Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 13, Verse 14: Krishna to Arjuna — Kṣetra-Kṣetrajña-Vibhāga-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  It shines through the functions of all the senses and of buddhi (intellect) and manas (mind), deciding, willing, hearing, speaking, so that knowable seems busy with their work, as the Śruti says 'it seems to meditate, it seems to move'; but it is devoid of all organs, so it is not truly busy, and 'without hands and feet he speeds' shows only its power to conform to the adjuncts, not literal motion. Being without organs it is asakta (free of all contact), and yet it bears all, for everything rests on sat (being), as even a mirage is not without a ground. Free of the three guṇa (qualities), it is yet their bhoktṛ (experiencer), the witness of sattva, rajas and tamas as they turn, through sound and the rest, into pleasure, pain and delusion.

  divergence: Śaṅkara reads 'ābhāsa' as seeming (vyāpṛtam iva): the knowable only appears active. He explicitly neutralizes Śvetāśvatara 3.19 as figurative, like 'the blind man found the jewel'. Sarvabhṛt is grounded in sat as substrate of appearances. Rāmānuja, by contrast, gives the self a real double capacity.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Its manifestation comes by way of the functions of all the senses: it is able to know objects even through sense-activity, yet by its own nature it is devoid of the senses and knows everything by itself, without them. By nature unattached to divine, human and other bodies, it is still able to sustain all those bodies, as the Śruti says 'he becomes one, he becomes three'. By nature free of sattva and the other guṇa (qualities), it is able to enjoy them.

  divergence: Rāmānuja turns each apparent paradox into two real capacities of the individual self: knowing through senses AND knowing without them; unattached to bodies AND able to bear many bodies (Chāndogya 7.26.2, read of the released self); free of guṇa AND able to enjoy them. The key word svabhāvataḥ (by nature) marks the self's own state; nothing is mere appearance.

• Madhva · Jayatīrthadvaita

  It makes all the senses and their guṇa (here, their objects) shine forth, that is, it makes them known, or itself perceives them; it is devoid of all senses, unattached yet bearing all, nirguṇa (without the guṇa) and yet the bhoktṛ (enjoyer) of the guṇa. The verse does not teach Brahman by stripping away every attribute: making-known, bearing all, enjoying the guṇa, and the hands and feet everywhere of the verse before are attributes it is here said to have. What 'devoid of senses', 'nirguṇa' and the like mean was explained earlier, in the second chapter.

  divergence: Read with Jayatīrtha's Prameyadīpikā on Madhva's bhāṣya (their 13.15): Madhva gives two sentences: sarvendriya-guṇābhāsa is read causatively, 'that which makes all the senses and the guṇa (qualities) shine', and the sense of 'devoid of senses' and the rest has been given earlier. Jayatīrtha places this in an argument. An opponent objects that here Brahman is meant to be made known only by denying every viśeṣa (particular attribute), so ascribing śakti (power) to it, as Madhva did on the preceding verses, is contradictory; Jayatīrtha answers that this very verse shows Brahman as having attributes, and cites 'hands and feet everywhere' (13.13), sarva-bhṛt (bearing all) and guṇa-bhoktṛ (enjoyer of the guṇa) as further instances. He also glosses guṇa as the objects of the senses, gives two senses of ābhāsa (makes them known, or perceives them), adds a grammatical note on the derivation from the root bhās, and identifies 'earlier' as the second chapter. That earlier explanation is not in the supplied text, so how Dvaita reconciles 'devoid of senses' and 'nirguṇa' with the attributes is not rendered here. Against Advaita and Advaita-bhakti, for whom the attributes only seem to belong to Brahman through adjuncts or māyā (illusory power) and the negations state the truth, and Śuddhādvaita, which makes Brahman the seat of contradictory attributes, the Dvaita reading treats the positive attributes as real and refuses to let the negations cancel them; the causative gloss is shared with the Bhakti rendering, which offers it as an alternative.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  [Thin for this verse.] The purpose of its delimitation everywhere has already been explained at 'ananta' (11.47) and 'avyakta' (13.6); by this its doing the work of eye and the rest everywhere is stated, for the Śruti 'without hands and feet he speeds and grasps, sees without eyes, hears without ears' first denies prākṛta (material) organs and then speaks of aprākṛta (non-material) ones. Now, with 'sarvendriya-guṇābhāsam', He declares that He is the seat of viruddha-dharma (contradictory attributes).

  divergence: THIN: Vallabha's comment mostly closes the previous verse and only introduces this one; he does not gloss asakta, sarvabhṛt, nirguṇa or guṇa-bhoktṛ individually. His doctrinal move is decisive though: Śvetāśvatara 3.19 denies material organs to affirm non-material ones, and the verse's pairs show the Lord as viruddha-dharmāśraya (seat of contradictories), held together without one canceling the other. Contrast Śaṅkara's 'seems' and Madhusūdana's māyā.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  It shines in the form of the modes of the eye and the other senses, as form and the rest; or, it makes the senses and their objects shine. It is devoid of all senses, as the Śruti says 'without hands and feet he speeds', and asakta (without attachment), yet it bears all, being the support of all. That very one is nirguṇa (free of sattva and the other qualities), and yet the bhoktṛ of the guṇa, which here means their pālaka (protector).

  divergence: Śrīdhara offers both readings of ābhāsa (shining in sense-forms, or illuminating them, the latter agreeing with Madhva) and glosses bhoktṛ as pālaka (protector), not experiencer. This devotional reading of guṇa-bhoktṛ is unique in the panel.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Having explained the supreme Brahman by adhyāropa (superimposing the whole world on it), following the maxim 'by superimposition and rescission the world-free is set forth', the Lord now begins the apavāda (rescission) to teach its unconditioned nature. In truth it is devoid of all senses; by māyā (illusory power) it shines as if through their functions, deciding, willing, hearing, speaking, as if busy, and in truth it is unattached, yet it bears and nourishes all that is imagined in it as their being, since an error without a substrate is impossible. In truth nirguṇa (beyond sattva, rajas and tamas), it is the bhoktṛ, the perceiver of the guṇa as they change through sound and the rest into pleasure, pain and delusion.

  divergence: Madhusūdana makes the structure explicit: 13.13 was adhyāropa, this verse begins apavāda. He sorts every pair into paramārthataḥ (in truth) versus māyayā (by māyā), sharper than Śaṅkara's 'iva', and grounds sarvabhṛt in the rule that no illusion stands without a substrate.