The happiness which at the outset, at the first contact, in the beginning of knowledge, dispassion, meditation, and absorption, is like poison, painful, because it demands the utmost effort, but in its ripening, born of the maturing of knowledge and dispassion, is like nectar, that happiness is declared by the wise to be of sattva. It is born of the clarity of the understanding turned to the self, the clearness, the limpidity like the transparency of water; or, the understanding being one that has the self for its object or rests on the self, it is born of the abundance of that understanding's clarity. For that reason it is of sattva.

The happiness that at the outset, at the time of the beginning of the discipline, since it is to be accomplished by much toil, and since the self in its set-apart form has not yet been experienced, is like poison, like pain; but in its ripening, in its maturing, by the strength of practice, at the becoming-manifest of the self's own form set apart, is like nectar; and it is born of the clarity of the understanding of the self; the understanding whose object is the self is the understanding of the self, and the clarity of it is its having turned away from all other objects; the happiness born of the experience of the self of set-apart nature, by the understanding that has turned away from all other objects, is like nectar; that happiness is declared sattvic.

This is a brief sub-gloss. For a fuller reading of this verse, see Madhusūdana, Śaṅkara, or Rāmānuja above.

Madhvacharya does not comment on this verse.