Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 13, Verse 15: Krishna to Arjuna — Kṣetra-Kṣetrajña-Vibhāga-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  'Outside' is said with the body, up to the skin, as the limit, the body that avidyā (ignorance) imagines to be the self; 'inside' is said relative to the inner self, again with the body as the limit; and lest the middle be thought empty, it is also the unmoving and the moving, the appearance of a body, as the rope is the snake-appearance. Though it is the appearance of all, it is subtle like space, so though knowable in its own form it is unknown to the unwise, while to the wise, by 'all this is the Self' and 'all this is Brahman', it is always known. To the unwise it is far, unreachable in millions of years; to the wise it is near, being their own self.

  divergence: Śaṅkara makes inside and outside relative to a body-self imagined by avidyā, and reads 'moving and unmoving' with the rope-snake: beings are the knowable's appearance. Far and near depend on knowledge alone.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Leaving behind earth and the other elements, the self, bodiless, exists outside them, and it also exists within them; in the free movements established by the Śruti, 'eating, playing, delighting, with women or with carriages', it is by nature unmoving and yet moving when it is embodied. So subtle is this self, endowed with all powers and all-knowing, that though present in this very field it cannot be known by saṃsārin (bound souls) as distinct from the body. To men who lack amānitva (humility) and the other virtues and have their opposites, it is very far though dwelling in their own body; to those who have humility and the rest, that same self is near.

  divergence: Rāmānuja again reads the verse of the individual self: 'outside' is the released, bodiless self roaming freely (Chāndogya 8.12.3), 'inside' is the embodied self; unmoving by nature, moving when embodied. Far and near are set by moral qualities (the amānitva list of 13.7-11), not by knowledge of identity with all.

• Madhvadvaita

  [No Madhva bhāṣya for this verse.] Mūla only: Outside and inside beings, unmoving and moving; because of its subtlety it is not to be known; it stands far, and it is near.

  divergence: ABSENT: the supplied Madhva text for this verse (his source_verse 13.16) reads only 'Sri Madhvacharya did not comment on this sloka.' No Dvaita bhāṣya exists to anchor a rendering; the English is the mūla only, not a Dvaita reading. Jayatīrtha's Prameyadīpikā is also silent on this verse.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  He states that it is itself the world: 'unmoving and moving', for 'all is of two forms, and one is distinct from both'. The unmoving is jaḍa (inert matter), and it is that, by 'Being alone was this in the beginning' and 'all this indeed is Brahman'; the moving is the living, the jīva (soul), and it is that, by 'tat tvam asi (that thou art), Śvetaketu'. Being subtle it is unknowable, far and near, as the mantra says: 'it moves, it moves not; it is far, it is near; it is within all this, and it is outside all this'.

  divergence: Vallabha's move is direct: the Lord IS the world (prapañcātmaka), the inert as His sat and the jīva as tat tvam asi, with a third form distinct from both. No rope-snake, no illusion. He does not gloss 'outside and inside' separately, leaving it to Īśa 5.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  It is outside and inside the beings, its own effects, moving and unmoving, as gold is of bracelets and earrings and as water is inside and outside its waves; whatever moving or unmoving beings there are, they are that alone, for an effect has the cause as its self. Even so, being subtle, without form and the rest, it is not fit for clear knowing as 'this is it'; so to the unwise it is far, as if a hundred thousand leagues away, being beyond prakṛti (nature) with its modifications. To the wise it is near, ever present as their inner self, as the mantra says 'it moves, it moves not; it is far, it is near'.

  divergence: Śrīdhara uses cause-effect images (gold and ornaments, water and waves): the world is real as the cause's own effect, not a rope-snake overlay. This leans toward pariṇāma (real transformation), unlike Śaṅkara and Madhusūdana, while 'near as the inner self of the wise' keeps an Advaita note.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Of all beings, which have the nature of becoming, all imagined effects, the unimagined adhiṣṭhāna (substrate) is one alone, pervading them wholly inside and out as a rope pervades the snake, the stream of water and the rest imagined on it; so moving and unmoving beings are that alone, nothing imagined being apart from it. Though it is the self of all, being subtle and formless it is unknowable, and to those without the means of self-knowledge it is far, as if ten million leagues away, unreachable in millions of years. To those equipped with the means of knowledge it is near, never at all removed, for it is their self, as the Śruti says 'farther than far, and here near, set in the cave of those who see'.

  divergence: Madhusūdana tightens Śaṅkara: one unimagined adhiṣṭhāna for all imagined effects (rope beneath snake and stream). Far and near are fixed by possession of the means of knowledge, which bridges Śaṅkara (knowledge) and Rāmānuja (virtues).