Practice, dependence, and transcendence in the Bhagavad Gītā, Yoga-Sūtra, and liberation mathematics
Authors Names Swapan Samanta
International Journal of Sanskrit Research September 1, 2026 DOI: 10.22271/23947519.2026.v12.i5c.3365 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Addiction |
| Key points | Proposes the "Ceiling Theorem": a practice pathway becomes a ceiling when the integration it cultivated grows contingent on preserving that pathway rather than becoming transferable beyond it. Argues, via readings of the Bhagavad Gītā, the Anugītā frame of the Mahābhārata, and the Yoga-Sūtra, for a bifurcation model in which internalisation leads either to transfer and decreasing dependence or to identity consolidation and persisting dependence. The proposed diagnostics await empirical operationalisation. |
Abstract
Every contemplative discipline begins because something in the practitioner requires cultivation. This paper asks what becomes of the practitioner's dependence on the cultivating instrument once cultivation succeeds. It proposes the Ceiling Theorem: a pathway of practice becomes a ceiling when the integration it has helped to cultivate grows increasingly contingent on the preservation of that pathway, rather than progressively transferable beyond it. The theorem concerns neither the duration nor the intensity of practice, but the changing relation between practice and practitioner. Using a conceptual-analytic and philological method, the paper reads selected verses of the Bhagavad Gītā (2.46–53; 3.17–25; 6.3–4, 6.35, 6.46; 18.66–73), together with the Anugītā frame of the Mahābhārata (14.16), and the Yoga-Sūtra (1.2–3, 1.12–16) as supplying conceptual resources for this problem, without claiming that either text formulates the theorem explicitly. It notes that in the epic narrative the Gītā reaches its first hearer as a single spoken event whose test of success is the dispelling of delusion and a commitment to act, not retention or routine recitation. It then introduces transfer, pathway dependence (PD) and a graded perturbation test as formal diagnostics within the Liberation Mathematics framework, and replaces a linear stage model with a bifurcation model in which internalisation leads either to transfer and decreasing dependence, or to identity consolidation and persisting dependence. A Prestige-Invariance Principle, a cross-domain demonstration, an Exit Condition, and a reflexive application of the theorem to itself complete the argument. The paper is theoretical; its diagnostics await empirical operationalisation.
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