Bhagavad-gītā 12.5
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क्लेशोऽधिकतरस्तेषामव्यक्तासक्तचेतसाम्। अव्यक्ता हि गतिर्दुःखं देहवद्भिरवाप्यते।।12.5।।
kleśho ’dhikataras teṣhām avyaktāsakta-chetasām avyaktā hi gatir duḥkhaṁ dehavadbhir avāpyate
But they who fix their attention on the Absolute and Impersonal encounter greater hardships, for it is difficult for those who have a body to realize Me as without one.
English rendering by Shri Purohit Swami. Each source voice remains named.
Build the sentence from its parts
Read across once, then cover the meanings and recover them from the Sanskrit forms.
| Sanskrit form | Meaning here |
|---|---|
| kleśhaḥ | tribulations |
| adhika-taraḥ | full of |
| teṣhām | of those |
| avyakta | to the unmanifest |
| āsakta | attached |
| chetasām | whose minds |
| avyaktā | the unmanifest |
| hi | indeed |
| gatiḥ | path |
| duḥkham | exceeding difficulty |
| deha-vadbhiḥ | for the embodied |
| avāpyate | is reached |
Worshippers of the Saguna (alified) and the Nirguna (unalified) Brahman reach the same goal. But the latter path is very hard and arduous, because the aspirant has to give up attachment to the body from the very beginning of his spiritual practice.
Attributed explanatory witness: Swami Sivananda. Chapter lens: Compare approaches to worship and study the concrete qualities of a devotee across the chapter’s compact sequence.
Three named reading witnesses
Śaṅkara edition witness
Swami GambiranandaFor those whose minds are attached to the Unmanifested, the struggle is greater; for the Goal, which is the Unmanifest, is attained with difficulty by the embodied ones.
Rāmānuja edition witness
Swami AdidevanandaGreater is the difficulty for those whose minds are thus attached to the unmanifest, for the way of the unmanifest is hard to reach for embodied beings.
Sivananda commentary witness
Swami SivanandaWorshippers of the Saguna (alified) and the Nirguna (unalified) Brahman reach the same goal. But the latter path is very hard and arduous, because the aspirant has to give up attachment to the body from the very beginning of his spiritual practice.
These are concise, attributed reading witnesses from identified editions. They are presented for comparison and are not merged into one anonymous interpretation.
Meaning map
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- 1
But they who fix their attention on the Absolute and Impersonal encounter greater hardships, for it is difficult for those who have a body to realize Me as without one
- 2
kleśhaḥ: tribulations
- 3
avyaktā: the unmanifest
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