Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 13, Verse 17: Krishna to Arjuna — Kṣetra-Kṣetrajña-Vibhāga-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  That knowable is the light even of lights such as the sun, for the sun and other lights shine kindled by the light of the self's caitanya (consciousness), as the Śruti says 'kindled by whose light the sun burns', and the Gītā itself 'the radiance in the sun'; and it is said to be beyond tamas, which is ajñāna (ignorance), untouched by it. To lift up one disheartened by thinking knowledge hard to win, the Lord says: it is jñāna (knowledge), meaning humility and the rest; jñeya (the knowable), described from 'I shall declare what is to be known'; and jñānagamya, that same knowable once known, the fruit of knowledge. All three are set firmly in the buddhi (intellect) of every being, for it is there that they are discerned.

  divergence: Śaṅkara reads jñāna, jñeya, jñānagamya as three distinct items: the means (amānitva list), the object, and the fruit, and gives a pastoral reason for the line (to encourage the disheartened). Tamas = ajñāna.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Even of lights such as lamps, the sun and gems, that alone is the light that reveals: the self's own radiance, which is jñāna (knowledge), is what reveals even them, while lamps and the like only dispel the darkness that obstructs the contact of sense and object, and their revealing goes only that far. Tamas here names prakṛti (matter) in its subtle state, and the self is said to be beyond prakṛti. Therefore the knowable is to be known as having the sole form of knowledge, and it is jñānagamya, attainable by the means of knowledge already given, beginning with amānitva (humility); it is specially present in the heart of every human and other being.

  divergence: Rāmānuja: tamas is subtle prakṛti, not ignorance; jñāna and jñeya collapse into one claim, the self's nature is knowledge alone (jñānaikākāra); the lamp-sun point is epistemic, outer lights merely remove obstruction. Subject remains the individual self.

• Madhvadvaita

  [No Madhva bhāṣya for this verse.] Mūla only: That is said to be the light even of lights, beyond darkness; knowledge, the knowable, reached by knowledge, it is set in the heart of all.

  divergence: ABSENT: the supplied Madhva text for this verse (his source_verse 13.18) 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

  Of all that illumines and of conscious beings, that is the root light, the adhyātma (inward) illuminer, as it is said 'the spotless jewel at the throat of consciousness'. Tamas is prakṛti (primal matter), as the Śruti too says 'darkness there was, hidden by darkness, in the beginning', and it is beyond that; and it is the antaryāmin (inner controller), as 'set in the heart of all' plainly says. Jñāna is that by which one knows, caitanya (consciousness), or else the means in the form of humility and the rest; and that is the knowable, reached by knowledge, set in every heart.

  divergence: Vallabha agrees with Rāmānuja that tamas is prakṛti (citing Ṛg-Veda Nāsadīya) but makes 'set in the heart' the antaryāmin, the Lord as inner controller, not the individual self. He reads 'dhiṣṭhitam' and leaves jñāna open between consciousness and the means.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  It is the light that reveals even the moon, the sun and other lights, as the Śruti says 'kindled by whose light the sun burns' and 'there the sun does not shine, nor moon and stars; all shines after Him as He shines'; hence it is said to be beyond tamas, which is ajñāna (ignorance), untouched by it, 'sun-colored, beyond darkness'. It is jñāna (knowledge) as manifest in a mode of the buddhi (intellect), jñeya as it takes the form of color and the rest, and jñānagamya, reached by the means of knowledge described before, beginning with humility. Qualifying 'reached by knowledge': it is set in the heart of every living being, standing as niyantṛ (controller) without falling from its nature; on the reading 'dhiṣṭhitam', it stands presiding there.

  divergence: Śrīdhara: tamas is ajñāna (with Śaṅkara, against Rāmānuja and Vallabha), but the heart-dweller is niyantṛ (controller), a devotional and theistic note close to Vallabha's antaryāmin. Jñāna is the light as expressed in a mental mode; jñeya is that light in sense-forms.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  If it is everywhere but not perceived, is it then inert? No: as self-luminous consciousness, formless and so beyond the senses, it is the light of every illuminer, outer ones like the sun and inner ones like the intellect, for only conscious light can reveal inert light; and it is beyond tamas, the inert class, untouched by avidyā (ignorance) and its unreal effects, since the real and unreal cannot truly be related. Because it is self-luminous and untouched, it is jñāna, consciousness manifest in a mental mode born of a valid means; it alone is jñeya, fit to be known, for only it is unknown, the inert never being unknown; and it is jñānagamya, reached only by the means called knowledge, humility through the vision of the goal of truth, and not without them. Nor is it far off in another place: though present everywhere alike, it is set in the buddhi of every being, specially manifest there as jīva (individual soul) and as antaryāmin (inner controller), like the sun's light in a mirror or a sunstone, in truth unveiled, by error as if veiled, and as if attained when the ignorance behind all error is removed.

  divergence: Madhusūdana answers an objection (unperceived, hence inert?) and offers a technical Advaita epistemics: only consciousness can be 'unknown' and thus 'knowable'; inert things are never covered by ignorance. He keeps both jīva and antaryāmin as its manifestations in the heart, a gesture toward bhakti inside Advaita, via the mirror image.