In the supplied attestations (all from the Bhagavad Gītā mūla, chapter 2), buddhi denotes the intellect or determinative understanding treated as the central faculty in the discipline being taught. It is first presented as a teaching (the buddhi "declared in sāṃkhya," to be heard now "in yoga," 2.39) by being yoked to which one casts off the bondage of action. Across the chapter buddhi appears as the faculty to be made single and resolute (vyavasāyātmikā, 2.41), to be taken refuge in (2.49), as that which transcends the thicket of delusion (2.52) and becomes immovable in samādhi yielding yoga (2.53), whose destruction (buddhi-nāśa) is the penultimate ruin in the sequence of downfall (2.63), which quickly settles firm in one of serene mind (2.65), and which is simply absent in the undisciplined person (2.66). The term thus spans an objective teaching/disposition sense and a faculty-of-discernment sense within a single tradition's discourse.
Senses
The reading surface. A later ingestion attaches a locus to a settled sense, or proposes a new one (dashed) for human triage — it never rewrites settled prose.
1 · The wisdom/understanding as a taught disposition, expounded in two modes (sāṃkhya and yoga…settledadded v1
The wisdom/understanding as a taught disposition, expounded in two modes (sāṃkhya and yoga); the intellect by being yoked to which (buddhyā yukto) one is freed from the bondage of action; the buddhi-yoga that is far superior to mere action, in which one is urged to take refuge.
Resolute, single-pointed determinative intellect (vyavasāyātmikā buddhi), contrasted with the many-branched, endless intellects (buddhayaḥ) of the irresolute (avyavasāyin).
smṛti (epic-philosophical)
bhagavadgita:2.41
3 · The discriminating intellect which, on transcending the thicket of delusion (mohakalila), …settledadded v1
The discriminating intellect which, on transcending the thicket of delusion (mohakalila), brings one to dispassion (nirveda); and which, when it becomes unmoving and steady (niścalā, acalā) in samādhi, attains yoga.
smṛti (epic-philosophical)
bhagavadgita:2.52bhagavadgita:2.53
4 · The intellect as a faculty subject to loss and stabilization: its destruction (buddhi-nāśa…settledadded v1
The intellect as a faculty subject to loss and stabilization: its destruction (buddhi-nāśa) marks the stage of ruin in the chain beginning from attachment; in one of serene mind it quickly settles firm (paryavatiṣṭhate); and it is absent altogether (nāsti buddhiḥ) in the undisciplined person (ayukta).
nāsti buddhir ayuktasya na cāyuktasya bhāvanā | na cābhāvayataḥ śāntir aśāntasya kutaḥ sukham ||66||
Editions & provenance
v1Bhagavad Gītā mūla (ch. 1) — +8 loci 4 sense(s) drafted from 8 Gītā locus/loci.
Caveats
The entire supplied corpus is Bhagavad Gītā mūla (verse text), all from chapter 2; no commentarial loci from Gauḍapāda, Śaṅkara, or any other witness were supplied, so no commentary positions can be attributed.
Because the evidence is confined to one text and one chapter, the senses given are stratum-relative to this single layer; broader Sāṃkhya-technical senses of buddhi (e.g., as a tattva) are not attested here and are not imported.
The reference at 2.39 to buddhi 'declared in sāṃkhya' and to be heard 'in yoge' is internal to the verse and does not, on the supplied evidence alone, establish a doctrinal split over the term's meaning.
Locus 2.62 as supplied contains both verses 62 and 63; the buddhi-nāśa attestation occurs in the verse 63 portion of that passage.