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Bhagavad-Gītā with Śaṅkara's bhāṣya · 2.14
mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkhadāḥ | āgamāpāyino 'nityās tāṃs titikṣasva bhārata
Translation. But the sense-organs’ contacts (mātrā-sparśa), O son of Kuntī,
giving cold and heat, pleasure and pain,
come and pass away; they are impermanent (anitya).
Endure them, O descendant of Bharata.
Grammar check: 9 words pass / 0 flagged / 0 beyond the checkerPāṇini-verified
Every word's claimed grammar is re-derived with vidyut-prakriya, software implementing Pāṇini's rules. Flags are shown, never hidden; some are the text taking epic or Vedic liberties the classical rules do not generate.
Word by word
| surface | lemma | grammar |
|---|
| mātrā-sparśāḥ | mātrā-sparśa | pass |
| tu | tu | pass |
| kaunteya | kaunteya | pass |
| śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkhadāḥ | śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkhada | pass |
| āgamāpāyinaḥ | āgamāpāyin | pass |
| anityāḥ | anitya | pass |
| tān | tad | pass |
| titikṣasva | tij | pass |
| bhārata | bhārata | pass |
How the commentary settled it
Where the verse alone is ambiguous, the reading follows Śaṅkara's commentary; the deciding lines are quoted below each decision.
The primary analysis of mātrā-sparśāḥ is a genitive tatpuruṣa: the contacts of the sense-organs with their objects. Mātrā therefore does not mean an abstract ‘measure’ here.→ Genitive tatpuruṣa, following Śaṅkara’s first gloss; his explicitly introduced athavā analysis is retained as an alternative.
gita [1, 2]mātrā ābhiḥ mīyante śabdādaya iti śrotrādīni indriyāṇi |
mātrāṇāṃ sparśāḥ śabdādibhiḥ saṃyogāḥ |
The organs such as hearing are called ‘mātrās’ because sounds and the like are measured by them. The contacts of the sense-organs are conjunctions with sound and the like.
gita [4, 5]athavā spṛśyanta iti sparśā viṣayāḥ śabdādayaḥ |
mātrāś ca sparśāś ca śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ |
Alternatively, ‘sparśas’ are the objects—sound and the like—because they are contacted. The sense-organs and the objects give cold, heat, pleasure, and pain.
The compound śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkhadāḥ means that the contacts produce or bestow four objects: cold, heat, pleasure, and pain.→ An upapada-tatpuruṣa in -da with the four preceding terms as its coordinated objects.
gita [3]te śītoṣṇasukha-duḥkha-dāḥ śītam uṣṇaṃ sukhaṃ duḥkhaṃ ca prayacchantīti |
They are ‘givers of cold, heat, pleasure, and pain’ because they bestow cold, heat, pleasure, and pain.
Cold and heat are listed separately from pleasure and pain: either cold or heat can sometimes be pleasant and sometimes painful, whereas pleasure and pain retain their respective forms.→ The fourfold wording is preserved, with cold and heat distinct from pleasure and pain.
gita [6, 7, 8, 9]śītaṃ kadācit sukhaṃ kadācit duḥkham |
tathā uṣṇam api aniyata-svarūpam |
sukha-duḥkhe punaḥ niyata-rūpe yato na vyabhicarataḥ |
atas tābhyāṃ pṛthak śītoṣṇayoḥ grahaṇam |
Cold is sometimes pleasant and sometimes painful. Heat likewise has no fixed character. Pleasure and pain, however, have determinate forms, since they do not deviate from them. Therefore cold and heat are mentioned separately from those two.
Āgamāpāyinaḥ denotes being characterized by coming and passing away, and this is explicitly the reason that the contacts are called impermanent.→ ‘They come and pass away; therefore they are impermanent.’
gita [10]yasmāt te mātrā-sparśādayaḥ āgamāpāyinaḥ āgamāpāyaśīlāḥ tasmāt anityāḥ |
Because those contacts of the sense-organs and the rest are subject to coming and passing away—having coming and disappearance as their nature—they are therefore impermanent.
Tān is the object of titikṣasva and points to cold, heat, and the other experiences. The imperative means to withstand them, specifically without elation or dejection.→ A second-person singular active-sense imperative: ‘Endure them.’
gita [11, 12]ataḥ tān śītoṣṇādīn titikṣasva prasahasva |
teṣu harṣaṃ viṣādaṃ vā mā kārṣīḥ ity arthaḥ |
Therefore endure—overcome—those things beginning with cold and heat. The meaning is: do not experience either elation or dejection regarding them.
The enclitic tu is rendered ‘but,’ marking a transition and mild contrast with the preceding teaching.→ but
gita []
The commentary does not gloss the particle; the decision rests on its standard enclitic syntax and the contextual transition.
Śaṅkara's commentary on this unit
1mātrā ābhiḥ mīyante śabdādaya iti śrotrādīni indriyāṇi |
2mātrāṇāṃ sparśāḥ śabdādibhiḥ saṃyogāḥ |
3te śītoṣṇasukha-duḥkha-dāḥ śītam uṣṇaṃ sukhaṃ duḥkhaṃ ca prayacchantīti |
4athavā spṛśyanta iti sparśā viṣayāḥ śabdādayaḥ |
5mātrāś ca sparśāś ca śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ |
6śītaṃ kadācit sukhaṃ kadācit duḥkham |
7tathā uṣṇam api aniyata-svarūpam |
8sukha-duḥkhe punaḥ niyata-rūpe yato na vyabhicarataḥ |
9atas tābhyāṃ pṛthak śītoṣṇayoḥ grahaṇam |
10yasmāt te mātrā-sparśādayaḥ āgamāpāyinaḥ āgamāpāyaśīlāḥ tasmāt anityāḥ |
11ataḥ tān śītoṣṇādīn titikṣasva prasahasva |
12teṣu harṣaṃ viṣādaṃ vā mā kārṣīḥ ity arthaḥ ||bhgs_2.14||