FolioCorpusBhagavad-gītā

Bhagavad-gītā 2.69

या निशा सर्वभूतानां तस्यां जागर्ति संयमी । यस्यां जाग्रति भूतानि सा निशा पश्यतो मुनेः ॥ ६९ ॥
yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ
[yaa nishaa sarva-bhootaanaam]
tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī
[tasyaam jaagarti samyamee]
yasyāṁ jāgrati bhūtāni
[yasyaam jaagrati bhootaani]
sā niśā paśyato muneḥ
[saa nishaa pashyato muneh]
Word-for-word
yā — what niśā — is night sarva — all bhūtānām — of living entities tasyām — in that jāgarti — is wakeful saṁyamī — the self-controlled yasyām — in which jāgrati — are awake bhūtāni — all beings sā — that is niśā — night paśyataḥ — for the introspective muneḥ — sage .
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ
yā
what
niśā
is night
sarva
all
bhūtānām
of living entities
tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī
tasyām
in that
jāgarti
is wakeful
saṁyamī
the self-controlled
yasyāṁ jāgrati bhūtāni
yasyām
in which
jāgrati
are awake
bhūtāni
all beings
sā niśā paśyato muneḥ
sā
that is
niśā
night
paśyataḥ
for the introspective
muneḥ
sage .
Important Words
  • niśā — night
    Repeated. The verse exploits the metaphor of inversion: what is dark to the worldly is bright to the saṁyamī, and vice versa. The two communities live in opposite calendars.
  • sarva - bhūtānām — of all beings
    Genitive plural — *of all beings*. The reference class is universal: not 'the wicked' or 'the unwise' but *all beings*, even the ordinarily decent. The saṁyamī is unusual against everyone.
  • jāgarti — is awake
    Present of √jāgṛ — to be awake. The saṁyamī's spiritual wakefulness is named with the ordinary word for being awake — making the metaphor land hard.
  • saṁyamī — the self-controlled
    From sam-√yam. The one who has restrained — and the verb-form names him by what he does, not by what he believes. The saṁyamī is recognized by practice, not profession.
  • muneḥ — of the sage
    Genitive of muni — silent thinker. Echoes 2.56's muniḥ. The verse closes by naming the saṁyamī also as muni: the inward-thinker is the same person as the self-controlled one, viewed from another angle.
What is night for all beings is the time of awakening for the self-controlled; and the time of awakening for all beings is night for the introspective sage.
Classical Sanskrit analysis शास्त्रीय विश्लेषण
How Sanskrit scholars read this verse — split, rearranged, grammar-tagged. For the plain English distilled meaning, jump to Plain meaning below.
Auto-generated study layers — original analysis of the public-domain śloka. Review against a published edition for academic work.
Plain meaning (तात्पर्य · Tātparya)
A chiasmic statement of inversion. The world the senses chase — day for ordinary beings — is night for the muni. The Self the world cannot see — night for them — is broad daylight for the saṁyamī. The two consciousnesses face opposite directions.
Further notes (विवरण · Vivaraṇa)
This is one of the most poetically polished verses of Chapter 2. The chiasmus (night-awake / awake-night) inverts both terms across a single mirror — wakeful awareness of opposite domains. The saṁyamī's 'day' is ātman-realization; the bhūtas' 'day' is sensory engagement. Each is the other's night. The verse beautifully captures the inverted ontology of the realized.
Prose order (अन्वय · Anvaya)
या सर्व-भूतानाम् निशा, तस्याम् संयमी जागर्ति । यस्याम् भूतानि जाग्रति, सा पश्यतः मुनेः निशा ।
yā sarva-bhūtānām niśā, tasyām saṃyamī jāgarti | yasyām bhūtāni jāgrati, sā paśyataḥ muneḥ niśā |
That which is night for all beings — in that the self-controlled is awake. That in which (all) beings are awake — that is night for the seeing sage.
Word split (पदच्छेद · Padaccheda)
या निशा सर्व-भूतानाम् तस्याम् जागर्ति संयमी । यस्याम् जाग्रति भूतानि सा निशा पश्यतः मुनेः ॥
yā niśā sarva-bhūtānām tasyām jāgarti saṃyamī | yasyām jāgrati bhūtāni sā niśā paśyataḥ muneḥ ||
Grammar (व्याकरण · Vyākaraṇa)
SanskritIASTGrammarMeaning
या yā यद् (rel.) nom.sg. (nominative singular)f. that which
निशा niśā निशा (f.) nom.sg. (nominative singular), 'night' night
सर्व-भूतानाम् sarva-bhūtānām सर्व + भूत (n.) gen.pl. (genitive plural), karmadhāraya cpd. (compound) of all beings
तस्याम् tasyām तद् (pron. (pronoun)) loc.sg. (locative singular)f. in that
जागर्ति jāgarti √जागृ pres. (present) 3sg.par. (parasmaipada / active voice) is awake
संयमी saṃyamī संयमिन् (m.) nom.sg. (nominative singular), 'self-restrained one' the self-controlled
यस्याम् yasyām यद् (rel.) loc.sg. (locative singular)f. in which
जाग्रति jāgrati √जागृ pres. (present) 3pl.par. (parasmaipada / active voice), 'are awake' are awake
भूतानि bhūtāni भूत (n.) nom.pl. (nominative plural) beings
सा sā तद् (pron. (pronoun)) nom.sg. (nominative singular)f. that
पश्यतः paśyataḥ √दृश् pres. (present) part. gen.sg. (genitive singular)m., 'of the seeing' of the seeing
मुनेः muneḥ मुनि (m.) gen.sg. (genitive singular) of the sage
Purport

There are two classes of intelligent men. One is intelligent in material activities for sense gratification, and the other is introspective and awake to the cultivation of self-realization. Activities of the introspective sage, or thoughtful man, are night for persons materially absorbed. Materialistic persons remain asleep in such a night due to their ignorance of self-realization. The introspective sage remains alert in the “night” of the materialistic men. The sage feels transcendental pleasure in the gradual advancement of spiritual culture, whereas the man in materialistic activities, being asleep to self-realization, dreams of varieties of sense pleasure, feeling sometimes happy and sometimes distressed in his sleeping condition. The introspective man is always indifferent to materialistic happiness and distress. He goes on with his self-realization activities undisturbed by material reactions.

— A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
Gauḍīya Ācāryas
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura Gauḍīya
Translation
69. The sthita-prajña is awake in the night when all other living entities sleep. The night of the observant sthita-prajña is the time during which the all living entities are awake.
Commentary

The sthita-prajña is able to control his senses very naturally. There are two types of intelligence: that directed towards soul and that directed towards matter. The intelligence directed towards the soul is night for all other entities. Just as in the night, people sleeping do not know what is happening at that time, so all living entities do not know the things which are being perceived by the intelligence directed towards the soul. But during that night, the sthita-prajña or saṁyamī, controlling his senses, is awake, not sleeping. In other words he directly realizes the bliss from fixing his intelligence on the soul. When the living entities are awake, with intelligence directed towards material sense objects, they realize directly the happiness, lamentation and bewilderment of those sense objects upon which their intelligence is fixed. They are not sleeping. But that is night for the muni, the sthita-prajña, who does not experience fixing his intellect on those objects at all. But he does see those objects. He looks upon (paśyataḥ) all those sense objects which give happiness and distress to the people bound in samsāra with disinterest. This means that he accepts the required sense objects for his survival without being affected.

Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa Gauḍīya
Translation
69. The sthita prajña is awake in the night when all other living entities sleep. The night of the observant sthita prajña is the time during which the all living entities are awake.
Commentary

It has been stated that for the sādhaka or person practicing to attain the state of sthita prajña, controlling the senses is the goal of his efforts. This verse states that for one who has achieved the stage of sthita prajña, sense control is automatically achieved. There are two types of intelligence: that fixed on the ātmā and that fixed on material sense objects. The intelligence fixed on ātmā is compared by metaphor to the night for all living entities. That intelligence is like night, since it does not manifest the ātmā to them. As if at night, all people, sleeping in regard to the intelligence fixed on ātma, do not realize the ātmā to be attained by that intelligence fixed in ātmā. The person controlling the senses (saṁyamī) however is awake, not asleep during that night. He realizes the ātmā which is to be attained by that intelligence. Other living entities, awake with intelligence fixed on material enjoyment, experience that material enjoyment. They are not sleeping at that time. That however is night for the muni, the sthita prajña. It does not bring about material pleasure for him. What type of person is he? The person directly perceiving the ātmā also experiences with indifference the sense objects which come to him by prārabdha karma (paśyataḥ). One who sees the ātmā does not experience the taste of other objects, like a dancing girl who pays full attention to the pot balanced on her head.

Bhūrijana Dāsa Gauḍīya
Commentary

There are two kinds of people who restrain the senses from their objects: (1) one who is endeavoring for self‑realization and (2) one who just can't, who is being forced to do by circumstance. The first example is compared "daytime" it is light in his life and the other's life is like "night" or hell. They are just oposite.

Study Notes — Gauranga Priya Dāsa
Gauranga Priya Dāsa Study
Bhakti-śāstrī Notes, ISKCON Chowpatty (2009)
Theme

Krishna gives an analogy: Although sensory engagements appear similar for self-realized soul and

materialist – there is difference of day and night

LINK BETWEEN TEXTS 2.69 & 2.70: Unlike common man, actions of Buddhi-yoga are not driven by selfish

desire. Krishna now gives an example to illustrate this nature of sthita-prajna (self-realised soul)

Classical Ācāryas
Śrī Śaṅkarācārya Classical
Translation
2.69 ya, that which; sarva-bhutanam, for all creatures; is nisa, night which being darkness (tamah) by nature, obliterates distinctions among all things; what is that? that is the Reality which is the supreme Goal, accessible to the man of steady wisdom. As that which verily appears as day to the nocturnal creatures is night for others, similarly the Reality wich is the supreme Goal appears to be night, as it were, to all unenlightened beings who are comparable to the nocturnal creatures, because It is beyond the range of vision of those who are devoid of that wisdom. Samyami, the self-restrained man, whose organs are under control, i.e. the yogi [The man of realization.] who has arisen from the sleep of ignorance; jagarti, keeps awake; tasyam, in that (night) characterized as the Reality, the supreme Goal. That night of ignorance, characterized by the distinctions of subjects and objects, yasyam in which; bhutani, the creatures, who are really asleep; are said to be jagrati, keeping awake, in which night they are like dreamers in sleep; sa nisa, it is night; pasyatah, to the seeing; muneh, sage, who perceives the Reality that is the supreme Goal, because that (night) is ignorance by nature. Therefore, rites and duties are enjoined only during the state of ignorance, not in the state of enlightenment. For, when Knowledge dawns, ignorance becomes eradicated like the darkness of night after sun-rise. [It may be argued that even after illumination the phenomenal world, though it is known to be false, will continue to be perceived because of the persistence of past impressions; therefore there is scope for the validity of the scriptural injunctions even in the case of an illumined soul. The answer is that there will be no scope for the injunctions, because the man of realization will then have no ardent leaning towards this differentiated phenomenal world which makes an injunction relevant.] Before the rise of Knowledge, ignorance, accepted as a valid means of knowledge and presenting itself in the different forms of actions, means and results, becomes the cause of all rites and duties. It cannot reasonably become the source of rites and duties (after Realization) when it is understood as an invalid means of knowledge. For an agent becomes engaged in actions when he has the idea, 'Actions have been enjoined as a duty for me by the Vedas, which are a valid means of knowledge'; but not when he understands that 'all this is mere ignorance, like the night'. Again, the man to whom has come the Knowledge that all these differences in their totality are mere ignorance like the night, to that man who has realized the Self, there is eligibility only for renouncing all actions, not for engaging in actions. In accordance with this the Lord will show in the verse, 'Those who have their intellect absorbed in That, whose Self is That' (5.17) etc., that he has competence only for steadfastness in Knowledge. Objection: May it not be argued that, there will be no reason for being engaged even in that (steadfastness in Knowledge) if there be no valid means of knowledge [Vedic injunctions.] to impel one to that. [Because, without an injunction nobody would engage in a duty, much less in steadfastness to Knowledge.] Answer: No, since 'knowledge of the Self' relates to one's own Self. Indeed, by the very fact that It is the Self, and since the validity of all the means of knowledge culminates in It, [The validity of all the means of knowledge holds good only so long as the knowledge of the Self has not arisen.] therefore the Self does not depend on an injunction to impel It towards Itself. [Does the injunction relate to the knowledge of the Self. or to the Self Itself? The first alternative is untenable because a valid means of knowledge reveals its objects even without an injunction. The second alternative also is untenable because the Self is self-revealing, whereas an injunction is possible in the case of something yet to be achieved. And one's own Self is not an object of that kind.] Surely, after the realization of the true nature of the Self, there is no scope again for any means to, or end of, knowledge. The last valid means of (Self-) knowledge eradicates the possibility of the Self's becoming a perceiver. And even as it eradicates, it loses its own authoritativeness, in the same way as the means of knowledge which is valid in dream becomes unauthoritative during the waking state. In the world, too, after the preception of an abject, the valid means of that perception is not seen to be a cause impelling the knower (to any action with regard to that object). Hence, it is established that, for an knower of the Self, there remains no eligibility for rites and duties. The attainment of Liberation is only for the sannyasin [Liberation is attained only by one who, after aciring an intellectual knowledge of the Self in a general way, is endowed with discrimination and detachment, has arisen above all desires, has become a monk in the primary sense, and has directly realized the Self by going through the process of sravana (understanding of Upanisadic texts about the Self), etc.], the man of enlightenment, who has renounced all desires and is a man of steady wisdom; but not for him who has not renounced and is desirious of the objects (of the senses). Such being the case, with a view to establishing this with the help of an illustration, the Lord says:
Śrī Rāmānujācārya Classical
Translation
2.69 That Buddhi (understanding) which has the self for its object, is night to all beings, i.e., is obscure like night to all. But he, who has subdued the senses and is serene, is awake in respect of the self. The meaning is that he has the vision of the self. All beings are awake, i.e., are actively cognisant in respect of objects of the senses like sound. But such sense objects are like things enshrouded by night to the sage who is awake to the self.
Śrī Abhinavagupta Classical
Translation
2.69 Ya nisa etc. Infatuating is the Illusion which is night for all beings. In that , the sage is awake (vigilant) with the thought 'How It could be avoided' The stage where the worldly men keep awake i.e., perform multifarious [worldly] activities, that stage is the night for the sage, as he is ignorant regarding the worldly activities. It amounts to this statement : What is well-known as illusion, Its nature is indeed two-ford, viz., to delude and also to wear a deceptive appearance of spinning pleasure. Of them (the two natures), the worldly man, not considering Its former nautre, remains with a memory well teid to the second nature. On the other hand, the man of Yoga, who is contrary to the other, observes Its deluding nature in order to root It out. Thus the man of perfect knowledge, while seeing [properly], pays no attention to Its nature of spinning pleasure. His indifference to Its nature of spinning pleasure is due to the destruction of his false knowledge. That stage is night to him, even while he sees. Hence this is strange. The man of Yoga is awake (or understands) in the field of wisdom, where everyone else is unconscious (or totally perplexed); but in [the field] of ignorance he is not awake (or does not understand), where ordinary man is awake (or understands well). This is also strange. That is why-
Swami Sivananda Classical
Translation
2.69 That which is night to all beings, in that the self-controlled man is awake; when all beings are awake, that is night for the Muni (sage) who sees.
Commentary

2.69 या which? निशा night? सर्वभूतानाम् of all beings? तस्याम् in that? जागर्ति wakes? संयमी the selfcontrolled? यस्याम् in which? जाग्रति wake? भूतानि all beings? सा that? निशा night? पश्यतः (of the) seeing? मुनेः of the Muni.Commentary That which is real for the wordlyminded people is illusion for the sage? and vice versa. The sage lives in the Self. This is day for him. He is unconscious of the wordly phenomena. They are night for him? as it were. The ordinary man is unconscious of his real nature. Life in the spirit is night for him. He is experiencing the objects of sensual enjoyment. This is day for him. The Self is a nonentity for him For a sage this world is a nonentity.The wordlyminded people are in utter darkness as they have no knowledge of the Self. What is darkness for them is all light for the sage. The Self? Atman or Brahman is night for the worldlyminded persons. But the sage is fully awake. He is directly cognising the supreme Reality? the Light of lights. He is full of illumination and AtmaJnana or knowledge of the Self.

Swami Gambhīrānanda Classical
Translation
2.69 The self-restrained man keeps awake during that which is night for all creatures. That during which creatures keep awake, it is night to the seeing sage.
Shri Purohit Swami Classical
Translation
2.69 The saint is awake when the world sleeps, and he ignores that for which the world lives.
Related values & verses
Primary values
Discriminative Wisdom
Related values
Tyaga (Renunciation / Letting Go)Karuna (Kindness / Compassion)Ahimsa (Non-violence / Compassion)Tapas (Austerity / Discipline)Atma Nigraha (Self-control)Daksya (Resourcefulness / Skill)Abhaya (Fearlessness)
Related verses
BG 5.16 BG 6.21 BG 18.37 SB 1.2.6 SB 3.30.10 SB 11.20.27 CC Ādi 9.36 CC Madhya 22.31 CC Antya 20.39 Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.1.2BRS 1.2.247
Stories
viveka_epic_primary
Related lectures
Personal Guidance
What is night for all beings is the time of waking for the disciplined; what is waking for ordinary beings is night for the wise.
Practical Applications
  • Cultivate awakening to what the world ignores — and indifference to what the world chases.
  • Use early morning hours (brahma-muhūrta) for the practices the world has no use for.
  • Be at peace with looking 'asleep' to the world while wide awake to Krishna.
Reflection Questions
  • What am I 'awake' to that the world is asleep to?
  • Where am I still awake to what the wise treat as night?
Analogy

An owl is wide awake under the same sky where every other creature sleeps; the sun rises and the owl sleeps while every creature stirs. The saṁyamī inhabits an inverted day: alert to the Self when the world is asleep to it, sleeping to the world's gratifications when the world is wide awake to them.

Stories
Haridāsa Ṭhākura's three lakhs

Haridāsa Ṭhākura chanted three hundred thousand names of the Lord daily — beginning each cycle long before dawn, when the rest of Bengal slept, and continuing through the day while merchants and farmers chased their gains, and into the night when households slept again. His waking hours were spent on what others did not see; his sleeping hours (of which there were almost none) were the small remnant of the worldly calendar.

The verse names his life exactly: yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī. What is night for all beings — the inner world of name and remembrance — was Haridāsa's daylight.

📝 My note

Source: vedabase.io

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