly, and in doing so gives Arjuna the exact location of his own freedom.
The teaching
Toward every sense and its own object, liking and disliking already sit fixed in place. The eye is pulled toward pleasing forms and pushed from displeasing ones; the ear toward pleasing sound and away from harsh sound; and so for taste, touch, and smell, one by one. This much is simply what it is to have a body with senses. It is not a fault, and no reading treats it as one. The remedy is not to stop the senses from ever meeting their objects. That cannot be done while the body lasts. Contact will keep happening, whether you will it or not. What can be governed is what happens next: whether you fall under the rule of the liking or disliking that contact stirs up, or whether you let it pass through without handing it the reins. This is exactly where the previous verse's worry gets its answer. Nature accounts for the arising; it does not account for the surrendering. That gap between the two is named here as the whole scope of human effort, and the whole ground on which scripture's commands and prohibitions still have real work to do. The closing word calls liking and disliking your foes, paripanthin, a word for the robbers who lie in wait on a road to ambush the traveler. They are dangerous precisely because they arrive dressed as something like pleasure or relief, while actually working against the very good you are walking toward. And the danger is not reserved for the careless. It can reach the earnest seeker too, through the sheer force of old habit, through a subtle delusion about who is really doing the acting, or simply because some inner tendencies are stronger than a moment's discipline can hold back.
The doubt that rises
If liking and disliking spring up the instant a sense meets its object, faster than any decision could intervene, then where exactly is my freedom in this? What is actually left for me to do, if the reaction has already happened before I even notice it?
Where the paths divide
Read as marking where scriptural discipline does its work.
Passion and aversion arise automatically toward every sense-object; that is simply nature. But a person who has set out to live by the meaning of scripture must not, from the first, fall under their sway. When they lead, nature drives a person into its own kind of work, and rightful duty is dropped for another's. When they are mastered by their opposites, discrimination and restraint, scripture rather than nature comes to govern conduct. The closing warning targets especially the rationalizing mind, which, once ruled by these two, starts inventing reasons why even scripture's meaning must be otherwise.
Read as a warning specifically within the discipline of self-knowledge.
Toward the object of a knowing sense and toward the object of an organ of action alike, an unavoidable passion stands fixed, born of old impression; when that experience is checked, an unavoidable hate takes its place. The special danger is that even a seeker who has reined in every sense by a brief closing of them remains exposed. These two can still seize him, force him to their own ends, and turn him from the self's own nature, at the very moment he thinks himself guarded. They are named foes hard to conquer, and precisely what wards off the practice of self-knowledge.
Read narrowly, keeping close to what the surviving fragment actually says.
Restraint should be practiced to the measure of one's own power. Even where it brings no visible result at once, it does come about through utmost effort, since the formative tendency this verse addresses is strong enough to hold sway even over great beings. On the available text, the claim is narrow and specific: effort genuinely matters, whatever the tendency's apparent strength. A fuller Dvaita reading might connect this to the self's dependence on the Lord even in the exercise of effort, but that extension goes beyond what this fragment itself states.
Read as the answer to how bondage itself comes about.
Bondage comes about because a person caught in transmigration takes up liking and disliking toward each object, and does so through the deep delusion that the self alone performs the action. The person of knowledge and the person of transmigration may do the very same things, eating and the rest, yet one is bound and the other is not, because the difference lies entirely in that delusion. Where clinging is wholly gone and a person simply walks his own dharma, rooted in his own inherent savor, there is no bondage at all, none made of merit or of sin.
Read as a teaching about timing, forearming rather than only resisting.
Nature stirs liking and hatred by making the senses remember their objects, then drags the careless person under, the way a strong current sweeps away a swimmer. Scripture works differently: before that pull ever begins, it turns a person toward worship of the Supreme Lord, the way boarding a boat before the current arrives keeps a traveler from ever being swept away. For the one who longs for freedom, these two are enemies precisely because they arrive with the force of habit; the remedy is to be taken in hand by scripture early, before they ever harden.
Read as a mechanism-level account of how discrimination breaks the root.
If every being is wholly subject to nature, effort and scripture would have no room and no one to address. But attachment and aversion, though fixed toward each sense-object, are exactly the room left for effort: they run on a hidden premise, the thought of a tempting thing as a means to something wished, or an unpleasant duty as a means to something unwished. Once scripture reveals a thing's true, hidden result, that premise is removed, and the reaction can no longer breed on its own. Discrimination works upstream, starving nature of its accomplice rather than fighting nature directly.
All six readings agree that liking and disliking are simply how a body with senses works, and that freedom lies in what happens after they arise, not in preventing their arising. They differ on where exactly the real threat and the real remedy sit: in the rationalizing mind's excuses, in the special exposure of the earnest seeker, in the sheer strength of old tendency, in a delusion about who the doer is, in the timing of scripture's protection, or in the hidden premise a reaction depends on. This page does not crown one location over the others.
A question to carry
The next time a sense meets an object you favor or resist, will you notice the small gap between the pull and your consent to follow it, before the pull decides for you?
Where this teaching travels
Verses that sit near this one, each going its own way; follow whichever calls you.
May you walk this road with open eyes, and let no robber hidden inside a pleasant feeling take from you the good you are walking toward.
Each school is voiced from the commentators named above. Their full words, every translation, and where the schools agree and differ wait in the reading desk just below. Open the commentary desk.
Krishna has just said that even the wise person acts according to his own nature; here he answers the worry that raises, showing exactly where a person's freedom and effort still have real room to work.
Where they agreethe convergence
Across schools and centuries the commentators come to the same ground. These are the points they share, and the voices that hold each one.
Toward each sense and its object, liking and disliking sit already fixed in place, arising simply because you have a body with senses at all.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Dvaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Madhva · Śrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 3 others’ words
For every sense, toward its own object, liking and disliking sit already fixed in place, not appearing at random but settled, one by one, for each thing you see, hear, taste, touch, and smell. This much is simply how a body with senses works, and no school treats it as a fault in itself.
This verse answers the worry left by the one before it: nature drives the arising, but not the surrender, and that gap is where scripture and effort still work.
Across Advaita, Dvaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Madhva · Śrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Śaṅkara, Madhva, and 2 others’ words
The verse answers a worry left hanging by the one before it: if beings only ever act out their own nature, then scripture's commands and prohibitions would seem to have no one left to address. Here Krishna marks the exact place where a person's effort still has genuine scope, even though liking and disliking arise on their own.
The remedy is never to stop the senses from meeting their objects, which cannot be done while the body lasts; what can be governed is only what happens next.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Śrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 2 others’ words
The remedy is never to stop the senses from meeting their objects, which cannot be done while the body lasts; contact will keep happening. What can be governed, on every reading, is whether a person then falls under the rule of the liking and disliking that contact stirs up.
These two are named as robbers on the road to your own good, dangerous exactly because they promise something like pleasure while working against you.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Śrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 2 others’ words
The closing word names these two as the person's foes, paripanthin, waylayers who lie in wait like robbers on a road. They are dangerous precisely because they promise something like pleasure or relief while actually working against the traveler's own good.
The danger reaches further than the careless: old habit, deep delusion about who the doer is, and sheer force of impression can seize even the earnest and disciplined.
Across Viśiṣṭādvaita, Dvaita, Kashmir ŚaivaRāmānuja · Madhva · AbhinavaguptaIn Rāmānuja, Madhva, and 1 others’ words
Several readings agree that the true danger is not confined to the careless; it can also reach the earnest seeker, whether through the deep force of habitual tendency, the deluded sense of oneself as sole doer, or the sheer strength of old impressions even under a disciplined practice.
This is the shared ground; it can be carried as it is. Below is where they differ.
Where they differthe divergence
Viśiṣṭādvaita, in their fuller words
Ramanuja narrows the verse to the discipline of self-knowledge specifically, and sharpens its warning: even a seeker who has reined in every sense by a brief closure of them remains exposed. Passion and hate can still seize him, forcing him to their own ends and turning him away from tasting the self's own nature, so that the very practice of atma-jnana is what is placed at risk.
Dvaita, in their fuller words
The surviving fragment of Madhva's comment is brief: restraint should be practiced to the measure of one's own power, and even where no result appears immediately, it comes about through utmost effort, since the formative tendency this verse addresses is strong enough to hold sway even over great beings like Brahma. A fuller extension linking this to the self's dependence on the Lord even in its effort would be a natural Dvaita reading, but is not what the extant text itself states.
Shaiva, in their fuller words
Abhinavagupta relocates the whole problem from the deed to the delusion behind it: bondage comes only from thinking the self alone is the doer of one's likings and dislikings. The person of knowledge and the person of transmigration may do the very same things, but where that delusion and clinging are gone and a person simply walks his own dharma, rooted in his own savor, there is no bondage at all. A wider Kashmir Shaiva reading of raga and dvesha as contractions of the self's inherent freedom would extend this fragment, but goes beyond what it explicitly says.
Bhakti, in their fuller words
Sridhara's distinctive move is about timing: nature stirs liking and hatred by making the senses remember their objects, then drags the careless person under like a strong current. Scripture, by contrast, works before that pull begins, setting a person on worship of the Supreme Lord in advance, like boarding a boat before the current can seize you, so the seeker for freedom is simply never swept away in the first place.
A modern reading, in their fuller words
Madhusudana works out the precise mechanism by which scripture retains its force even though attachment and aversion are natural: it acts upstream, on the knowledge that feeds them. Once scripture reveals a tempting thing's hidden bad result, the mere sense of its pleasantness can no longer breed attachment on its own, since its needed partner in reasoning is now removed; the same holds in reverse for an unpleasant duty with a good result.
A few questions to carry
These ask for understanding, not recall; each answer is settled by the commentary itself.
For a second sitting
Carry this with youwhat stays
Notice, just once today, the small gap between a sense touching its object and your consent to be ruled by what follows. You do not have to silence the liking or the disliking; you only have to let it pass through without handing it the reins. Let that noticing be the whole of the practice, repeated as often as it occurs to you.
When liking or disliking rises in you today, let it rise; only do not hand it the reins, and let what you already know to be good guide the next step instead.
Read deeper
Everything a full study holds, folded below.
Word by word
All the commentary, woven together
The commentary, woven together
machine-assisted draft, pending review
Convergence
or every sense, toward its own object, liking and disliking sit already fixed in place, not appearing at random but settled, one by one, for each thing you see, hear, taste, touch, and smell. This much is simply how a body with senses works, and no school treats it as a fault in itself.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Madhvācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
The verse answers a worry left hanging by the one before it: if beings only ever act out their own nature, then scripture's commands and prohibitions would seem to have no one left to address. Here Krishna marks the exact place where a person's effort still has genuine scope, even though liking and disliking arise on their own.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhvācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
The remedy is never to stop the senses from meeting their objects, which cannot be done while the body lasts; contact will keep happening. What can be governed, on every reading, is whether a person then falls under the rule of the liking and disliking that contact stirs up.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
The closing word names these two as the person's foes, paripanthin, waylayers who lie in wait like robbers on a road. They are dangerous precisely because they promise something like pleasure or relief while actually working against the traveler's own good.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Several readings agree that the true danger is not confined to the careless; it can also reach the earnest seeker, whether through the deep force of habitual tendency, the deluded sense of oneself as sole doer, or the sheer strength of old impressions even under a disciplined practice.
Rāmānujācārya · Madhvācārya · Ācārya Abhinavagupta
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
Shankara reads the verse as marking exactly where scriptural discipline has its work: nature throws up passion and aversion automatically, but mastering them by their opposites is what lets a person's conduct be governed by scripture rather than by nature. He treats the closing warning about foes as aimed squarely at the rationalizing mind, which, once ruled by passion and aversion, starts inventing reasons why even scripture's meaning must be otherwise.
Śaṅkarācārya
Viśiṣṭādvaita
Ramanuja narrows the verse to the discipline of self-knowledge specifically, and sharpens its warning: even a seeker who has reined in every sense by a brief closure of them remains exposed. Passion and hate can still seize him, forcing him to their own ends and turning him away from tasting the self's own nature, so that the very practice of atma-jnana is what is placed at risk.
Rāmānujācārya
Dvaita
The surviving fragment of Madhva's comment is brief: restraint should be practiced to the measure of one's own power, and even where no result appears immediately, it comes about through utmost effort, since the formative tendency this verse addresses is strong enough to hold sway even over great beings like Brahma. A fuller extension linking this to the self's dependence on the Lord even in its effort would be a natural Dvaita reading, but is not what the extant text itself states.
Madhvācārya
Kashmir Śaiva
Abhinavagupta relocates the whole problem from the deed to the delusion behind it: bondage comes only from thinking the self alone is the doer of one's likings and dislikings. The person of knowledge and the person of transmigration may do the very same things, but where that delusion and clinging are gone and a person simply walks his own dharma, rooted in his own savor, there is no bondage at all. A wider Kashmir Shaiva reading of raga and dvesha as contractions of the self's inherent freedom would extend this fragment, but goes beyond what it explicitly says.
Ācārya Abhinavagupta
Bhakti
Sridhara's distinctive move is about timing: nature stirs liking and hatred by making the senses remember their objects, then drags the careless person under like a strong current. Scripture, by contrast, works before that pull begins, setting a person on worship of the Supreme Lord in advance, like boarding a boat before the current can seize you, so the seeker for freedom is simply never swept away in the first place.
Śrīdhara Svāmī
Modern
Madhusudana works out the precise mechanism by which scripture retains its force even though attachment and aversion are natural: it acts upstream, on the knowledge that feeds them. Once scripture reveals a tempting thing's hidden bad result, the mere sense of its pleasantness can no longer breed attachment on its own, since its needed partner in reasoning is now removed; the same holds in reverse for an unpleasant duty with a good result.
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
A Seeker Asks
If liking and disliking arise automatically the instant my senses meet their objects, where exactly is my freedom, and what is actually left for me to do?
The arising itself is not your fault and not where your work lies. Contact will keep happening as long as you have a body; the eye will see, the tongue will taste, and liking or disliking will follow. Trying to prevent that arising is not the task this verse gives you.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī
Your freedom sits in the very next moment, in whether you fall under the sway of what has arisen. That gap between the arising and your consent is named here as the whole scope of human effort and of scripture's address to you.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
You can also work on the gap in advance rather than only in the moment. Seeing beforehand where a tempting thing truly leads, or turning the mind toward worship before the old habitual pull even begins, weakens attraction and aversion at their root instead of only resisting them once they have already taken hold.
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī
Contemplation
Notice, just once today, the small gap between a sense touching its object and your consent to be ruled by what follows. You do not have to silence the liking or the disliking; you only have to let it pass through without handing it the reins. Let that noticing be the whole of the practice, repeated as often as it occurs to you.
Sit with this · sonnet-5-authored
All the translations and commentary
Pull up a chair.
You have come to sit with this verse. When you are ready to hear the translators and the commentators in full, open a tradition in the doorways below, or add a voice by name above.
Also hear this verse, tradition by tradition.