vīta-rāga-bhaya-krodhā
man-mayā mām upāśritāḥ
bahavo jñāna-tapasā
pūtā mad-bhāvam āgatāḥ

Translation of Bhagavad Gita 4.10

Being freed from attachment, fear and anger, being fully absorbed in Me and taking refuge in Me, many, many persons in the past became purified by knowledge of Me—and thus they all attained transcendental love for Me.

Commentary by Sri Vishvanatha Chakravarthi Thakur of Gaudiya Sampradaya:

Not only at the present time can one attain me just by knowing about the nature of my present birth and activities, but in ancient times also in previous kalpas when I appeared, people attained me by knowing the nature of my birth and activities. That is the purport of this verse.

Regarding the meaning of jnana tapasa, Ramanujacarya says, “They became purified by the austerity of realization about the nature of my birth and activities as previously stated.”

Or the meaning can be: “They, having attained realization of the eternal nature of my birth and activities, became purified by austerity in the form of tolerating the burning poison of wrong ideas, wrong logic and wrong arguments.”

Ramanujacarya quotes the following sruti in this regard.

tasya dhirah parijananti yonim

The wise men know about the Lord’s method of birth. Taittiriya Aranyaka 3.13.1

Such wise persons have given up attachment to or affection for persons who speak nonsense ideas (vita ragah). My devotees have no fear of them, nor anger towards them. Why? Because they are preoccupied with meditating on, thinking of, hearing and singing about my birth and activities (man maya). They attained prema for me (mad bhavam).

Commentary by Sri Ramanuja of Sri Sampradaya:

4.10 Purified by the austerity called knowledge of the truth of My life and deeds, many have become transformed in this manner. The Sruti says to the same effect: ‘The wise know well the manner in which He is born’ (Tai. A., 3.13.1). ‘Dhiras’ means the foremost among the wise. The meaning is the wise know the manner of His birth thus. It is not that I protect only those who resort to Me in incarnations in the shapes of gods, men etc.

Commentary by Sri Sridhara Swami of Rudra Sampradaya:

It may be enquired how may one be elevated to attaining Lord Krishna merely by knowledge of His appearances and pastimes? This is answered by the instruction: being completely freed from passion, fear and anger then if those persons understand that due to Lord Krishna’s magnanimous compassion He incarnates into His material creation through pure sattva or goodness to protect the principles of sanatan dharma or eternal righteousness and having no attachments and desires thus with no distractions focus their attentions to meditating on Him, fixed in Him, taking sole refuge in Him alone. These rare beings are naturally purified from the dross of ignorance and its products in prakriti or material nature by their own wisdom and penance consisting of performing prescribed Vedic activities according to one’s order and station in life. This by the divine grace of the Supreme Lord through the medium of the bonafide guru exclusively the development of spiritual knowledge commences. The compound word jnana-tapasya means by knowledge and austerities. This knowledge and austerity is taught by the bonafide spititual master and is the procedure for one to receive the divine grace of the Supreme Lord. As all activities of the Supreme Lord are sublimely eternal the bestowal of this grace whenever it is received indicates that it is not newly inculcated but is given eternally as well. The Vedic dictum of that and thou referring to the Supreme Lord and the living entity are spoken of only in the context of the individual consciousness as being distinct from the ultimate consciousness. The individual consciousness as the living entity having numerous limitations and the ultimate consciousness as the Supreme Lord having no limitations. The Supreme Lord being free from ignorance and ever pure while the living entity is purified by degrees by renouncing ignorance through knowledge gained by the divine grace of the Supreme Lord through the mercy of the spiritual master in disciplic succession from one of the four Vedic sampradayas or authorised Vedic channel of disciplic succession.

Commentary by Sri Madhvacharya of Brahma Sampradaya:

By completely renouncing passion, fear and anger and subsequently adoring the Supreme Lord many attained moksa or liberation. Man-maya means complete abidance and refuge in the Lord in all situations.

Now begins the summation.

Mayam means making the Lord the central focus of one’s life as the primary objective. One who knows the Supreme Primacy of the Lord’s position becomes eventually aware of His transcendental integral form. Only those who know the Supreme Resplendent Lord thus are qualified for liberation and no others. Being aware of His integral form indicates attaining their eternal spiritual form similar to His in quality but not quantity.

Now begins the summation.

Only by learning and comprehending the knowledge revealed in the Vedic scriptures is moksa or liberation possible. By knowing and furthermore correlating this knowledge from different Vedic texts and applying it to one’s everyday life will the ultimate attainment be gained and no other way. It should be clearly understood that the mere knowledge of the facts and details of the Supreme Lords appearance and divine pastimes will not enable one to attain liberation from the material existence without having first applied this learning through the medium of the Vedic scriptures fully into one’s life and all that one’s life encompasses.

Commentary by Sri Keshava Kashmiri of Kumara Sampradaya:

In the previous verse Lord Krishna declares that those that truly know Him attain Him. Now the question may be raised is there any requirements necessary for attaining Him or does it mean that oneness with Him in His abode transpires automatically with knowledge of Him. To clear this up Lord Krishna states: vita-raga-bhaya-krodha meaning completely freed from passion, fear and anger. Passion is attachment to the opposite sex and children and family life. Fear is abhorrence of frightening situations due to lack of faith in God. Anger is a state of mind that blows up when one’s ardent desires are frustrated by obstacles. This clearly indicates that jnana yoga or the cultivation of knowledge is essential for the mind to control the senses. In the Visnusahasra 136 it is given that: the physical body, the senses, the mind, the intellect, the vitality, splendour, potency, patience, and the atma or soul all are the possessions of the Supreme Lord. The very knowledge of the Supreme Lords transcendental nama or names, rupa or forms, guna or attributes, lila or pastimes and dhama or abode is the tapasya or penance which dissolves all karmas or reactions to previous actions. Thus wholly absorbed internally and externally in the wonderful and phenomenal Supreme Lord one naturally attains moksa or liberation with Him. Although there are different forms accepted when one attains the state of moksa these elevated beings attain oneness with differences or union with separateness. They are united because they all have attributes like omniscience and ananda or bliss. Yet they are separate due to differences in qualities having their own unique, individual spiritual characteristics. The great sage Pantajali of the hatha yoga system defines oneness as union with differences. In this way the statement of oneness of similar qualities in the state of moksa has been explained. There are two realities: one is the reality of oneness in form and the other is the reality of difference in forms. The absence of difference of the individual atma or soul from the paramatma or the supreme soul has already been refuted in chapter II.XIII by the plural usage of souls and concludes with the words dhiras tatra na muhyati meaning the intelligent are not deluded by this.

Commentary by Sri Adi Shankaracharya of Advaita Sampradaya:

4.10 Bahavah, many; vita-raga-bhaya-krodhah, who were devoid of attachment, fear and anger; manmayah, who were absorbed in Me, who were knowers of Brahman, who were seers of (their) identity with God; mam upasrithah, who had taken refuge only in Me, the supreme God, i.e. who were steadfast in Knowledge alone; and were putah, purified, who had become supremely sanctified; jnana-tapasa, by the austerity of Knowledge-Knowledge itself, about the supreme Reality, being the austerity; becoming sanctified by that austerity of Knowledge-; agatah, have attained; madbhavam, My state, Goodhood, Liberation. The particular mention of ‘the austerity of Knowledge’ is to indicate that steadfastness in Knowledge does not depend on any other austerity. ‘In that case, You have love and aversion, because of which You grant the state of identity with Yourself only to a few but not to others?’ The answer is:

Commentary by Sri Abhinavagupta of Kaula Tantra Sampradaya:

4.10 Vita-etc. Therefore many persons, who realise in this manner are free anger etc., because they have [all] their desires completely fulfilled, due to their being full of Me; and who perform actions which are to be performed and which do not yield any fruit [for them] – they have attained My own nature. For-

Sanskrit Shloka Without Transliteration Marks:

vita-raga-bhaya-krodha
man-maya mam upasritah
bahavo jnana-tapasa
puta mad-bhavam agatah

Sanskrit to English Word for Word Meanings:

vīta — freed from; rāga — attachment; bhaya — fear; krodhāḥ — and anger; mat-mayā — fully in Me; mām — in Me; upāśritāḥ — being fully situated; bahavaḥ — many; jñāna — of knowledge; tapasā — by the penance; pūtāḥ — being purified; mat-bhāvam — transcendental love for Me; āgatāḥ — attained.