Of every kind of yogi, the one whose inner self has gone to the Lord in faith is held the most fully joined.
The chapter that began with action laid down without craving for its fruit closes here, on a single quiet claim: what completes every discipline is not more effort, but where the heart finally comes to rest.
Of all yogis, the one who worships me with faith, his inmost self absorbed in me, is the one I hold to be the most fully joined of all.
The reading read whole, as one unhurried piece
Where it stands
Everything this chapter has carried you through, action laid down without craving its fruit, posture and breath, an even mind toward friend and stranger alike, the seeker who falls from the path and is not lost, comes to rest here. Krishna closes the sixth chapter by naming the very best of all yogis, and the chapters ahead will describe in full the Lord such a yogi worships.
The teaching
There are many kinds of yogi. Some meditate on lesser deities. Some follow the eightfold discipline of posture, breath, and restraint. Some practice austerity, some pursue knowledge. Every one of these is a real yogi, joined to something true through disciplined effort. Out of all of them, Krishna names one as the best: the one who worships Him, with faith, and whose inner self has gone wholly to Him. Three things together make this yogi the best. The inner self has gone to the Lord: the mind no longer holds itself up apart from what it is fixed upon. There is faith, a trust that nothing stands higher. And there is worship, active and offered, not a distant, passive gazing. Naming this yogi the best does not shame the others. They remain what they were, real practitioners of real disciplines. What is being said is only that this one further reach, a heart that has stopped maintaining any distance from the Lord it loves, surpasses every other form of yoking, the way a mountain is called large only beside a mustard seed, without making the mustard seed nothing. And what tips the scale is not extra toil. The labor of any yoga is much the same for anyone who takes it up seriously. What differs, and what decides the rank, is only whether the heart has come to rest in devotion.
The doubt that rises
If every discipline named through this chapter is real and worth practicing, why does the chapter end by ranking one above all the rest, and what does that ranking ask of someone who is still practicing one of the others?
Where the paths divide
Kept close to a spare, surviving comment rather than an extended doctrine.
What remains of Shankara's own words on this closing line is brief: other yogis meditate on Rudra, on the sun, on other deities besides, but this one gathers the inner instrument wholly into Vasudeva, and is therefore held the most joined. He does not, in what survives, build this into a fuller argument about how devotion relates to liberating knowledge elsewhere in his teaching; the honest reading stays with the plain contrast he actually draws.
A love so total the mind cannot stand apart from a perfect, personal Lord.
Ramanuja reads the grammar with care: 'of yogins' means more than even all yogins, setting this one apart the way Mount Meru stands apart from mustard seeds, rather than singling one out from a group of equals. The mind described here has gone to the Lord through a love shared with nothing else, so total it can no longer hold itself up apart from Him, and Ramanuja lingers over the Lord such a devotee turns toward: a distinct, perfect person, the treasure-house of every good quality, the ocean of compassion who came into the world without ever laying aside His own nature.
An honest gap in the record, not a filled-in doctrine.
No comment from Madhva survives on this verse, and the honest position is to say so plainly rather than invent one in his name. If his wider teaching of radical dependence on the Lord, stated elsewhere across this chapter, were extended here, one might read the most joined yogi as the one whose dependence on Hari has become most fully and gratefully acknowledged. But that is a labeled extrapolation, not his own recorded reading of this line.
Based on a brief surviving fragment, not a full doctrinal treatment.
What remains of Abhinavagupta's comment is compact but pointed: a yoga that is merely arduous, pursued without the Lord, does not by itself bring perfection. The yogi who places the Lord within his own inner being, following a lineage of devotion received through service at a teacher's feet, and who worships and reflects on the Lord alone, is most fully joined, filled through with the supreme Lord. A fuller reading, casting this as consciousness recognizing its own identity with the Lord rather than approaching Him as something external, would extend beyond the surviving fragment and is offered here only as a flagged possibility.
The chapter's whole arc gathered into a single closing address.
Sridhara draws out the closing intent of the verse as direct address: become, therefore, My devotee. He is careful to specify what the 'most joined' yogi is not: not the most rigorously disciplined body, not the one most deeply absorbed in formless meditation, but the one whose inner self has gone forth into the Lord with faith and stands there as devotee. In this single line, he finds the common seat of action, meditation, and knowledge, the whole chapter's teaching at rest.
Read as the hinge between the teaching's two halves.
Madhusudana marks this verse as a completion: with this line, the section on action and the meaning of 'thou' come to a close, karma-yoga has reached its high point in clearing the intellect for stillness, and the next group of chapters takes up this very verse as its seed, unfolding devotion to Vasudeva, the meaning of 'that,' in full.
All six readings agree that a heart gone wholly to the Lord in faith stands at the summit named here. They differ on how to picture what makes that so: a plain contrast with lesser objects of devotion, a love so total the mind cannot bear any distance, a dependence most fully acknowledged, a lineage of devotion completing an otherwise fruitless discipline, a single address gathering the whole chapter, or a hinge opening onto everything the Gita will teach next about the Lord Himself. And on Madhva, the honest record leaves a real gap rather than a settled position. This page does not choose among them.
A question to carry
If the labor of any serious practice is much the same, what would it actually mean for your own heart, today, to stop holding itself apart from what it already loves?
Where this teaching travels
Verses that sit near this one, each going its own way; follow whichever calls you.
So let whatever practice you carry, however it began, bend at last toward this: an inner self no longer standing apart from what it loves, held, as the verse says, in the keeping of the very one it turns 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.
Having just described the yogi who is steady and the one who falls and rises again across many births, Krishna closes the sixth chapter by naming the very best of all yogis, and opens the door to the chapters that will describe the Lord such a yogi worships.
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.
Out of every kind of yogi this chapter has named, the one who worships the Lord with faith, inner self absorbed in Him, is held the most fully joined.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Śrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 2 others’ words
Krishna closes the sixth chapter by ranking every kind of yogi against one another, and every commentator on the roster agrees on the shape of the ranking. There are many real forms of yoga: meditation on lesser deities, the eightfold path of posture and restraint, austerity, knowledge. Out of all of them, the one Krishna names best is the one who worships Him, Vasudeva, with faith and an inner self turned wholly toward Him.
Three marks together make this rank: a mind gone to the Lord, unwavering faith, and worship offered as active service, not passive gazing.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Kashmir Śaiva, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Abhinavagupta · Śrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 3 others’ words
Three marks together make this yogi the best. The inner self has gone to the Lord, mad-gatena antaratmana: the mind no longer holds itself up apart from Him. There is full faith, shraddha, a trust that nothing is higher. And there is active worship, bhajate, not a passive gazing but a service offered. Faith, an inward-turned mind, and worship are the three marks the verse names together.
This is a peak among real practices, not a verdict against them; the other yogis remain genuine, only surpassed by this one further reach.
Across Viśiṣṭādvaita, BhaktiRāmānuja · ŚrīdharaIn Rāmānuja and Śrīdhara’s words
This ranking does not shame the other yogis named through the chapter. They are real practitioners, joined to something real in disciplined practice. What is being said is only that one form of yoking, loving worship of the Lord Himself, reaches further than any of the others, the way Mount Meru stands apart from every mustard seed without making the mustard seeds worthless.
The toil of practice is the same for everyone; what tips the balance to this summit is devotion itself, nothing rarer or harder.
Across Viśiṣṭādvaita, Bhakti, AdvaitaRāmānuja · Śrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Rāmānuja, Śrīdhara, and 1 others’ words
The verdict carries the Lord's own authority: 'held by Me,' the one who sees all things directly, as they truly are. Several readings stress that the toil of practice is the same for everyone, so what tips the balance to the very summit is devotion alone, not extra exertion or a rarer technique.
This closing line gathers the whole chapter's teaching and opens directly onto what follows, where the Lord who is worshipped will be described in full.
Across Advaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Śrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Śaṅkara, Śrīdhara, and 1 others’ words
Because this verse ends the chapter, it is read as both a crown and a doorway. It gathers everything the chapter has carried, action without craving for fruit, posture and breath, equal vision, the fallen yogi's long return, into this one closing line, and it opens directly onto the chapters ahead, where the Lord who is to be worshipped will be described at length.
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 reads the grammar with precision: 'of yogins' means more than even all yogins, not a choice among them, so this yogi stands apart the way Mount Meru stands apart from mustard seeds. The mind has gone to the Lord through a love so total it cannot hold itself up apart from Him, and Ramanuja describes at length the Lord it turns toward: a distinct, perfect personal being, the treasure-house of every auspicious quality, the ocean of compassion. This loving worship is the direct, supreme reach of yoga itself.
Dvaita, in their fuller words
No comment from Madhva survives on this verse; the honest position is that his reading here is simply unrecorded. Any Dvaita extension, that the most joined yogi is the one whose dependence on Hari has become most fully and gratefully acknowledged, is a labeled extrapolation from his wider framework across the chapter, not his stated words on 6.47.
Shaiva, in their fuller words
What remains of Abhinavagupta's comment is brief but pointed: a yoga that is merely arduous, without the Lord, does not by itself bring perfection. The yogi who places the Lord in his inner being, following a lineage received through service at a teacher's feet, and who worships and reflects on the Lord alone, is most fully joined, filled through with the supreme Lord. A fuller reading casting this as consciousness recognizing its identity with Shiva would extend beyond the surviving fragment and is offered only as a conditional possibility.
Bhakti, in their fuller words
Sridhara reads the verse as the direct address the whole chapter has been building toward: become, therefore, My devotee. He is careful to specify that the yuktatama is not the most thoroughly disciplined body nor the one most deeply absorbed in formless meditation, but the one whose inner self has gone forth into the Lord with faith and stands there as devotee, in whom karma-yoga, dhyana-yoga, and jnana-yoga all find their common seat.
A modern reading, in their fuller words
Madhusudana frames the closing verse as marking a completion: with this line, the settling of the meaning of the word 'thou' in the great teaching is finished, the yoga of action has reached its high point in clearing the intellect, and the next group of chapters will take up this very verse as its seed to settle the yoga of devotion and describe the Lord who is to be worshipped, the meaning of the word 'that.'
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
Sit for a moment with the plain claim of this verse: not more austerity, not a rarer technique, but an inner self that has stopped holding itself apart from what it loves. Notice, without straining, whether your own attention has anywhere left to travel toward, and let it rest there, faithfully, as an offering rather than a search.
So let your own practice, whatever form it takes, bend at last toward this: an inner self that no longer holds itself apart from what it loves.
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
rishna closes the sixth chapter by ranking every kind of yogi against one another, and every commentator on the roster agrees on the shape of the ranking. There are many real forms of yoga: meditation on lesser deities, the eightfold path of posture and restraint, austerity, knowledge. Out of all of them, the one Krishna names best is the one who worships Him, Vasudeva, with faith and an inner self turned wholly toward Him.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Three marks together make this yogi the best. The inner self has gone to the Lord, mad-gatena antaratmana: the mind no longer holds itself up apart from Him. There is full faith, shraddha, a trust that nothing is higher. And there is active worship, bhajate, not a passive gazing but a service offered. Faith, an inward-turned mind, and worship are the three marks the verse names together.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Ācārya Abhinavagupta · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
This ranking does not shame the other yogis named through the chapter. They are real practitioners, joined to something real in disciplined practice. What is being said is only that one form of yoking, loving worship of the Lord Himself, reaches further than any of the others, the way Mount Meru stands apart from every mustard seed without making the mustard seeds worthless.
Rāmānujācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī
The verdict carries the Lord's own authority: 'held by Me,' the one who sees all things directly, as they truly are. Several readings stress that the toil of practice is the same for everyone, so what tips the balance to the very summit is devotion alone, not extra exertion or a rarer technique.
Rāmānujācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Because this verse ends the chapter, it is read as both a crown and a doorway. It gathers everything the chapter has carried, action without craving for fruit, posture and breath, equal vision, the fallen yogi's long return, into this one closing line, and it opens directly onto the chapters ahead, where the Lord who is to be worshipped will be described at length.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
Shankara's surviving comment is spare: he notes that other yogis meditate on Rudra, the sun, or other deities, while this yogi gathers the inner instrument wholly into Vasudeva, and is therefore held to be the most joined. He does not, in what remains of the passage, elaborate a doctrine of how this devotion relates to liberating knowledge; the honest reading keeps close to the plain contrast he actually draws rather than building an extended argument in his name.
Śaṅkarācārya
Viśiṣṭādvaita
Ramanuja reads the grammar with precision: 'of yogins' means more than even all yogins, not a choice among them, so this yogi stands apart the way Mount Meru stands apart from mustard seeds. The mind has gone to the Lord through a love so total it cannot hold itself up apart from Him, and Ramanuja describes at length the Lord it turns toward: a distinct, perfect personal being, the treasure-house of every auspicious quality, the ocean of compassion. This loving worship is the direct, supreme reach of yoga itself.
Rāmānujācārya
Dvaita
No comment from Madhva survives on this verse; the honest position is that his reading here is simply unrecorded. Any Dvaita extension, that the most joined yogi is the one whose dependence on Hari has become most fully and gratefully acknowledged, is a labeled extrapolation from his wider framework across the chapter, not his stated words on 6.47.
Madhvācārya
Kashmir Śaiva
What remains of Abhinavagupta's comment is brief but pointed: a yoga that is merely arduous, without the Lord, does not by itself bring perfection. The yogi who places the Lord in his inner being, following a lineage received through service at a teacher's feet, and who worships and reflects on the Lord alone, is most fully joined, filled through with the supreme Lord. A fuller reading casting this as consciousness recognizing its identity with Shiva would extend beyond the surviving fragment and is offered only as a conditional possibility.
Ācārya Abhinavagupta
Bhakti
Sridhara reads the verse as the direct address the whole chapter has been building toward: become, therefore, My devotee. He is careful to specify that the yuktatama is not the most thoroughly disciplined body nor the one most deeply absorbed in formless meditation, but the one whose inner self has gone forth into the Lord with faith and stands there as devotee, in whom karma-yoga, dhyana-yoga, and jnana-yoga all find their common seat.
Śrīdhara Svāmī
Modern
Madhusudana frames the closing verse as marking a completion: with this line, the settling of the meaning of the word 'thou' in the great teaching is finished, the yoga of action has reached its high point in clearing the intellect, and the next group of chapters will take up this very verse as its seed to settle the yoga of devotion and describe the Lord who is to be worshipped, the meaning of the word 'that.'
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
A Seeker Asks
If meditation, knowledge, and disciplined practice are all real paths, why is the faith-filled devotee called the best of all yogis, and does that mean the others were wasted effort?
The verse names a peak among real practices, not a verdict against them. Every yogi described through the chapter, the austere, the meditator, the practitioner of posture and breath, is a genuine yogi; only against that whole field is the devotee called highest, the way Mount Meru is called large only beside mustard seeds, without making the mustard seeds nothing.
Rāmānujācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī
What decides the ranking is not extra toil. The labor of practice is the same for everyone; what differs is only whether the inner self has gone to the Lord in faith and active worship. That is why this yogi reaches the summit without needing a harder or rarer discipline than anyone else.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
And nothing here is wasted, because the chapter's own arc bends this way throughout: action, posture, equal vision, and steadiness are each real and each still stand, but each was already pointing toward this closing address, so the practices that came before are gathered up rather than discarded.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Contemplation
Sit for a moment with the plain claim of this verse: not more austerity, not a rarer technique, but an inner self that has stopped holding itself apart from what it loves. Notice, without straining, whether your own attention has anywhere left to travel toward, and let it rest there, faithfully, as an offering rather than a search.
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.