Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 13, Verse 23: Krishna to Arjuna — Kṣetra-Kṣetrajña-Vibhāga-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Whoever knows the puruṣa in the way described, directly, as 'I', and knows prakṛti, which is avidyā (ignorance), together with its guṇa (its own modifications), as negated and reduced to non-being by vidyā (knowledge), he, however he may live, is not born again when this body of the knower falls, and how much less one who keeps to his own conduct. Do not object that karma (actions) done before knowledge, or in past lives, must yield their fruit in further births: a hundred śruti texts declare that all karma of the knower is burnt, for karma bears new births only when seeded by avidyā, desire and the afflictions, and seeds roasted by knowledge do not sprout. Only the karma that has already begun this body runs on, like an arrow already loosed that falls only when its momentum is spent, while the karma not yet begun is made seedless where it lies, like an arrow withdrawn from the bow.

  divergence: Śaṅkara (source 13.24) knows the puruṣa as 'I' (sākṣād aham iti) and prakṛti as avidyā abolished by knowledge; most of his comment is a defence of jñāna burning all non-prārabdha karma (the loosed-arrow analogy), answering the 'three births' objection. 'Sarvathā vartamāno 'pi' is read concessively, with a fortiori praise of one who stays in his own conduct.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Whoever knows this puruṣa of the nature described, and prakṛti of the nature described, together with sattva and the other guṇa whose nature is about to be told, knows them rightly by viveka (discrimination). He, even if living in bodies of god, human and the rest in a most afflicted manner, is not born again: he is no longer fit for contact with prakṛti. At the end of that body he attains the ātman (self) whose mark is unlimited knowledge, free from sin.

  divergence: Rāmānuja (source 13.23) reads sarvathā vartamāno 'pi as living in extreme affliction (atimātra-kliṣṭa), not as transgressing injunctions (Śrīdhara, Madhusūdana). The fruit is attaining the self's own nature of unlimited knowledge at death, the ātma-prāpti of this chapter, not identity with Brahman.

• Madhvadvaita

  No Madhva commentary is supplied for this verse.

  divergence: ABSENT: the supplied text for source 13.24 reads 'Sri Madhvacharya did not comment on this sloka.' No rendering is fabricated. Jayatīrtha's Prameyadīpikā is also silent on this verse.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  No Vallabha commentary is supplied for this verse.

  divergence: ABSENT: the supplied text for source 13.24 reads 'Sri Vallabhacharya did not comment on this sloka.' Note for editors: Vallabha's comment on the preceding verse (his 13.23, supplied in the 13.22 payload) already runs on into this verse's sense: whoever knows the puruṣa in the body in both forms, as kṣetrajña, portion of Brahman, nirguṇa, and knows prakṛti with her guṇa, 'is not born again into the stream of the guṇa but is released'. That gloss is reported here but not turned into a rendering, since it is not this verse's supplied commentary.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  The Lord now praises the one who has the knowledge that discriminates prakṛti and puruṣa. Whoever knows the puruṣa in this way, as upadraṣṭā (near-seer) and the rest, and knows prakṛti together with the guṇa, her transformations as pleasure, pain and the like, that person, even living in every way, overstepping the vidhi (scriptural injunction), is not born again; that is, he is liberated.

  divergence: Śrīdhara (source 13.24) is brief and reads sarvathā as 'transgressing injunction' (vidhim atilaṅghya), a bold reading he shares with Madhusūdana; he does not raise the karma objection Śaṅkara answers.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Having explained 'who he is and what his power', the Lord concludes 'knowing which one tastes immortality': whoever knows the puruṣa as described, realizing directly 'I am this', and knows prakṛti, which is avidyā, with its guṇa, as mithyā (false) and sublated by self-knowledge, recognizing 'my ignorance and its effects are gone', he, even living in every way, overstepping injunction under the force of prārabdha (karma already begun) as Indra did, is not born again: when this body of the knower falls, he takes no further body. For once avidyā is destroyed by vidyā its effects cannot arise, as the sūtra says, 'on attaining that, there is non-clinging and destruction of later and earlier sins' (Brahmasūtra 4.1.13), and the 'even' means: how much more one who lives within injunction, keeping to his own conduct.

  divergence: Madhusūdana (source 13.24) agrees with Śaṅkara on knowledge as 'I am this' and prakṛti as sublated avidyā, but names prārabdha as what may drive the knower even past injunction, citing Indra, and uses Brahmasūtra 4.1.13 where Śaṅkara argued with the arrow analogy.