When you remember the Lord without a break and to the very end, he becomes easy to reach.
The Lord who is hard to reach by every other road is here called easy, on one condition: a mind that rests on him and nothing else, held steadily for the whole length of a life. The verse corrects the fear that nearness must be earned by feats of breath, ritual, or knowledge ripening over many births.
I am easily attained by the yogi who always remembers me, steadily and with an undivided mind, thinking of nothing else. For such a one, ever devoted, I am within easy reach.
It answers the chapter's standing worry about remembrance at the hour of death, when the breath may not be in one's control, by setting lifelong, every-moment remembrance in place of any feat to be managed at the last moment.
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.
Let the mind rest on him and on no other thing, not on wife or son or any second goal; and let it stay so, not for a season but to the very end.
Across Advaita, Bhedābheda, Bhakti, Śuddhādvaita, and the modern voicesŚaṅkara · Madhusūdana · Nīlakaṇṭha · Bhāskara · Viśvanātha · Baladeva · Vallabha · Śrīdhara · Sivananda · Ramsukhdas · DhanapatiIn Śaṅkara, Madhusūdana, and 9 others’ words
The verse names a single, exclusive devotion and promises an unusual reward for it. Krishna describes the devotee as 'ananya-chetah,' a mind that is on no other. The commentators unpack this carefully: the mind rests on Krishna and nothing else, not on wife, son, and the rest of worldly things, and for several voices not even on any other deity, on any other path such as ritual or the yoga of knowledge, or on any other goal such as heaven or liberation. To this Krishna adds two time-words, 'satatam' (constantly, without a break) and 'nityashah' (perpetually, day after day). The commentators stress that these are not redundant: one marks unbrokenness, the steady continuity of the remembrance, while the other marks duration, that it lasts as long as life lasts, not for six months or a year but to the very end.
He who is so hard to reach by every other road becomes easy for you here, where the steady remembrance is itself the whole of the cause and you are spared the long labor of the other paths.
Across Advaita, Śuddhādvaita, Bhakti, Bhedābheda, Viśiṣṭādvaita, and the modern voicesŚaṅkara · Madhusūdana · Dhanapati · Vallabha · Puruṣottama · Viśvanātha · Baladeva · Śrīdhara · Bhāskara · Sivananda · Ramsukhdas · RāmānujaIn Śaṅkara, Madhusūdana, and 10 others’ words
To such a devotee Krishna says, 'tasya aham sulabhah,' I am easily attained, easily won, gained with ease. This is the heart of the verse, and the commentators read it as a deliberate contrast: the Lord, who is exceedingly hard to reach by other routes, is here exceedingly easy for the one who keeps Him in unbroken remembrance. Several voices sharpen the contrast by naming the hard paths the devotee is spared: the labor of yoga, the ripening of knowledge over many births, the discipline of breath and syllable, the pains of ascetic practice. Because that constant remembrance is itself the whole cause, the Lord becomes easy of approach where the distracted find Him hardest. The address 'Partha' is heard as a touch of reassurance: do not fear, for you I am easy to gain.
Do not be anxious about your last breath; the one whose whole life has been this remembrance finds it flowing in of itself when the body falls, and need not fear the manner of the leaving.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, BhaktiĀnandagiri · Madhusūdana · Dhanapati · Vedānta Deśika · ŚrīdharaIn Ānandagiri, Madhusūdana, and 3 others’ words
The verse settles the practical worry the chapter has been carrying about remembrance at the hour of death. Earlier verses taught that one reaches what one remembers as the body falls, which raises an anxiety: the death moment may not be in one's control, and not everyone can master the breath and depart by the channel of the head at will. The commentators answer that lifelong, every-moment remembrance is itself the remedy. For the one whose whole life has been such contemplation, the death-time remembrance comes as a natural inflow rather than a feat to be managed. So whether the breath departs by one's own will or only when action is exhausted, the steady devotee need not fear; the all-along remembrance has already made him ready.
This is the ever-yoked one, the mind collected and turned toward him without a break, and the ease promised is simply the ease such a steady mind comes to.
Across Advaita, Dvaita, Bhakti, Viśiṣṭādvaita, and the modern voicesŚaṅkara · Madhva · Jayatīrtha · Nīlakaṇṭha · Viśvanātha · Baladeva · Rāmānuja · Tilak · RamsukhdasIn Śaṅkara, Madhva, and 7 others’ words
The devotee is further called 'nitya-yukta,' the ever-yoked yogin. The commentators read 'yukta' and 'yogin' together as steady union and the means to it: one who is ever joined to Krishna, who possesses the constant means, whose yoga is complete and undistracted. For the bhakti voices, this 'yoga' is specifically the yoga of devotion, even the standing relation of servant, friend, and the like to the Lord, and the 'longing for union' is so settled that the past-tense form is used for a union still longed for. The single thread through all the readings is that the ease promised is the ease enjoyed by one whose mind is collected and continuously turned toward Krishna.
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
This school reads 'sulabha' as more than ease of access; it is the Lord's own active self-giving in response to love. The devotee, by an exceedingly great love, cannot hold himself up without remembering Krishna, and so the remembrance becomes supremely dear to him. To such a one the Lord, unable to bear separation, himself chooses the devotee: he ripens the worship, removes what obstructs it, and increases the love, citing the scripture 'whom this one chooses, by him He is gained' and the later promise to give the discipline of understanding that leads to Him. One source adds a precise point: what is attained is Krishna himself, not merely His state of lordship and the like. Another stresses that the 'ease' is not the dropping of discipline but its consummation, the natural correspondence by which a steady mind has fitted itself to a steady object.
Śuddhādvaita, in their fuller words
This school marks the verse as the very seal of the path of grace (Pushtimarga). The word 'sulabha' is decisive: against every path where the Lord must be reached by long course, by yogic effort, by ascetic and mantra labor, by the ripening of knowledge over many births, here, on the single condition of exclusive and constant remembrance, He is easily had. The 'ananya' is read strictly to shut out even the imperishable (akshara) and any partial form, so that the object is the full Lord, Vasudeva, the lila-purushottama. The condition is not light, but where it is met the difficulty falls wholly on the devotee's side: the Lord, of His own grace, makes Himself easy. The single-pointedness here is not the worshipper's achievement but the answering of the Lord's own regard, grace granted as a gift to the disposition itself. One source illustrates with the homely image that as a child is easily reached by its own mother through the strength of remembering, so the Lord becomes easily reached here.
Bhakti, in their fuller words
This school places the verse at the summit of the chapter's progression as the supreme, exclusive devotion, ranked above the devotion mixed with action, with knowledge, or with yoga that earlier verses described. The ease is grounded in the absence of admixed pain: there is no contact with the suffering of rites, of the practice of yoga, or of knowledge-discipline, and the remembrance does not depend on purity of time, place, or vessel. For some of these voices the object is the personal, manifested Lord, the one suckled at Yashoda's breast, shown in forms such as Nrisimha and Raghunatha, and the 'yoga' is the relation of servitude and friendship to Him. One source dwells at length on the death-time worry: such devotees, already merged in the Lord while still in the body, feel no pangs of separation at death, for the Lord, owing them a debt of devotion, hastens to relieve them; their mortal life was only a reflection, as moonbeams in water abide in the moon when the water dries, so their life abides forever in the Eternal Self, and they never return to the body.
Advaita Vedānta, in their fuller words
This school reads the remembrance as continuous, undistracted contemplation of the supreme Lord and aligns it with the discipline taught by Patanjali, where practice attended for a long time, without interruption, and with reverence becomes firmly grounded; here that practice culminates in remembering. The three terms are parsed to carry distinct weight: 'ananya' as reverence and great regard, 'satatam' as uninterruptedness, and 'nityashah' as long duration over the whole of life. The lifelong, every-moment contemplation free of distraction is itself stated to be the cause of the supreme course, so that there is no great insistence on whether the breath departs by the channel of the head at one's own will or not. The conclusion drawn is practical: since the Lord is thus easy to win, one should be always composed in Him.
Dvaita, in their fuller words
This school gives a precise grammatical reading that keeps 'nitya-yukta' and 'yogin' from collapsing into the same meaning. 'Ever-joined' means one who ever possesses the means, and 'the yogin' means one whose yoga is complete; the word 'nitya' is what distinguishes them, so the sense is of one whose yoga is complete precisely through his constant possession of the means.
A modern reading, in their fuller words
This voice reads the ever-yoked one specifically as the Karma-Yogin, perpetually steeped in Yoga, who, thinking continually that there is none other than Krishna, becomes merged in Him and so finds Him easy; the verse is heard within the chapter's frame of action joined to constant remembrance.
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
The practical counsel of this verse is simple and steadying: constantly remembering the Lord throughout your life is the most easy way of attaining Him. Let the mind have no attachment to other objects; keep it on your chosen form of the Divine and return to it again and again. The warning is just as plain. Remembrance by fits and starts does not carry you, nor does practice taken up for six months, dropped, and taken up again. What reaches Him is the unbroken thread held to the very end of life. So make the remembrance small, frequent, and continuous rather than grand and occasional, and trust that this quiet, lifelong companionship is itself the whole path.
So keep the remembrance small, frequent, and unbroken rather than grand and occasional, and trust that this quiet, lifelong companionship is itself the whole path home.
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
he verse names a single, exclusive devotion and promises an unusual reward for it. Krishna describes the devotee as 'ananya-chetah,' a mind that is on no other. The commentators unpack this carefully: the mind rests on Krishna and nothing else, not on wife, son, and the rest of worldly things, and for several voices not even on any other deity, on any other path such as ritual or the yoga of knowledge, or on any other goal such as heaven or liberation. To this Krishna adds two time-words, 'satatam' (constantly, without a break) and 'nityashah' (perpetually, day after day). The commentators stress that these are not redundant: one marks unbrokenness, the steady continuity of the remembrance, while the other marks duration, that it lasts as long as life lasts, not for six months or a year but to the very end.
Braided from 11 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Śrī Bhāskara · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Vallabhācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Swami Sivananda · Swami Ramsukhdas · Dhanapati Sūri
To such a devotee Krishna says, 'tasya aham sulabhah,' I am easily attained, easily won, gained with ease. This is the heart of the verse, and the commentators read it as a deliberate contrast: the Lord, who is exceedingly hard to reach by other routes, is here exceedingly easy for the one who keeps Him in unbroken remembrance. Several voices sharpen the contrast by naming the hard paths the devotee is spared: the labor of yoga, the ripening of knowledge over many births, the discipline of breath and syllable, the pains of ascetic practice. Because that constant remembrance is itself the whole cause, the Lord becomes easy of approach where the distracted find Him hardest. The address 'Partha' is heard as a touch of reassurance: do not fear, for you I am easy to gain.
Braided from 12 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Dhanapati Sūri · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrī Bhāskara · Swami Sivananda · Swami Ramsukhdas · Rāmānujācārya
The verse settles the practical worry the chapter has been carrying about remembrance at the hour of death. Earlier verses taught that one reaches what one remembers as the body falls, which raises an anxiety: the death moment may not be in one's control, and not everyone can master the breath and depart by the channel of the head at will. The commentators answer that lifelong, every-moment remembrance is itself the remedy. For the one whose whole life has been such contemplation, the death-time remembrance comes as a natural inflow rather than a feat to be managed. So whether the breath departs by one's own will or only when action is exhausted, the steady devotee need not fear; the all-along remembrance has already made him ready.
Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Dhanapati Sūri · Vedānta Deśika · Śrīdhara Svāmī
The devotee is further called 'nitya-yukta,' the ever-yoked yogin. The commentators read 'yukta' and 'yogin' together as steady union and the means to it: one who is ever joined to Krishna, who possesses the constant means, whose yoga is complete and undistracted. For the bhakti voices, this 'yoga' is specifically the yoga of devotion, even the standing relation of servant, friend, and the like to the Lord, and the 'longing for union' is so settled that the past-tense form is used for a union still longed for. The single thread through all the readings is that the ease promised is the ease enjoyed by one whose mind is collected and continuously turned toward Krishna.
Braided from 9 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhvācārya · Śrī Jayatīrtha · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Rāmānujācārya · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas
Divergence
Viśiṣṭādvaita
This school reads 'sulabha' as more than ease of access; it is the Lord's own active self-giving in response to love. The devotee, by an exceedingly great love, cannot hold himself up without remembering Krishna, and so the remembrance becomes supremely dear to him. To such a one the Lord, unable to bear separation, himself chooses the devotee: he ripens the worship, removes what obstructs it, and increases the love, citing the scripture 'whom this one chooses, by him He is gained' and the later promise to give the discipline of understanding that leads to Him. One source adds a precise point: what is attained is Krishna himself, not merely His state of lordship and the like. Another stresses that the 'ease' is not the dropping of discipline but its consummation, the natural correspondence by which a steady mind has fitted itself to a steady object.
Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika
Śuddhādvaita
This school marks the verse as the very seal of the path of grace (Pushtimarga). The word 'sulabha' is decisive: against every path where the Lord must be reached by long course, by yogic effort, by ascetic and mantra labor, by the ripening of knowledge over many births, here, on the single condition of exclusive and constant remembrance, He is easily had. The 'ananya' is read strictly to shut out even the imperishable (akshara) and any partial form, so that the object is the full Lord, Vasudeva, the lila-purushottama. The condition is not light, but where it is met the difficulty falls wholly on the devotee's side: the Lord, of His own grace, makes Himself easy. The single-pointedness here is not the worshipper's achievement but the answering of the Lord's own regard, grace granted as a gift to the disposition itself. One source illustrates with the homely image that as a child is easily reached by its own mother through the strength of remembering, so the Lord becomes easily reached here.
Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama
Bhakti
This school places the verse at the summit of the chapter's progression as the supreme, exclusive devotion, ranked above the devotion mixed with action, with knowledge, or with yoga that earlier verses described. The ease is grounded in the absence of admixed pain: there is no contact with the suffering of rites, of the practice of yoga, or of knowledge-discipline, and the remembrance does not depend on purity of time, place, or vessel. For some of these voices the object is the personal, manifested Lord, the one suckled at Yashoda's breast, shown in forms such as Nrisimha and Raghunatha, and the 'yoga' is the relation of servitude and friendship to Him. One source dwells at length on the death-time worry: such devotees, already merged in the Lord while still in the body, feel no pangs of separation at death, for the Lord, owing them a debt of devotion, hastens to relieve them; their mortal life was only a reflection, as moonbeams in water abide in the moon when the water dries, so their life abides forever in the Eternal Self, and they never return to the body.
Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Sant Jñāneśvar
Advaita Vedānta
This school reads the remembrance as continuous, undistracted contemplation of the supreme Lord and aligns it with the discipline taught by Patanjali, where practice attended for a long time, without interruption, and with reverence becomes firmly grounded; here that practice culminates in remembering. The three terms are parsed to carry distinct weight: 'ananya' as reverence and great regard, 'satatam' as uninterruptedness, and 'nityashah' as long duration over the whole of life. The lifelong, every-moment contemplation free of distraction is itself stated to be the cause of the supreme course, so that there is no great insistence on whether the breath departs by the channel of the head at one's own will or not. The conclusion drawn is practical: since the Lord is thus easy to win, one should be always composed in Him.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri
Dvaita
This school gives a precise grammatical reading that keeps 'nitya-yukta' and 'yogin' from collapsing into the same meaning. 'Ever-joined' means one who ever possesses the means, and 'the yogin' means one whose yoga is complete; the word 'nitya' is what distinguishes them, so the sense is of one whose yoga is complete precisely through his constant possession of the means.
Madhvācārya · Śrī Jayatīrtha
Modern
This voice reads the ever-yoked one specifically as the Karma-Yogin, perpetually steeped in Yoga, who, thinking continually that there is none other than Krishna, becomes merged in Him and so finds Him easy; the verse is heard within the chapter's frame of action joined to constant remembrance.
Lokmanya Tilak
A Seeker Asks
If reaching the Lord is as easy as constant remembrance, why does the Gita elsewhere lay out such long and demanding paths of yoga, knowledge, and discipline?
The 'ease' is not the absence of all effort; it is the natural correspondence between a steady mind and a steady object. The casual, distracted mind cannot reach a steady goal, so for it the Lord stays hard. The mind that has, by its very steadiness, fitted itself to its object finds the Lord ready. In this sense the ease is not the dropping of discipline but its consummation; the condition of exclusive, unbroken remembrance is itself not light.
Vedānta Deśika · Vallabhācārya
What the constant remembrance spares the devotee is the admixed pain of the other routes. There is no contact with the suffering of rites, of yogic practice, or of the ripening of knowledge over many births, and the remembrance does not even depend on purity of time, place, or vessel. So the Lord is described as easy here precisely by contrast with paths that demand long course, ascetic labor, and the discipline of breath and syllable.
Śrīla Viśvanātha · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Bhāskara
For the devotional readings the ease is finally the Lord's own response, not only the seeker's accomplishment. Unable to bear separation from one who cannot hold himself up without remembering Him, the Lord himself chooses the devotee, ripens the worship, removes obstacles, and increases the love; the single-pointedness is met by the Lord's own regard, grace granted as a gift to the disposition itself. The hard paths and this easy one are not in conflict: this verse names what happens when the whole mind has already been given.
Rāmānujācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama
Contemplation
The practical counsel of this verse is simple and steadying: constantly remembering the Lord throughout your life is the most easy way of attaining Him. Let the mind have no attachment to other objects; keep it on your chosen form of the Divine and return to it again and again. The warning is just as plain. Remembrance by fits and starts does not carry you, nor does practice taken up for six months, dropped, and taken up again. What reaches Him is the unbroken thread held to the very end of life. So make the remembrance small, frequent, and continuous rather than grand and occasional, and trust that this quiet, lifelong companionship is itself the whole path.
Sit with this · Swami Sivananda
All the translations and commentary
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