Does Gita 6.28 refer to brahman or to bhakti to bhagavan? (Bhagavad-gita)

Bhagavad Gita 6.28 talks about Brahman, 29 about Paramatma and 30 about Bhagavan. And the translation says that 6.28 is talking about those in devotional service to the Supreme. So how can we be talking about Brahman? Answer? We have to look at the Sanskrit and then we have to look at the translation to understand what is happening.

Sanskrit of 6.28 is quite clear when it says that sukhena brahma samsparsham atyantam sukham asnute If you look at the previous verse, Prashant So the verse is that Sanskrit of 6.28 So these verses are talking about Brahman. They are not talking directly about a personal manifestation of the Absolute or realization of the personal manifestation. They are talking primarily about the level of Brahman realization.

Now at one level we do understand that Brahman is non-different from Krishna. And so the verse can be seen as referring to those who are connected with Krishna in devotion. And generally Srila Prabhupada's focus in the Bhagavad Gita is on giving the conclusion everywhere.

The Bhagavad Gita has its own technical flow. Prabhupada's focus is not on getting into the technicalities of the Gita. His focus is on giving essential conclusions.

Consider for example the second chapter. At the end of the Gita, at the end of the second chapter, Prabhupada quotes Bhaktanath Thakur and he says how there is so much. There is so much in this verse, in this chapter, Karmanya wise talked about, Sankhya wise talked about, and a hint of bhakti is given.

So Prabhupada says this in 2.72. But then if you look at his own purports, second chapter, both his translations and purports, it's not a hint. The only reference to Krishna directly, to Krishna as the object of yogic meditation, object of yoga, not just as a teacher of yoga, the only reference to bhakti is 2.61, one part in it. Tani Sarovani says, So focusing your consciousness on me.

That is the only hint of bhakti in that chapter. But Prabhupada has given entire, this process of bhakti is described, he talks about how Ambarish Maharaj engaged all his senses in Krishna's service. So in general, Prabhupada gives the full conclusion in almost every section of the Gita.

So he focuses on, his mood is that if people are not really into reading, people are having not even basic spiritual understanding. So his mood is that if they read even one page of a book, they should be able to get some valuable message, the essential conclusion through that book. So it is with that mood, we see that Prabhupada is aware of the technicalities, as we can see from 2.72, his summary of the second chapter.

But in his own purports and translations, he didn't get into the technicalities. He focuses on the essential conclusions. So that's why, if we look at the Sanskrit, we look at the Acharya's commentaries, then we can detect this linear progression over 6.28, talking about Ramayana realization, where we understand our own spirituality.

In 6.29, we start seeing the spiritual essence present in underlying everything and present above everything. How the Supreme is inside everything and everything resides inside the Supreme. And then 6.30 talks about that Supreme being Krishna or seeing Krishna everywhere and seeing everything in Krishna.

So 6.29 talks about Paramatma and 6.30 talks about Bhagavan. In this way, we can understand this. So the flow can be understood more by looking at the Sanskrit and looking at the Acharya's commentaries.

And Prabhupada also gives us hint of the flow, but his focus is on giving essential conclusions.